Yarbo says it will remove the intentional backdoor from its robot lawn mower

Yarbo, the company behind a robot lawn mower that was involved in an incident where a security researcher was run over, has announced plans to remove a remote backdoor access feature from its devices. This feature had the potential to allow unauthorized individuals to reprogram the robot over the internet. Co-founder Kenneth Kohlmann stated that customers will have the option to decide whether this feature is installed at all. This decision comes after the company faced scrutiny over significant security vulnerabilities that were exposed by the researcher, Andreas Makris. The vulnerabilities included the ability for hackers to easily hijack the robot lawn mowers, which could lead to the exposure of sensitive information such as GPS coordinates, Wi-Fi passwords, and email addresses. Following these revelations, Yarbo issued a comprehensive response detailing its commitment to addressing these security issues. The company confirmed the findings of the security researcher and apologized for the oversight, outlining a plan to tackle the identified vulnerabilities. In response to the situation, Yarbo has temporarily disabled remote access to the robot lawn mowers while it works on implementing security improvements. The company has acknowledged the seriousness of the security flaws and is taking steps to ensure the safety and privacy of its customers. This includes a commitment to closing the security gaps that allowed for the easy hijacking of the devices.