Chinese researchers were able to hack into Amazon Echo device and take control of speaker, turning device into listening or surveillance toolChinese researchers were able to hack into Amazon Echo device and take control of speaker, turning device into listening or surveillance tool

Briefing

Chinese researchers were able to hack into Amazon Echo device and take control of speaker, turning device into listening or surveillance tool

August 24, 2018

Briefing
  • Remote Surveillance on Echo – Tencent researchers Wu Huiyu and Qian Wenxiang were able to turn Amazon Echo to listening device or surveillance tool with few hacking techniques
  • Hacking Techniques – Include hardware skills, such as disassembling Echo, taking out flash chip, inserting firmware, and putting chip back in Echo, as well as software skills, like exploiting vulnerability in system that can enable control of speaker
  • Amazon Action – Amazon said it already fixed vulnerabilities in system through software patch
  • Difficult to Pull – Hacking techniques adopted by researchers will be difficult to pull as hackers would need to have physical access to device and access same Wi-Fi network

Accelerator
Cybersecurity, Internet-of-Things

Sector
Consumer Durables, Information Technology

Organization
Amazon.com Inc.

Source

Original Publication Date
August 12, 2018

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