FCC fine spotlights video doorbells with ‘quite alarming’ security vulnerabilities.

(TNND) — Consumer Reports applauded the Federal Communications Commission for proposing a fine against a company in China that produced video doorbells with worrisome security vulnerabilities.

The FCC fine it is somewhat adjacent to the real security and privacy concerns of video doorbells.

The proposed $734,872 fine, announced Thursday, is because the company, Eken, failed to respond to a letter of inquiry from the FCC’s Office of Enforcement and for failing to maintain an active national point of contact, according to the FCC.

Investigators discovered that the company’s local point of contact address in Colorado was a PO Box that had been inactive since 2019.

The FCC’s investigation into Eken’s equipment remains ongoing.

“It’s good to see more application in this space that has traditionally been radically under-applied,” said Justin Brookman, director of technology policy at Consumer Reports.

Brookman said his team scored their concerns about Eken video ringtones to the FCC after routine product testing uncovered security vulnerabilities.

The video doorbells – sold under various brand names, including Eken and Tuck, at online retailers including Amazon, Walmart and Temu – “revealed some pretty alarming things” during Consumer Reports testingBrookman said.

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 a Consumer Reports investigation earlier this year.

And hackers could take over the device by downloading the paired smartphone app and putting the ringer into pairing mode, which would allow them to take ownership of the device, view footage and lock out the device’s owner, Consumer Reports said.

“It was far too easy for a bad actor … to have access to who’s coming, who’s going,” Brookman said Friday.

He said they have no reason to believe the company itself is collecting images from video doorbells. And that wasn’t the focus of Consumer Reports’ investigation, Brookman said.

Ensuring products are safe and of high standards can be difficult in today’s world of online shopping, where the reviews many people rely on can be “gamed”, Brookman said.

Platforms that sell the products, such as Amazon, “need to take more responsibility” to protect customers, he said.

The FCC said it is taking steps to protect consumers.

An example is voluntary cybersecurity labeling program for wireless consumer Internet of Things products.

Video doorbells fall under that product, along with a number of internet-connected devices like smart TVs, smart speakers and home security cameras that need to be protected from hackers.