The Federal Communications Fee (FCC) is proposing greater than $700,000 in fines in opposition to Eken, a Hong Kong-based video doorbell producer whose merchandise had been discovered to be vulnerable to hackers, for an unrelated guidelines violation found through the fee’s ongoing investigation.
The fee started investigating Eken after Shopper Studies present in February 2024 that its merchandise, that are bought below greater than 10 completely different model names, had safety vulnerabilities that permit anybody with a doorbell’s serial quantity remotely entry photographs from its video feed. The merchandise are bought below model names together with Aiwit, Andoe, Bitepass, CutePanda, Eken, Fishbot, Gemee, Guggre, Luckwolf, Rakeblue and Tuck. Eken mentioned in April that it had since mounted the problems by way of a firmware replace.
The investigation into these vulnerabilities is ongoing, however the fee additionally discovered that Eken violated guidelines requiring international corporations that maintain FCC system certifications to designate a US-based agent chargeable for speaking with the fee.
As a part of its investigation, the FCC’s enforcement bureau despatched a Letter of Inquiry to Eken’s US level of contact, a person positioned in Colorado Springs, Colorado — however the tackle supplied on these varieties has been inactive since 2019, based on the FCC. The FCC says Eken’s consultant didn’t reply to letters despatched by way of different means, together with e-mail.
“Offering a false tackle for the designated agent on three FCC functions constitutes three obvious violations of FCC guidelines leading to three proposed penalties of the utmost forfeiture,” the FCC mentioned in a press launch Thursday. The FCC is proposing fines including as much as $734,872.
The fee’s investigation into Eken’s gear is ongoing.
