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A couple of years ago, a curious, then-16-year-old hacker named Reynaldo Vasquez-Garcia was on his laptop at his Portland-area high school, seeing what computer systems he could connect to via the Wi-Fi—“using the school network as a lab,” as he puts it—when he spotted a handful of mysterious devices with the identifier “IPVideo Corporation.”

After a closer look and some googling, Garcia figured out that a company by that name was a subsidiary of Motorola, and the devices he’d found in his school seemed to be something called the Halo 3C, a “smart” smoke and vape detection gadget. “They look just like smoke detectors, but they have a whole bunch of features like sensors and stuff,” Garcia says.

As he read more, he was intrigued to learn that the Halo 3C goes beyond detecting smoke and vaping—including a distinct feature for discerning THC vaping in particular. It also has a microphone for listening out for “aggression,” gunshots, and keywords such as someone calling for help, a feature that to Vasquez-Garcia immediately raised concerns of more intrusive surveillance.

Now, after months of reverse engineering and security testing, Vasquez-Garcia and a fellow hacker he’s partnered with who goes by the pseudonym “Nyx,” have shown that it’s possible to hack one of those Halo 3C gadgets—which they’ve taken to calling by the nickname “snitch puck”—and take full control of it.

At the Defcon hacker conference today, they plan to show that by exploiting just a few relatively simple security vulnerabilities, any hacker on the same network could have hijacked a Halo 3C to turn it into a real-time audio eavesdropping bug, disabled its detection capabilities, created fake alerts for vaping or gunshots, or even played whatever sound or audio they chose out of the device’s speaker. Motorola said it has since developed a firmware update to address those security flaws that will automatically push to cloud-connected devices by Friday.

Many of the hackers’ tricks are on display in a video demo below, which the Vasquez-Garcia and Nyx made ahead of their Defcon presentation:

DICE has confirmed that Battlefield 6’s open beta will only feature AI-controlled soldiers in specific Training Grounds playlists, following community concern about the use of bots in multiplayer matches.

The clarification comes after player backlash to earlier suggestions that Battlefield 6 might use bots to fill empty slots in online lobbies, a system that proved unpopular in Battlefield 2042.

In a social media statement, DICE said AI soldiers will be limited to the Training Grounds section of the open beta, which is currently hosting the Breakthrough Initiation playlist.

According to the developer, Breakthrough Initiation pairs players with 15 others while AI soldiers make up the remainder of the match.

DICE said the mode is intended to introduce newcomers to the core mechanics of Breakthrough and provide a more manageable experience than a full multiplayer lobby.

Players who prefer to avoid AI opponents can do so by selecting Breakthrough from the “Featured” playlist row, which does not include bots.

DICE added that Training Grounds playlists are only available to players below rank 15, after which they are removed from the front-end menu.

The studio’s statement emphasised that AI soldiers are not part of the game’s regular multiplayer modes during the beta period.

This approach, DICE suggested, may help ease new players into the large-scale combat that Battlefield is known for.

Battlefield 6’s open beta is currently in early access, drawing large player numbers and significant queue times.