Man Controls Robot Vacuum Army

Sammy Azdoufal — a software engineer — came up with a genius idea to control his robot vacuum with a PlayStation controller. Cute little weekend project, right? Except… when he hooked it up, he accidentally gained access to about SEVEN THOUSAND other people’s vacuums. Cameras, microphones, floor maps — the whole “see-inside-your-house” package — spread across 24 countries.

Turns out, while tinkering with the code using an AI assistant, Sammy stumbled into a giant security flaw in the servers at DJI, the company that manufactures. Suddenly, he had the digital keys to a worldwide robot vacuum army. Instead of turning supervillain, he did the sane thing — told “The Verge,” who told DJI, who patched the whole mess earlier this month, and says the issue has been – quote – “resolved.”.

So yeah… one guy trying to make his vacuum more fun wound up discovering an international privacy nightmare. At least now, your vacuum probably isn’t spying on you. Probably.