Hacker Seizes Control of Internet-Enabled Chastity Cages

Did this sex toy really need to be an internet-of-things device?

All Your Base

In perhaps the most wince-inducing example of why your household items probably don't need to be connected to the internet, we bring you the news that a hacker took control of internet-connected chastity cages and demanded a Bitcoin ransom before releasing their hostages.

But first, let's take a few steps back. A chastity cage is, put simply, a cage for penises that's a popular accessory within the BDSM community. And as Motherboard reports, the good people at the Chinese manufacturer Qiui decided to make a model called the Cellmate that's locked and unlocked through an app. And then a hack once again underscored how the internet of things often suffers from horrible cybersecurity.

"Your cock is mine now," the hacker reportedly told one of the victims.

Cage Match

Thankfully, the hacker seems to have chosen the wrong time to strike — victims of the cyberattack who spoke to Motherboard said that they weren't actually wearing their Cellmate cages when the hacker locked them and demanded the $750 crypto ransom.

"Fortunately I didn't have this locked on myself while this happened," a victim going by Robert told Motherboard.

Backdoor Access

Qiui didn't respond to Motherboard's request for comment, but its cybersecurity flaws were already well known. Researchers first identified a security flaw last October, so perhaps it was just a matter of time until someone took advantage of it.

"Almost every company and product is going to have some kind of vulnerability in its lifetime. Maybe not as bad as this one, but something," Alex Lomas, the security researcher at the firm Pentest Partners who audited the Cellmate, told Motherboard. "It’s important that all companies have a way for researchers to contact them, and that they keep in touch with them."

More on cybersecurity: Smart Toys Often Contain Child-Endangering Security Flaws

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