MiSafe’s Child-Tracking
Smart-Watches Are Not-So-Safe!
Apparently MiSafe location tracking smart-watches that parents lean onto for their children’s
safety are not so safe after all as they are fairly vulnerable to hacking.
Evidently, a
security researcher stumbled upon the fact that neither the data stored in the smart-watches
nor the child’s account was being encrypted by the device.
And what
happened as a result was that the researcher could not only have a sneak peek
into the activities of the particular child but could also make prank calls pretending
to be the child’s parents.
The product
was vehemently reprimanded by the researchers because of the problematic issues
it entailed.
MiSafe’s Kid’s
watcher Plus was repeatedly tried to contact by the researchers about the
smart-watch crisis but in vain.
The
smart-watch which was brought to public’s knowledge when it was released in
2015 uses the GPS sensor (Global Positioning System) and a mobile data
connection of 2G speed to track down the child’s whereabouts that makes use of
a smartphone application.
In fact, a
digital safe-zone could be created, which if surpassed by the child, would
initiate an alert signal for the parents.
Two-way
calls could also be initiated and two people together can tap into their kid’s
activities.
When the
device’s security extent was evaluated it was discovered that the application’s
communication could be easily forged via some computer software. ID numbers
could be fairly altered to crawl into someone else’s account.
The process
laid bare the personal information inside the device which encompassed the
child’s photograph, their name, gender, height weight, age, parents’ phone
numbers and the watch’s sim card number.
When some
other units of the same product were tested it was found out that the past and
present locations of the person with the watch on them could be easily tracked,
also the safe-zoning could be modified to activation during the child’s
advancing to the area rather than retreating.
Initially the
watch was designed to accept calls only from parties that were authorized but
given the few glitches that security aspect could be dodged.
The above
mentioned activity could be done via applications that fake the caller ID
numbers. All the hacker need to have is the parents’ number.
According to
researchers, this could turn out to be a destructive tactic as the child could
be manipulated to leave the house for a certain desolate place.
Over 13,800
of these precarious devices are still being used out there.
Reportedly,
several other cases with the same predicament have been highlighted before, but
the MiSafe’s products are specifically hazardous.
It’s being said that such a perilous product
should never have gotten to the market and that eBay has already removed the
product from its online store list.
