[Baltimore Sun] FCC fine shines light on video doorbells with ‘pretty alarming’ security vulnerabilities
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Consumer Reports applauded the Federal Communications Commission for proposing a fine against a China-based company that made video doorbells with troubling security vulnerabilities.
The FCC fine is somewhat adjacent to the actual security and privacy concerns about the video doorbells.
The proposed $734,872 fine, announced Thursday, is because the company, Eken, didn’t respond to the letter of inquiry from the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau and for not maintaining a required active domestic point of contact, according to the FCC.
Investigators discovered that the company’s domestic point of contact address in Colorado was a mailbox that had been inactive since 2019.
The FCC’s investigation into Eken’s equipment remains ongoing.
“It’s good to see more enforcement in this space that’s been traditionally radically under-enforced,” said Justin Brookman, the director of technology policy at Consumer Reports.
Brookman said his team flagged their concerns over the Eken video doorbells to the FCC after routine product testing uncovered security vulnerabilities.
The video doorbells — sold under different brand names, including Eken and Tuck, at online retailers, including Amazon, Walmart and Temu — “revealed pretty alarming stuff” during the Consumer Reports testing, Brookman said.
The video doorbells exposed a user’s home IP addresses and Wi-Fi network names to the internet without encryption, potentially opening a user’s home network to malicious activity, according to Consumer Reports’ investigation from earlier this year.
Hackers could potentially take over the device by downloading the associated smartphone app and entering the doorbell into pairing mode, which would allow them to take ownership of the device, view footage and lock out the owner of the device, Consumer Reports said.
“It was far too easy for a bad actor … to get access to who’s coming in, who’s going,” Brookman said.
He said they have no reason to think the company itself was collecting images off their video doorbells, and that wasn’t the focus of Consumer Reports’ investigation, Brookman said.
Ensuring products are safe and up to high standards can be tough in today’s world of online shopping, where the reviews many folks rely on can be “gamed,” Brookman added.
The platforms selling the products, such as Amazon, “need to take more responsibility” to protect customers, he said.
The FCC said it’s taking action to protect consumers.
One example is the voluntary cybersecurity labeling program for wireless consumer “Internet of Things” products.
Video doorbells fall into that product bucket, along with an array of internet-connected devices like smart TVs, home smart speakers and home security cameras that must be protected from hackers.
Have a news tip? Contact Cory Smith at corysmith@sbgtv.com or at x.com/Cory_L_Smith. Content from The National Desk is provided by Sinclair, the parent company of FOX45 News.
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