‘Voice-Squatting’ Turns Alexa, Google Home into Silent Spies

A team of academic researchers has demonstrated that it’s possible to possible to closely mimic legitimate voice commands in order to carry out nefarious actions on these home assistants. Continue reading ‘Voice-Squatting’ Turns Alexa, Google Home into Silent Spies

Equifax, Amazon, & Hacking Hotels – Paul’s Security Weekly #557

In the news, Western Digital My Cloud EX2 NAS device leaks files, Equifax has spent $242.7 million on its data breach so far, New Skill let Amazon Alexa Spy on Users, Hackers find devious way to break into hotel rooms, new tool detects evil maid attack… Continue reading Equifax, Amazon, & Hacking Hotels – Paul’s Security Weekly #557

Amazon Alexa Has Got Some Serious Skills—Spying On Users!

“Alexa, are you spying on me?” — aaaa…..mmmm…..hmmm…..maybe!!!

Security researchers have developed a new malicious ‘skill’ for Amazon’s popular voice assistant Alexa that can turn your Amazon Echo into a full-fledged spying device.

Amazon Echo … Continue reading Amazon Alexa Has Got Some Serious Skills—Spying On Users!

Researchers found a semi-legit way to turn an Amazon Echo into a wiretap

An Amazon Echo application created by security researchers proves how the popular smart home device can be co-opted to remotely listen to people’s nearby conversations, according to cybersecurity firm CheckMarx. The research describes how an inherent design flaw in the Amazon Echo could be exploited to covertly and remotely launch the Alexa voice assistant on compromised devices. Alexa was engineered to be able to record and react to voice commands within a predetermined distance from the device. During their controlled experiment, CheckMarx researchers disguised a malicious Echo skill by marketing it as a voice-enabled calculator application that leverages Alexa to execute certain commands. “It can be done totally remotely,” said Erez Yalon, manager of application security research at Checkmarx. “While a hacker creates a malicious skill and publish it to the Amazon store, every user that will use this Amazon skill is exposed.” CheckMarx says the trick didn’t “break or hack […]

The post Researchers found a semi-legit way to turn an Amazon Echo into a wiretap appeared first on Cyberscoop.

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Big Mouth Billy Bass Channels Miley Cyrus

Here’s a Big Mouth Billy Bass with extra lip thanks to Alexa. If you’re not already familiar, Big Mouth Billy Bass is the shockingly popular singing animatronic fish designed to look like a trophy fish mounted to hang on your wall. In its stock condition, Billy uses a motion sensor to break into song whenever someone walks by. It’s limited to a few songs, unless you like to hack things — in which case it’s a bunch of usable parts wrapped in a humorous fish! Hackaday’s own [Bob Baddeley] combined the fish with an Amazon Echo Dot, connecting the two …read more

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Microsoft’s Role in the Next Wave (Premium)

Ambient computing is the “next wave” of personal computing. But what role can Microsoft play in this future?

To access this post, you must purchase Premium Membership, Thurrott Premium – Yearly Subscription, Thurrott Premium – Monthly Subscription or … Continue reading Microsoft’s Role in the Next Wave (Premium)