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So, this thing can record anything a child says to it and send it to a potentially unknown third party? I’m just going to rewatch a Weeping Angels episode for something less creepy.
STATES CHRONICLE – The toy industry is growing at a fast pace, along with almost every other industry nowadays. So, why not partner up with other developing industries, in order to take over the market together? For example, by partnering up with an IT company, we were able to see the release of Hello Barbie, the hackable toy.
You might have thought that Hasbro took the cake for the creepiest toy in recent history, with their realistic cats for old people, but Barbie decided to compete, and oh, how they won.
The company recently released Hello Barbie, a Barbie doll that can talk. Sure, it may not seem like it’s that impressive, but it doesn’t just say the same few things over and over again, like old toys used to. No, this one has gone a step beyond, and is connected to the Internet, allowing it to choose from a series of responses, pretty much like Siri or Cortana.
And yes, sure, some of you might say that it’s not that creepy. If your phone can talk to you, why shouldn’t a doll talk to your child? Well, as it turns out, something a lot more sinister might be going on deep inside your kid’s new favorite toy. Actually, not quite inside the doll, since the internet is involved and all, but the doll is definitely cause for concern.
It was brought to the attention of the toy’s producers, by Bluebox Security and an independent security researcher named Andrew Hay, that the doll can be hacked. Yeah. The doll that will probably see nation-wide, if not world-wide distribution will be easily hackable by anyone with the bare minimum of hacking knowledge.
According to Bluebox and Mr. Hay, hackers could very easily intercept the data sent to the Hello Barbie servers, as well as steal the information being uploaded there. Not only that, but the corrupted connection could easily be used to gain access to other dolls.
This would be accomplished by hacking the companion app (of course it has a companion app, what doesn’t these days?), and connecting the device to any Wi-Fi network that had ‘barbie’ in the name, connections that could be easily created by hackers.
The producers want to assure the customers that the security flaws are just as easy to repair as they currently are to exploit, but parents are concerned, and for good reason, over the security and privacy of their children being dependent on a $75 talking doll.
Image source: Flickr
