Tag Archive for: Alexa

From Ring to Alexa, which Amazon security plan is right for you?

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Ring Alarm Pro Sensors 4xSource: Ring

Amazon makes an incredible range of smart home devices, from the best smart security systems to the best smart speakers, but did you know that many of these can better help protect your home? Amazon security plans include Alexa Guard Plus, Ring Protect Pro, and Virtual Security Guard, but which one is the right plan for you? We break them all down and help you pick the right one for your home.

Alexa Guard Plus

Echo Dot 2

Source: Jeramy Johnson / Android Central

Alexa Guard Plus is the least expensive of all Amazon’s security plans, and it uses the collective smarts of your connected devices to achieve a better sense of security. Amazon maintains a list of compatible devices, which includes your Echo speakers, Ring devices, and even some surprises like Alexa-powered Christmas trees and smart outlets.

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Amazon warns that Alexa Guard Plus isn’t intended to replace a proper home security system but can be used to help you feel safer in your home.

The basic Alexa Guard tier is available for all Amazon accounts for free. Alexa Guard Plus is an upgraded service that will cost you $4.99 per month or $49 per year. Amazon sometimes offers a free one-month trial for first-time subscribers, and opting to pay for the entire year upfront essentially gives you two free months of the service.

Ring Protect Plus subscribers can get Alexa Guard Plus by linking their Ring and Amazon accounts. Afterward, open the Alexa app, tap Settings, then Guard, and follow the on-screen instructions to enable Alexa Guard Plus.

You can subscribe by saying “Alexa, try Guard Plus” to any of your Echo devices. Here’s what you get when you subscribe.

A 24/7 Emergency Helpline

Any Alexa-powered speakers connected to your Amazon account can be used to call emergency dispatch personnel by just saying, “Alexa, call for help.” It’s similar to calling 911 on your phone, but with the massive added advantage of not having to find your phone first.

Emergency sound alerts

Alexa-powered devices with microphones, such as an Echo Dot or Echo Show, can be activated while you’re away from home to listen for sounds of activity. The free Alexa Guard tier can detect the…

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Alexa, disarm the victim’s home security system

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Smart home

Kelly Jackson Higgins, Executive Editor at Dark Reading, explores how hacking attempts on ‘smart’ home assistants via laser pointers have raised further security concerns about the devices.

Researchers who last year hacked popular voice assistants with laser pointers take their work to the next level.

It’s still a mystery to researchers at the University of Michigan and The University of Electro-Communications (Tokyo) – just what physically enabled them to inject commands into the embedded microphones of Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and other digital voice assistant devices via laser pointers.

AmazonAlexa-SmartDevice-20

The team in 2019 used light to remotely control Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, Facebook Portal, and Apple Siri by exploiting a vulnerability in their so-called MEMS microphones. They used the light beams to inject invisible and inaudible commands to the digital voice assistants as well as voice-controlled smartphones and tablets – through glass windows as far away as 110 metres.

They’re now taking their research to a new phase.

“There’s still some mystery around the physical causality on how it’s working. We’re investigating that more in-depth,” says Benjamin Cyr, a Ph.D. student at Michigan who, along with researcher Sara Rampazzi, will be presenting the latest iteration of the research at Black Hat Europe on 10 December. Why do the mikes respond to light as if it’s sound? he says. “We want to try to nail down what’s happening on a physical level, so that future hardware designs” protect them from light-injection attacks.

They are now studying the security of sensing systems overall as well, including those found in medical devices, autonomous vehicles, industrial systems – and even space systems.

Cyr, Rampazzi, an Assistant Professor at the University of Florida, and Daniel Genkin, an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan, plan to show at Black Hat Europe how a security camera could be manipulated via a hijacked voice assistant with which it interfaces. They’ll be demonstrating their light-injection hack against the Amazon Echo 3, a newer model of the smart speaker system that was not available last year when they…

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With a Laser, Researchers Say They Can Hack Alexa, Google Home or Siri – The New York Times

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With a Laser, Researchers Say They Can Hack Alexa, Google Home or Siri  The New York Times
“HTTPS hijacking” – read more

Alexa and Google Home devices can be exploited to eavesdrop on users, phish passwords

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Researchers have shown just how easy it is for third-parties to exploit the so-called “smart” speakers that many home owners have purchased to eavesdrop on conversations and even steal passwords and credit card details.

Read more in my article on the Bitdefender BOX blog.

Graham Cluley