Smart speaker is one of the best gifts from technology that we’ve ever received. Who would’ve thought they could get a personal assistant who they wouldn’t have to pay the salary? Now that voice is a command for the device, you get everything served with just a few words spoken. According to a report, the global smart speaker market size was valued $4657 million in 2017, which is projected to be $23,317 million by 2025.
Now that everyone is attracted towards this piece of art, so are the hackers. There’s no ambiguity that smart speaker risks do exist. It is important to know that smart speakers are too new to be protected completely. Although, manufacturers are prompt at fixing issues that come up with time. However, once added to network, it may be vulnerable.
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Today, we’re going to have a look at the top potential risks associated with smart speakers to help you keep alerted:
1. Unexpected Activations & Misheard Prompts
Smart speakers are designed to get activated only when they hear their activation phrase. This way, the device’s microphone is always switched on. Although, they do not always process or record anything until they hear their activation phrase first like ‘Ok Google’ for Google Home and ‘Alexa’ for Amazon smart speaker.
It is important to know that the technology is new, and it is not recommended to rely on them completely due to the fact that they’re not perfect yet. The device may mishear a different phrase as its activation phrase and get activated. The incident has taken place in Oregon, where their smart speaker got activated and started recording their conversation. Later, the device sent the recording to a random person from their contact list. The incident was brought into attention when the receiver contacted the family.
2. Malware Attacks
Now that every smart speaker connects to your home network, it does bear the same level of vulnerability. Most of the reports have revolved around the unauthorized access and faulty functionality. This way, smart speaker risks also include malware attacks and hacking.
Security experts in tech realm have discovered multiple susceptibilities and got them fixed by informing the makers. However, there are chances that hackers may, at some point, find a vulnerability before them and harm privacy and cyber security of the user.
3. Voice Hacks
Using smart speakers do involve the threat of voice hacks, a branch of identity theft, where a hacker may obtain the recording of your voice and then command your device with ill intentions. The problem become worse when a hacker or even a mimicry artist with foul intentions gets through your device and obtain access to your cloud or where you’ve save your data.
Also Read : Voice Recognition Security Isn’t Hack Proof!
Taking everything into account, it is suggested that you don’t overlook smart speaker risks associated with its technology. With surging attacks over networks, any device connected to a network would bear the same level of threat and insecurity. Although, manufacturers do take it seriously, but being too new to understand, it is better wait for a while and grant time to the device to be a full proof against security threats. If you wish to share some tips and tricks related to smart speakers, do let us know in the comments below.
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