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Hacker Claims That Hello Barbie Doll Can Be Hijacked To Spy On Owners

By R. Siva Kumar | Update Date: Nov 30, 2015 05:32 PM EST

This is the first interactive Barbie that greets you, but Hello Barbie is open to getting hacked. It makes the doll a spy, as it has a surveillance device with a microphone that listens to conversation and steals personal information.

This information was given by Matt Jakubowski, a security expert. He discovered that after Hello Barbie gets linked to a Wi-Fi network, it can easily get information. The data includes the doll's system, account information and even audio files, along with the microphone, reports The Guardian  reported.

"You can take that information and find out a person's house or business. It's just a matter of time until we are able to replace their servers with ours and have her say anything we want," Jakubowski said, according to NBC News.

Ever since Hello Barbie greeted the public last March, Mattel was slammed by mothers who voiced privacy concerns, according to HNGN 

Mattell had assured mothers that the communication between the doll and its owner are "encrypted and sent to a secure database location". However, Jakubowski overrode security factors and leaked into the server to check the data.

He found that the encryption of the audio messages will not be functional, even as the communication channel is breached.

While Mattel has so far not reacted to these claims of hacking, ToyTalk, which is the partner in the Hello Barbie product line, said:

"An enthusiastic researcher has reported finding some device data and called that a hack," said Oren Jacob, ToyTalk's CEO. "No user data, no Barbie content, and no major security nor privacy protections has been compromised to our knowledge."

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