BT issue 16 VF - Flipbook - Page 48
ISSUE 16
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ALEXA, WHO ELSE IS LISTENING?
Written by Jake Moore, Cyber Security Expert, Eset
Y
our smart speaker is designed to listen, but
could it be eavesdropping too? Ever since Amazon came under fire for being able to potentially listen in on people through its Echo smart speakers,
and even transcribe what they were saying, I have been
intrigued by the idea of how IoT could be used to snoop
on us, unbeknown to the victims. Big tech companies
behind Alexa-enabled and other similar devices have
since taken steps towards making them more privacy
focused, but I recently demonstrated a feature that you
should be aware of.
LET’S CUT RIGHT TO THE CHASE.
TROUBLE WITH AN EX
I was recently asked by a friend to help check if she had
been hacked, because she could not work out how her
ex-partner knew specific information about her life and
even private conversations she had had.
I first checked her phone and laptop by running ESET’s
security software, and couldn’t see any malware or
anything untoward. She mentioned that it was if her
conversations were being listened to and mentioned
some of what she had only said to others had been
relayed back verbatim.
This is when I checked for listening bugs. I didn’t
discover anything that shouldn’t be there. However, I
was interested in the family’s Amazon Echo Dot smart
speaker and asked who could have access to it. She told
me that her ex-partner had set the device up two years
previous, when they were together, and they both had
access to the speaker via a shared account, but only she
used it now.
As she hadn’t changed her Amazon password – or any
other account passwords – since her breakup with her
partner, this was a good place to start investigating.
I wondered if the device could be used to eavesdrop
remotely via the app by anyone with access to the
account, which would have let them listen in to her
conversations.
I remembered I had heard it was possible, but I wanted
to test myself that an Alexa device could be used as a
covert listening device.
So I bought an Amazon Echo Dot and long story short,
my gut feeling didn’t fail me.
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