Security researchers at SR Labs have uncovered a new vulnerability affecting smart home speakers from Google and Amazon.This vulnerability allows hackers to eavesdrop on users, or even defraud them and turn the speakers into a tool for eavesdropping or deception.
By uploading malware disguised as a Alexa skill or Google's harmless actions, the researchers showed how you can make smart speakers secretly record users' conversations, or even request a Google account password from users.
The new problem is a reminder to users that third-party software used on smart home speakers should be closely monitored and, whenever possible, delete any software that is unlikely to be used again.
There is no evidence to exploit the new vulnerability in the real world, and revealed the "SR Labs" results for both Google and Amazon before publicly published.
Amazon said in a statement that it has put in place new measures to prevent doing these things in the future.
Google said it had audits to detect this kind of behavior, removed procedures established by security researchers, and was conducting an internal review of all third-party procedures, and temporarily disrupted some procedures as this occurred.