Washington, DC – Earlier today, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposed a $734,872 fine against Eken, a Hong Kong, China-based smart home device manufacturer, for providing apparently false designated agent information in connection with US equipment authorization. The FCC’s announcement cited CR’s investigation from earlier this year, which revealed significant security vulnerabilities in Eken’s doorbells.
FCC’s Enforcement Bureau is continuing to investigate Eken and other Chinese equipment manufacturers for potential privacy and data security violations. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel also announced an audit of hundreds of certifications tied to the same US designated agent information as Eken.
Any wireless device sold in the United States has to go through wireless interference testing and get an equipment authorization from the FCC before being sold. International companies applying for a U.S. equipment authorization must establish a US agent. In the case of Eken, the agent, GSS Service Inc., based in Colorado Springs, CO, hasn’t responded to the agency’s inquiries, and the FCC’s investigators discovered that the agent’s address was a mailbox that had been inactive since 2019.
Justin Brookman, director of tech policy at Consumer Reports, said, “We applaud the FCC for this proposed fine against Eken. CR’s investigation uncovered serious security and privacy vulnerabilities with these devices that were being sold on major digital marketplaces such as Amazon and Walmart. This proposed fine by the FCC is a step in the right direction to hold manufacturers accountable, but more needs to be done to ensure platforms are also held responsible for not selling products that put consumers at risk.”
The security flaws uncovered in CR’s investigation could have allowed hackers or other bad actors to gain control of these devices and view images from the doorbell camera remotely. The vulnerabilities also leaked home IP addresses and WiFi network names. Following CR’s investigation, Eken Group met with CR test engineers to learn about the issues we found and released a new firmware update to fix them.
Contact: Cyrus Rassool, cyrus.rassool@consumer.org