New security tests conducted on smart speakers have revealed another disturbing flaw in Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home’s virtual assistant. A test conducted by hacking research and consultancy firm Security Research Labs shows that the smart speakers are susceptible to attack by hackers. Luise Frerichs and Fabian Bräunlein of the security firm discovered the flaw last week that can be exploited for phishing attacks.
The new report, first covered by ZDNet, shows that hackers can gain access to private conversations over smart speakers and other sensitive information. The hacking firm told ZDNet that “Finding and banning unexpected behavior such as long pauses should be relatively straight-forward. We are surprised that this hasn’t happened since reporting the vulnerabilities several months ago.” The Berlin-based security firm shared a number of videos that showed how hackers can attack such virtual assistants and secretly listen to them. Google and Amazon were reportedly informed about the flaw in their system by the security firm before uploading the videos on Sunday.
According to a report by CNN, the two companies told CNN Business that they have dealt with the issue. The hacking firm pointed at the vulnerability of the smart speakers that can be hacked taking advantage of the access provided by these companies to third-party app developers. The access meant for the developer to improve their apps can be exploited by hackers who can customize commands which can initiate a response from the virtual assistants.
According to the CNN report, a spokesperson from Google responded to the security flaw by saying that “We have review processes to detect the type of behavior described in this report, and we removed the actions that we found from these researchers. We are putting additional mechanisms in place to prevent these issues from occurring in the future.”
Mitchell Landsberg is the senior reporter for News Raise and focuses on Technology. Mitchell regularly writes about social media platforms and how influencers, industry and general people use them to communicate and make money.
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