Given the task definition and input, reply with output. In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.

It seems Vtech isn’t the only toy company playing it fast and loose with children’s privacy. Security researchers have discovered myriad security flaws that make Mattel’s Hello Barbie connected doll hackable. 
  
 When Hello Barbie was introduced earlier this year, the doll’s connected technology came under scrutiny from parents and advocacy groups concerned about data security and privacy. The doll has a built-in microphone that allows it to listen to a child’s questions, which are then answered from a bank of possible responses managed by a cloud-based system. The whole thing works a bit like Siri. The creepiest thing is that over time, the doll learns about a chil’s tastes and preferences, and adjusts its responses accordingly. Parents were understandably concerned about what Barbie might be saying to and learning about their kids. 
  
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 At the time, Mattel and the company behind the tech, ToyTalk, denied that the data would every be used in any way people would find objectionable—they wouldn’t pollute the minds of impressionable children with advertising or bad ideas. Well, it turns out that the really threat comes not from Mattel or ToyTalk, but from malicious parties who can easily gain access to and replace the doll’s brains. 
  
 A new report released today by researchers at security firm Bluebox Labs reveals problems with both the Hello Barbie mobile app, as well as with the way the app communicates to ToyTalk’s servers in the cloud. Most egregiously, ToyTalk used outmoded encryption technology that’s known to be vulnerable. 
  
 Motherboard described Bluebox Lab’s findings: 
  
 This new report shows that hackers could have intercepted the encrypted data sent between the doll and the servers of its maker ToyTalk. And owing to the fact the server was vulnerable to a well-known exploit to downgrade and break web encryption, known as the POODLE attack, the hackers could have effectively accessed and listened to children’s recordings. 
  
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 Bluebox Labs reported the vulnerabilities last month, and the ToyTalk has reportedly patched the problems. 
  
 Last week, NBC reported the work of researcher Matt Jakubowski who was able to hack Hello Barbie’s OS when it was connected to wifi, allowing him complete access private information stored within. In the report he concludes that if the vulnerabilities of Hello Barbie aren’t patched, it’s only a matter of time before hackers can replace Hello Barbie’s cloud-based brain with another. 
  
 In a statement ToyTalk CTO Matt Reddy told Gizmodo: 
  
 We have been working with Bluebox and appreciate their Responsible Disclosure of issues with respect to Hello Barbie. We are grateful that they informed us of relevant security vulnerabilities, which have been addressed. 
  
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 As of right now there’s no evidence that Hello Barbie’s vulnerabilities have actually been exploited. Still, these reports, coupled with the huge breach of Vtech’s servers, underscores the fact that though companies are anxious to sell you connected toys for your kids, they’re not taking security seriously enough. 
  
 [Bluebox Labs, Motherboard, The Guardian, NBC] ||||| Enlarge Image Ben Fox Rubin/CNET 
  
 Hello, Barbie. Can we talk? Security researchers are worried about your safety. 
  
 New data released Friday by security firm Bluebox reveals even more vulnerabilities in Hello Barbie, the $75 Internet-connected doll from Mattel. 
  
 Researchers found the application and the cloud server that connect the doll to the Internet would allow attackers to cut through security protections and access recordings of children's conversations with Barbie. That's probably enough to put Barbie on the naughty list this holiday. 
  
 Friday's revelation about the iconic doll follows a related problem made public last week by a different researcher, Matt Jakubowski. He said he'd discovered a flaw that would potentially allow hackers to pinpoint home addresses of doll owners. 
  
 Barbie isn't the only toy that's run into safety or privacy concerns related to its Internet connection. Last month, hackers stole account information of more than 6.4 million children who use the Learning Lodge app store for VTech toys. The company has since hired a high-profile cybersecurity incident-response team to deal with the aftermath. 
  
 Such security concerns could give parents second thoughts about buying the Internet-connected toys on their children's holiday wish lists. The timing is especially critical for Hello Barbie, which was released last month just in time for the holiday shopping season. 
  
 Mattel and software maker ToyTalk are racing to patch the security problems with the doll. 
  
 ToyTalk has fixed some of the flaws in the software it built for Hello Barbie and is working its way through the others. It also set up a "bug bounty" program about two weeks ago to streamline reporting from any other researchers looking into the doll's software. 
  
 Despite the recent flurry of software patches for Hello Barbie, ToyTalk executive Martin Reddy said the company built in security features from the very beginning and had a cybersecurity company audit the toy before taking it to market. 
  
 "Security has been a major focus throughout the entire process, and I think we've done a very good job of it," Reddy said. "I'm very proud of the [doll]." 
  
 A Trojan horse of a different sort 
  
 The way Hello Barbie works seems magical at first glance. Children talk with Barbie, and her necklace lights up to show she's listening. Then she talks back. Behind the scenes, the doll wirelessly communicates with a companion app and ToyTalk's service on the Internet. 
  
 A hack on the doll's software could have wide-ranging consequences. Once Jakubowski opened up Hello Barbie doll and hacked it, he pulled out information that would allow him to send signals to other Hello Barbies from a web browser, where he would pose as the companion app. Meanwhile, the Bluebox researchers found flaws in the companion app, as well as ToyTalk's website account service. 
  
 Hackers could "potentially take the voice recordings and ... reconstruct it as the child recorded it. Or, as the 36-year-old security researcher recorded it," said Andrew Hay, who helped Bluebox research the doll. 
  
 The good news is that the flaws are easy to fix, both TechTalk and the security researchers said. And so far there aren't indications that hackers have actually used the bugs to intrude on real-life children at play. All told, the flaws were not exactly direct paths to Hello Barbie's beating heart. 
  
 To the potential relief of parents, not all Internet-connected dolls are made similarly to Hello Barbie. For example, the My Friend Cayla doll also talks with children, but she doesn't record conversations or send recordings to the cloud like Barbie does. Tim Medin, a security researcher at Counter Hack, attempted to hack Cayla in January and came up with a few flaws that required hackers to get physical access to the doll or at least get very close. 
  
 In the process, he made Cayla respond to him with some foul comments, which did get some negative attention for the doll. But unlike with Hello Barbie, researchers needed physical access to Cayla, and the doll wasn't susceptible to attacks over the Internet. 
  
 "Cayla was basically the subject of a tech prank," said Peter Magalhaes, general manager of Cayla manufacturer Genesis. 
  
 For Barbie, not so much. 
  
 Updated 12/4 at 12:08 p.m. PT: Additional context has been added to this story to explain how hackers could communicate with Hello Barbie. ||||| Photo by Soloviova Liudmyla/Shutterstock 
  
 In this season of gift-giving, permit me to offer some advice: Don't buy your child any toy that connects to the Internet, unless you're comfortable with the possibility that the toy will expose information about your kid to hackers. That's what happened recently when someone broke into a Hong Kong–based toy seller called Vtech and got access to an astonishing amount of information about kids and parents, including photos and chat archives. 
  
 Hacker bonus: The “Hello Barbie” doll's Wi-Fi connection reportedly can be hijacked and turned into spying hardware. Makes you want to give little Barbie a hug, doesn't it? 
  
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 Given the horrendous state of online security these days, I'm tempted to say don't buy anything that connects to the Internet, for your kid or for anyone else, for that matter. But that's no longer feasible if we want to live in the modern world. So I'll qualify that by saying—and this is not necessarily much better—the only devices I'd buy these days that contain an Ethernet port, Wi-Fi and/or Bluetooth are a personal computer, phone, e-reader, router, modem, or media-streaming box. 
  
 So-called smart devices (that is, everyday things containing microprocessors, memory and networking capability) are part of the emerging “Internet of Things,” which is shaping up to be as dystopian as even the most pessimistic among us had feared. It's more like the Internet of Ridiculously Insecure Things—gear that invites hackers to a new and (for them) hugely entertaining playground. Already, we've learned about dangerous flaws in everything from hospital medication pumps to cars to baby monitors. 
  
 Why does this keep happening? Because many if not most of the companies designing and making these things appear to have little clue about protecting users' privacy, or don't care. 
  
 To be perversely fair, the companies writing software for PCs, phones, routers, etc., have also repeatedly demonstrated an inability to protect their users. Malware infests much of what we've been using in the PC and mobile Internet era. 
  
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 At least the more responsible companies in the PC and mobile businesses have begun to get serious, after long and often shameful records of neglect. But the idea that a toy company will have much of a clue about computer-data security—connected toys contain computers, after all, like so much else of what we use these days—is ludicrous on its face. 
  
 The situation is so bad that even the federal government, which has demonstrated epic incompetence in its own security practices, is waking up in a small way. Next week the Department of Homeland Security is holding a meeting in Silicon Valley to ask for ideas from (and dangle money in front of) technology companies, part of an initiative to make the Internet of Things less unsafe. 
  
 Not enough people are asking a more fundamental question, however: Why are we connecting everything to the Internet in the first place? The answer seems to be: because we can. 
  
 Yes, we can do some great things with “smart” devices—everything from more efficient agriculture to more prosaic practices like controlling lights and heating from outside the home. Wonderful, but can't we build in security rather than bolt it on later? But by most evidence there's far too little of that kind of design thinking in the real world. 
  
 I wish we could hit some kind of global pause button on the Internet of Things, at least until there's more reason to trust the companies making this stuff. Since we can't, we have to take control—to the extent we can do so—for ourselves. |||||

One of the hot toys this holiday season is sure to be Orwellian Dystopia Barbie—sorry, we mean Hello Barbie. The $75 Internet-connected doll uses an app to record kids and talk back to them. But Slate reports hackers can turn the Hello Barbie's Wi-Fi connection into "spying hardware" and—like other Internet-ready toys—use it to collect "an astonishing" amount of personal data. Researchers from security firm Bluebox announced Friday that hackers could bypass Hello Barbie's safety controls to access recordings of children talking to the doll, according to CNET. One big problem is the use of "outmoded encryption technology," reports Gizmodo. Last week, a different researcher found hackers could possibly use Hello Barbie to find the home addresses of its owners. "Such security concerns could give parents second thoughts about buying the Internet-connected toys on their children's holiday wish lists," observes CNET. "The timing is especially critical for Hello Barbie, which was released last month just in time for the holiday shopping season." Slate says the makers of most toys with Internet connections either don't know how to protect users' privacy or don't care to try. But Mattel and ToyTalk—the makers of Hello Barbie—tell CNET they had a cybersecurity company review the doll before it was released and are continuing to upgrade its security features. "Security has been a major focus throughout the entire process, and I think we've done a very good job of it," one executive says. "I'm very proud of the [doll]." (A new Barbie commercial features a milestone of sorts.)