While building his own remote-control app, Sammy Azdoufal reportedly used an AI coding assistant to help reverse-engineer how the robot communicated with DJI’s remote cloud servers. But he soon discovered that the same credentials that allowed him to see and control his own device also provided access to live camera feeds, microphone audio, maps, and status data from nearly 7,000 other vacuums across 24 countries. The backend security bug effectively exposed an army of internet-connected robots that, in the wrong hands, could have turned into surveillance tools, all without their owners ever knowing. Luckily, Azdoufal chose not to exploit that....
February 24, 2026
"Man accidentally gains control of 7,000 robot vacuums."
"Sammy Azdoufal just wanted to steer his DJI Romo with a gaming controller" (Popular Science).
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35 comments:
I am sure he played with it for a while.
many of our household electronics provide access to being spied on.
yippee.
..and she accuses me of never doing any housework. Behold.
…that sucks…
lol
WHY does my household appliance have to conect to the internet?
BECAUSE it NEEDS to be able to get security updates.
WHY does it Need security updates?
BECAUSE it connects to the internet
If this makes sense to You.. YOU are stupid.
Your appliance NEEDS to be connected to the internet,
for EXACTLY the same reason your phone/car/laptop's Alexa NEEDS to have the microphone on 24/7, with NO ability on your part to be able to turn off the microphone.
Care to Think about WHAT that reason IS?
people laughed at 1984, because their TV's listened to them.
people were Stupid
7000 remote-controlled IED Roombas FTW.
There's no Alexa/Siri at my house and never will be.
This reminds me of the San Diego July 4th fireworks show where they all went off at once. Computers fail.
This continues the thesis that every 20th century dystopian sci-fi novel/film plot will turn out to be correct. Start with the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode where military technology killed everyone during a marketing demo.
AI + drones = humans become rats scurrying from relentless attacks.
This is already a well-known type of flaw in the IOT (Internet of Things) tech world. Namely, that in order to keep such devices cheap enough and simple enough for the average buyer, the security features are minimal to non-existent.
Thus the reason why I carry my Beretta whenever I want to get anything out of my smart-refrigerator.
My sex robot would never do that to me.
LOL, what a pain in the ass it was to get that thing to work too, I ended up having to do it using a temp internet connection, which is just as well, I guess.
@Wince, What? Invite 7000 of her sex robot friends?
See, this is exactly why most normal people recoil about the "Internet of things" (IOT) so-called revolution that manufacturers have been pushing. I don't want or need a refrigerator that orders food for me, or thermostat that talks to a home base elsewhere (probably in China) or a "smart" electric meter that the state can throttle back when they feel like it.
Mostly I despise watching a TV that watches me back, but I've lost that battle in the pursuit of domestic harmony.
I have a Samsung "Smart" TV that spies on me constantly. But my life is pretty damn boring, so the joke is on them.
I prefer my vaccum cleaner to just do its job, and otherwise be dumb and unable to communicate with me, other devices, and the internet. To bad my wife cant be the same way.
And of course the dogs are once again proven to be right about these things.
I'm not too sure why people want all this technology controlling their houses and appliances. Maybe if you're disabled or very old having the convience of controllng everything from your phone must be nice, but otherwise.... i dont see the point.
The "point" of IOT is to break the old way of doing things. The Silicon Valley tech developer culture very aggressively tries to rethink processes in ways that make "new" possible. Sometimes his fails badly, sometimes it's forgotten, but when new stuff wins they become billionaires.
For a very long time Apple flip-flopped between "safe and logical" iPod upgrades versus "risky and different" editions. Those who hated the new could stick with the old one. This was a conscious plan.
While Elon Musk is a nominal conservative, his Tesla registration, subscription, and tracking model is deeply, deeply dangerous in the wrong hands. We don't need no stinkin' computer monitors in our cars.
Did any of the Roombas need to be rescued from a life of sex slavery? CC, JSM
The AI developers left an open door.
My “smart” microwave is demanding that I install an app to get it to use any power level this side of Chernobyl, well there are other ways to cook food.
The Sorcerer's Apprentice comes to mind.
IoT is insanely stupid. Neither your vacuum cleaner, nor anything with a camera on it, should have access to the internet
boatbuilder said...
I have a Samsung "Smart" TV that spies on me constantly. But my life is pretty damn boring, so the joke is on them.
I have an LG TV that costs less because they expect to make it up on spying on me.
The TV has no access to the internet. I have a Sony BluRay that can access the internet. It's plugged into the LG TV, and provides all the video I watch on that TV
I, for one, welcome our new hacked roombas. Maybe they'll help mine finally get that spot under the table it always misses.
Gilfoyle was right. He used the refrigerators, but mobility makes even more sense.
I look forward to our brief, but exciting future as humans.
There will no issue when we have millions of Chinese electric cars with cameras and sensors patrolling our streets.
Vacuums are dual-use machines to clean floors after walking, to clear wombs after fucking, etc.
So, you're saying I should be concerned about my web enabled toilet?
The moral: Do your own housework, you lazy bastards.
The insoluble problem with timesaving appliances is the time "saved", because time can't be saved. The grains dibble through the waist of the hourglass whether we sweep the floors or sit on our ever-growing backsides playing Counter-Strike 2.
First of all. Funny as hell.
Second. He's got his own robot army! Granted their Roombas, but still.
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