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No, 3 million electric toothbrushes were not used in a DDoS attack (www.bleepingcomputer.com)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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No, 3 million electric toothbrushes were not used in a DDoS attack::A widely reported story that 3 million electric toothbrushes were hacked with malware to conduct distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks is likely a hypothetical scenario instead of an actual attack.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (4 children)

OK. Maybe I've just been out of the loop, but what on earth would you need BT in a toothbrush for? So you can pair it with an app and track your brushing while someone else also tracks and uses this data for profit?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (3 children)

The primary use case is for making sure kids and elderly loved ones are brushing their teeth and keeping the brush charged. Also supposedly senses if all teeth are being properly cleaned, although based on reviews that sounds like a stretch. But yeah, the aggregated data is probably marketable somehow - I didn't check their privacy policies.

Electric toothbrushes are a thing. It's understandable that the vendors would like a rationale to track usage. Not beyond the bounds of possibility that in ten years it may be impossible to buy an electric toothbrush that doesn't track usage and try to phone home to report it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I've had an electric for well over 10 years(same one). They are so much better than normal brushes IMO.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Concur. Also long time user here - but prefer to skip the data collection bit. Imagine showing up at the dentist some day and being chided for missing your back molars last Tuesday.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

Tbh if the data only went to my dentist I'd be okay with that. Real tooth pain strikes fear into the hearts of mortal men. After experiencing that once I'd give a lot to never experience it again.