Hackers could use Amazon voice gadget to steal bank details

[dufus]

Hackers could use Amazon voice gadget to steal bank details: Warning electronic assistants pose security risk because they are always listening

By VICTORIA ALLEN SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT FOR THE DAILY MAIL

PUBLISHED: 00:57 BST, 9 June 2017 | UPDATED: 01:11 BST, 9 June 2017

 

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Electronic assistants such as the Amazon Echo could be hacked by criminals

Electronic assistants such as the Amazon Echo could be hacked by criminals to steal personal information, a security expert has warned.

Millions have bought voice-activated speakers which play music, provide weather forecasts, order groceries and answer questions.

The devices are brought to life by vocal commands such as 'Alexa' or 'Hello Google' but experts warn they pose a major security risk as they are always listening in and monitoring conversations.

Criminals could hack into them to find out when families are away or steal credit card details when someone orders a takeaway over the phone.

Cybersecurity expert Dr Jason Nurse warned: 'If hackers find a way to compromise these devices in our homes, they could have it recording all of the time and you wouldn't necessarily know.

'They could hear you discussing your holiday plans, so they know when you are away and could burgle you.

'They may hear you buying something on the phone, giving away your credit card details.'

 

The Oxford University research fellow, who was speaking at the Cheltenham Science Festival, is so concerned that he refuses to have electronic assistants in his house.

However, the gadgets are more popular than ever. The Google Home, a similar device to the Amazon Echo, can pick up commands even in noisy rooms, track online shopping and even switch on lights and adjust the thermostat.But some fear that users are inviting an electronic spy into their home.

HI-TECH HELPER 

The Amazon Echo costs £149.99. It is a hands-free speaker with seven microphones, voice-controlled by a command to the virtual assistant Alexa.

It plays music, provides sports scores and weather forecasts, can adjust lighting and heating, as well as answer questions and give traffic updates.

The more you use it, the more it adapts to your speech patterns, vocabulary and preferences.

Google Home, which went on sale in April and costs £129, works in a similar way. It is activated by the words 'OK Google' or 'hey Google'.

Apple's version of the gadget, the HomePod, is late to the market after being announced this week. Available from December, it will cost about £270.

 

Dr Nurse said: 'If there's something private you want to say, the first thing you should do is mute the device... or turn it off. You should think twice about what you say in front of these devices.' Conversations recorded on the Google Home device are automatically encrypted, while Amazon Echo has a 'microphone off' button and utterances can be deleted.

Dr Nurse added: 'A TV, radio or someone else in your home may say the wake word without your knowledge and start it recording while you are discussing something private or sensitive.

'That may then be sent off without you being aware it is happening.

'Automation is great. It's fantastic that you can walk around your home and tell it to do things like you are talking to an individual but the risks are mounting.

'People should think about the cost-benefit pay-off in terms of privacy and security and how much convenience they add to your life.'

An Amazon spokesman said: 'Amazon takes customer privacy seriously and we have taken measures to make Echo secure.'

Google declined to comment.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4586712/Hackers-use-Amazon-Echo-steal-bank-details.html

[steven36]

I never used no voice gadgets other than voice chat back in the early 2000s back when there was not much too do on the internet but  mess around  in the chat rooms because the internet was too slow too do much back then and you were talking too real humans , I dont plug a mic in anymore for many years.

 

I dont really believe talking to bots will  ever work out too good because if any one ever talked too one on the phone they never understand nothing you say  and that's  today . 1st thing AI needs to do is learn how to  understand human languages before it can be successful because as it stands if you can't type too it it's dumb as a box of rocks and i can type in a search engine and it's just as effective as typing to AI  or turn something on or off by hand.is more efficient than talking to a dumb bot !

[steven36]

6 minutes ago, 0bin said:

I cannot test that Echo as only in US, but if is it like the fire, well, expect a lot of telemetry. 

A robot with Arduino done by you, suit better, and cost less. 

Bots cant really understand people  so  there useless  .in the last few months.I go on the phone a bot answers it  never understood what I said so it let me talk to a real person ,next time  i called back they fix it were you could type answers  back trough  the phone !

[steven36]

13 minutes ago, 0bin said:

Where I am, bots talks back to you for service quality surveys, they are automatically blocked from call me through specific hardware on the phone.

Were i am everything is a bot  now  if you call for some kind of help. You're talking about telemarketers that is totally different were on the do not call list for that and i  wont answer calls unless  i know you're number on the caller id.

 

 

[steven36]

9 minutes ago, 0bin said:

Then you need terminator. End of the story for them.  

It's not that easy  because you have no choice to talk to bots or type too them if you need too tell them something important. So in my mind saying AI will be  successful is bull shit.  A toy for the rich to play with  tell it learns human languages  as good as a native speaker of one.

[steven36]

1 minute ago, 0bin said:

+1 for toy for the rich one, who invented robotics never have in mind for the rich, but as you noted all AI features right now rely on rich subscriptions. 

There slowly  making AI like PCs and smart phones witch are  getting a AI on board , Before long  all you will have to do is buy a AI device and they will give you he service for free so they can sell you're data..

[steven36]

5 minutes ago, 0bin said:

Not if I build my own damn robot.  

This is why the rich is investing in it  Like Google and the guy who owns Facebook  they plain too make billions more with AI like they done with internet services .

[steven36]

Just now, 0bin said:

He will send me a cow to make a facebook profile promising me friends with big smiles? No sorry, I prefer to red a book made of paper, and stay with real cows.

Also I don't like both of them.

I don't dislike them  because I just boycott signing into there  services , A sucker is born every minute and I'm not a lollypop.. It's peoples own ignorance that gets them rich and about 7 years I was ignorant too and then I woke up too what they was doing.  

[Sylence]

Mobile phones made in the era when they weren't smart yet, are also always listening. smarts phones are always listening even when turned off. 

[steven36]

Just now, 0bin said:

We are all ignorants, trust me, more you learn, more you understand you don't know a shit.

The more you learn the more you know, knowledge is power , It's when you become closed minded and stop wanting the too learn like a teenager who thanks they know it all. As long as you stay open minted and are willing too learn you will keep learning more and more.

 

[tao]

29 minutes ago, 0bin said:

We are all ignorants, trust me, more you learn, more you understand you don't know a sh**.

The only thing mind can know (for sure) is that it doesn't know. 

 

"The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing."  ~Socrates

 

"Forgetting all knowledge at one stroke,
I do not need cultivation anymore..."   ~ Hsiang-yen Chih-hsien"

 

"To have nothing in mind is noble. To have no skill and no knowledge is supreme."  ~ Basho

[steven36]

28 minutes ago, saeed_dc said:

Mobile phones made in the era when they weren't smart yet, are also always listening. smarts phones are always listening even when turned off. 

This dont have nothing to with AI though  , AI can be as dumb a box of rocks and not understand nothing you said if there is a real human recording it  they can easily play it back and understand what you said . So it  benefits them more than it does you . It's like bots these companies use to too answer the phone they cant understand you but you can type too it and  it does . It causes humans too lose there jobs and is a hassle to the consumer vs talking a  real human it just benefits the Rich and the Government .

 

The Government  is bought off by  the the Rich so there is not very much difference . They want too keep the Government happy  to protect  there worldly possessions .Once you die you can't take anything with you . What's so said  is a 100 years from now people want know who we was. so ithe really in the long term were nothing but a  candle that will be burnt out soon.

[Sylence]

10 hours ago, steven36 said:

This dont have nothing to with AI though  , AI can be as dumb a box of rocks and not understand nothing you said if there is a real human recording it  they can easily play it back and understand what you said . So it  benefits them more than it does you . It's like bots these companies use to too answer the phone they cant understand you but you can type too it and  it does . It causes humans too lose there jobs and is a hassle to the consumer vs talking a  real human it just benefits the Rich and the Government .

 

The Government  is bought off by  the the Rich so there is not very much difference . They want too keep the Government happy  to protect  there worldly possessions .Once you die you can't take anything with you . What's so said  is a 100 years from now people want know who we was. so ithe really in the long term were nothing but a  candle that will be burnt out soon.

 

Yeah true that