Cybersecurity Risks People with Smart Speakers Should Watch Out For

Needless to say, the convenience that smart speakers like Amazon Echo and Google Home bring to households is praiseworthy. Just the fact that people can now turn off their lights or play music around the house by simply dictating them to a digital assistant is a reason enticing enough for one to purchase a smart speaker.

However, as already proven time and again, the presence of cybersecurity threats and risks grows along with the technologies available in consumer electronics. And smart speakers are not spared from this reality.

Recently, VentureBeat reported several cybersecurity risks on smart speakers based on a study released this month by various researchers from Indiana University, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of Virginia.

There are two possible methods that attackers may execute to obtain private information through malicious apps accessible on smart speakers.

For one, ill-motivated cyber actors may employ a technique dubbed “voice squatting.” To execute a massive cyber attack, hackers may start by introducing a malware-infected application with a name similar to a legitimate app.

So when a smart speaker owner dictates to it to install or activate a legitimate app, the digital assistant may be tricked or confused to instead look for the malicious app due to their very similar-sounding names.

The security researchers also identified a technique called “voice masquerading.” Attackers, basically, may trick less tech-savvy smart speaker users that they have already terminated or closed a malicious app. This is reportedly executable through two methods called the “in-communication skill switch” and “faking termination.”

In-communication skill switch has a malicious app pretending that the digital assistant has moved to activate a different app following the user’s orders. The fake termination, on the other hand, may program an app to dictate replies that may indicate it has been successfully closed. But, in both cases, the malicious apps may still be covertly running in the background.