Hackers Stalked Me by Hijacking a Smartwatch for Kids

(wired.com)

37 points | by worik 5 hours ago ago

12 comments

  • femto an hour ago ago

    > made by an equally obscure manufacturer, YiQingTeng Electronics, in Shenzhen, China.

    Is this what is meant by "Shenzhen Speed"? Dump all safeguards and get any piece of crap out the door as soon as possible? This comment isn't directed specifically at Shenzhen, as other parts of the world do the same thing and call it "Move fast and break things."

    Dropping engineering standards may increase short term profits, but it erodes people's trust in the world around them when everything "sort of works".

    There's an argument that this low level continuous corrosion does more long-term damage than obvious safety flaws that are serious enough to prompt corrective action.

  • gkanai an hour ago ago

    Until the Chinese government penalizes these Chinese companies for these insecure practices, they'll continue to be sold as is. China doesn't need to care about Chinese made products sold for export apparently.

  • thenthenthen an hour ago ago
  • Animats 26 minutes ago ago

    It's 10 PM. Do you know where your children are? We do.

  • fhub an hour ago ago
  • vladmk 15 minutes ago ago

    Ingenious and sad.

  • fsckboy an hour ago ago

    the reporter was "hacked" in cooperation with the hacker in order to write the article

    • Sabinus 23 minutes ago ago

      "Reporter commissions a (successful) penetration test (of cheap Chinese hardware)" isn't quite as catchy I guess

    • NewsaHackO 36 minutes ago ago

      Journalists have no shame when it comes to making clickbait headlines. Feel like an idiot for falling for it.

    • iamnothere 9 minutes ago ago

      That’s typically how you show that something is vulnerable before it becomes a real problem.

      I mean, criticize the headline if you want, but this is pretty standard reporting for this kind of thing. Recent stories on vulnerabilities in networked car systems were handled using the same approach. (It finally got attention, too, even though security researchers had been pointing out the same issues for years.)