Ga goo gaa!
All that juicy info about Timmys' Tonka truck collection! We must stop them using it for nefarious means!
The FBI issued a warning Monday advising parents to carefully check internet-connected toys for possible privacy and security concerns. In this startling alert, the Feds gave America's families the grim news: many toys sporting cloud-backed features such as speech recognition or online content hosting "could put the privacy …
"parents are advised to only operate connected toys on trusted Wi-Fi networks and to make sure the firmware and patches are installed for apps and connected devices"
Two things wrong with the above statement.
1. You are telling me a device is insecure and could leak information but then you are telling me to put it on my trusted network.
2. Firmware and patches. What is this strange voodoo they speak of? There is more chance of the second coming of Jesus than getting an update for IoT tat.
"There is more chance of the second coming of Jesus than getting an update for IoT tat."
True, but now there is official advise out there so that makes it easier to return for a refund (or sue) when it's blindingly obvious that the manufacturer didn't even take reasonable measure to test the security of the device. The majority may not even notice or care, but some will. That's also likely to make the news too, so more become aware. Especially if it leads to class actions and product recalls.
and can act on them.
TL:DR. Internet connected toys are a real treasure trove for internet savvy kiddie fiddlers. Don't buy them.
As a bonus once the little darling has outgrown the particular tastes of said paedo your top drawer paedo can trade those to their friends making such toys the gift that truly keeps on giving (away privacy).
But in this case the average parent has no idea how or what to look for.
Its the FBIs job to protect against this sort of thing, and unless one of Trumps businesses is selling them (or they come from Russia) then the FBI should be pretty safe in doing so
apparently Furby could record things, so they were banned at certain installations. I've taken one apart [to fix it, needed a lube job and some TLC after it jammed up] and it didn't seem like it was able to record all that much, at least not to me.
So maybe a lot of this is hype with no real substance?
then again, if it's cloud-based speech recognition...