Smart Toys which were purchased heavily during this year’s shopping season are said to be extremely vulnerable to hackers. This was the truth revealed by a consumer group which says that the sale of toys on online shopping platforms such as Amazon has to be banned on immediate not to prevent hackers from misinterpreting conversations on smart walkies talkies.
Dubbed as Which?- the consumer group reportedly tested around seven smart and internet-connected toys to reach to the above-said conclusion.
Which? added that smart toy makers must take extra precautionary measures while developing the phones by introducing an at-least basic level of security steps.
Smart toys being sold by retailers such as Amazon, Argos, John Lewis, Smyths and target were all tested and were detected to be vulnerable to hackers.
For instance, Vtech kids gear which offers walkie-talkies for kids was detected to be vulnerable to hackers where a cybercriminal can easily launch a two-way communication between a kid and him/her by establishing a connection withing a 200 meters span.
Also singing machines and Karaoke products meant for kids were also found exhibiting Bluetooth vulnerabilities where a hacker can hack the device by keying a pin within a 10 meters range and then start sending recording messages.
The Government Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport(DCMS) which issued a warning to all manufactures in Oct’18 to improve the security of their web-connected products have taken note of the report issued by Which?
