Connected toys especially vulnerable to hackers, security experts warn

Your smartphone or tablet is most likely pretty secure not perfect, maybe, but generally unlikely to be hacked or to store, say, your email where other people could read it.

The same can't be said for any internet-connected toys you may have purchased for your kids. Recently discovered security flaws in a pair of such toys highlight just how badly the toy industry has neglected such problems, theoretically exposing kids to online threats.

While major crimes teeming from the hack of a connected toy haven't yet surfaced, some experts argue that it's only a matter of time.

I would be shocked if any Android-based toy didn't have any problem.- Tod Beardsley, Rapid7

Kids "aren't expected to be internet security experts and neither are their parents," said Tod Beardsley, security research manager for Rapid7 Inc., the Boston-based cybersecurity firm that published the toy-security research on Tuesday.

Rapid7 researchers examined the Fisher Price Smart Toy, an interactive stuffed animal for children aged 3 to 8 that connects to the internet via Wi-Fi. They also took a look at HereO, a GPS smartwatch that allows parents to track their child's location. In both cases, they found that the toys failed to safeguard children's information such as their names and in the case of the watch, their location, storing it on remote servers in such a way that unauthorized people could access it by masquerading as legitimate users.

After researchers informed the manufacturers of the flaws, the companies quickly fixed the problems.

Mattel Inc., which owns the Fisher Price brand, released a statement Monday emphasizing that it has no evidence that anyone actually stole any customer information because of the flaw. Eli Shemesh, chief technology officer for Cyprus-based hereO, released a statement saying that security remains paramount for his company, adding that the security flaw was fixed quickly and before the watches started shipping to customers.

Those security problems are far from unique, said Mark Stanislav, Rapid7's manager of global services and the researcher who discovered the flaws. Reports of connected-toy vulnerabilities have been rife in recent months, a trend he expects to continue to worsen as more connected toys hit the market.

Toy makers need to be "building security in at the development phase," Stanislav said in a statement.

Android powered

Like many connected devices, the Fisher Price toy runs a version of Google's Android operating system, the same software that powers many smartphones and tablets. Beardsley, however, said toy makers don't have the same commitment to security that a major tech company would have.

"I would be shocked if any Android-based toy didn't have any problems," he said.

Apple, whose iPhones and iPads are the biggest rivals to Android devices, doesn't license its mobile software for use in toys.

Toy-related security problems began to grab headlines late last year, when kid's tech maker VTech announced that one of its databases had been hacked, exposing the names, ages and genders of more than 6 million children who used the company's toys.

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As the number of connected toys continues to grow, so will the number of hackings, says Bridget Karlin, managing director of Intel Corp.'s Internet of things group. Intel's chips power a slew of connected devices, including a GPS smartwatch for kids, similar to the HereO, that's set to go on sale later this year.

Karlin says that while the odds of any particular toy being hacked may be very low, most of the attacks are random. That means building in security from the ground up, starting at the silicon level.

In the case of the Fisher Price toy which is sold as a stuffed bear, panda or monkey and retails for about $100 the researchers found that the toy's software and applications weren't appropriately verifying who was trying to access its information. That could theoretically expose a child's name, birthday, spoken language and gender.

Phishing risk

Of course, those tidbits of information aren't necessarily secret. But hackers could theoretically amass enough of them to create a phishing scheme aimed at financial fraud or identity theft down the road. In theory, the information could also be used to pull off the abduction of a child, though experts say the chance of that remains slim.

The same flaw also could allow an attacker to effectively take control of the device to do things such as change the account information, or monitor whether a child is playing with it or if an adult is using the related mobile app, the researchers said.

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The HereO smartwatch is marketed as a safety device for children aged three to 12 and creates a kind of social network that's restricted to invited family and friends.

The brightly colored watch has both a cellular and GPS connection, allowing parents to monitor a child's location through a mobile app. Features include messaging, location alerts and a panic button. The watch, which costs $179 US in the U.S. plus a $4.95 US per month monitoring fee, recently started shipping to customers around the world.

Rapid7 says its researchers found a way attackers could trick the watch into adding them onto a given family's account. That would give them access to the entire family's location history and profile details and even the ability to message parents or their kids.

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