{"id":6746,"date":"2016-02-11T09:13:29","date_gmt":"2016-02-11T16:13:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/therealdaily.com\/?p=6746"},"modified":"2016-02-11T09:13:29","modified_gmt":"2016-02-11T16:13:29","slug":"smart-bear-internet-of-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/real-estate-tech\/smart-bear-internet-of-things\/","title":{"rendered":"Security flaw in “smart bear” toy for kids left kids’ and parents’ info vulnerable #InternetOfThings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Researchers have uncovered several security weaknesses in Fisher-Price\u2019s new Smart Toy.<\/p>\n

Fisher-Price, a division of Mattel, has collaborated with a tech company to make Smart Toy, a teddy bear that can learn and remember your child\u2019s name, favorite colors and foods, and \u201cadapts\u201d to your child\u2019s \u201cdevelopmental progress.\u201d Smart Toy comes with an accompanying app that parents can use to send commands to Smart Toy or monitor their child\u2019s behavior and progress.<\/p>\n

<\/i> Read also: From the Internet of Things: Kinsei, a smart building that knows what is happening inside<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\n

\"bar\"<\/p>\n

Testers found weak spots<\/h2>\n

While Fisher-Price\u2019s website claims that \u201cno personally identifiable data is transmitted by Smart Toy,\u201d researchers at Boston-based security company Rapid7 nonetheless found several failings in the way that the app communicates data to the server that would make Smart Toy vulnerable to hacking.<\/p>\n

Although there have been no instances of hacking reported so far, Rapid7\u2019s research shows that hackers could theoretically\u00a0tap into the Smart Toy app, accessing a child\u2019s name, birthdate, gender, and other data.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Resolved quickly<\/h2>\n

According to Rapid7, Fisher-Price has since corrected the issue. The toy manufacturer said, in a statement, \u201cWe recently learned of a security vulnerability with our Fisher-Price WiFi-connected Smart Toy Bear. We have remediated the situation and have no reason to believe that customer information was accessed by any unauthorized person. Mattel and Fisher-Price take the safety of our consumers and their personal data very seriously, which is why we act quickly to resolve potential vulnerabilities like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Choose collaborators wisely<\/h2>\n

Rapid7 says that part of the problem is collaborating with less experienced tech companies.<\/p>\n

Said research manager Tod Beardsley, \u201cThis is an easy mistake. You wouldn\u2019t find these bugs today from places like Google, Microsoft.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Despite the many benefits of the Internet of Things, cases like Smart Toy demonstrate how increasing connectivity leaves us \u2013 and apparently, our children — vulnerable to hacking. Rapid7 has also found security flaws in other smart products marketed towards parents and children, such as a smart baby monitor.<\/p>\n

Mattel is hoping to nip the problem in the bud with its smart Barbie. They\u2019ve hired researchers to find weaknesses in Barbie\u2019s security system \u2013 before hackers do.<\/p>\n

#HackableSmartToys<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While Fisher-Price\u2019s website claims that \u201cno personally identifiable data is transmitted by Smart Toy,\u201d researchers at Boston-based security company Rapid7 nonetheless found several failings in the way that the app communicates data to the server that would make Smart Toy vulnerable to hacking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":337314,"featured_media":6757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[634,633],"class_list":["post-6746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-estate-tech","tag-internet-of-things","tag-iot"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/02\/smart-bear-internet-of-things.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/337314"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6746"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6758,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6746\/revisions\/6758"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}