Reuben Paul addresses the World Forum cyber security conference in The Hague (AFP Photo/Jan Hennop)
Reuben Paul, 11, tells conference that smart cars, fridges, lights and even teddy bears can be used to spy on or harm people.
Reuben Paul, who is in sixth grade at school in Austin, Texas, and his teddy bear Bob wowed hundreds at a cyber-security conference in the Netherlands.
“From airplanes to automobiles, from smartphones to smart homes, anything or any toy can be part of the Internet of Things (IOT),” said the small figure pacing the huge stage at the World Forum in The Hague.
“From terminators to teddy bears, anything or any toy can be weaponised.”
To demonstrate he deployed his cuddly bear, which connects to the cloud via wifi and Bluetooth to receive and transmit messages.
Plugging into his laptop a device known as a “Raspberry Pi” – a small credit-card size computer – Reuben scanned the hall for available Bluetooth devices, and to everyone’s amazement including his own, suddenly downloaded dozens of numbers, including some of top officials.
Then using computer language Python he hacked into his bear via one of the numbers to turn on one of its lights and record a message from the audience.
