Perhaps the best part of this anecdote was Swenson’s incredulous conclusion that the situation “could have been worse.” But he’s right that it was nice of the hacker to let him know his vacuum was hacked instead of spying on him indefinitely.
The most common issue people have with so-called “smart” home devices is that they often require a software subscription to access core functionality, and if the manufacturer goes under or stops supporting the device, it simply becomes a paperweight.
I’m fairly certain at least a few of them have done malicious hacking in favor of their corporate masters, from petty shit like DDOS attacks on competing bibeo bames for the sake of tribalistic loyalty to Le Epic Blizzard to attacking internet archives for especially broken-brained reasons.