Is your phone listening to you? (re-air) (Lock and Code S07E03)

This week on the Lock and Code podcast … In January, Google settled a lawsuit that pricked up a few ears: It agreed to pay $68 million to a wide array of people who sued the company together, alleging that Google's voice-activated smart assistant had secretly recorded their conversations, which...

A week in security (July 16 – July 22)

Last week on Labs, we looked at a Magniber expansion, explored open source vulnerabilities, and checked out the boons and drawbacks of smart assistants. We also continued our ad blocking article extravaganza, gave a whistlestop tour of third-party problems, and published our Q2 Cybercrime tactics...

What’s the real value—and danger—of smart assistants?

You've heard them called virtual assistants, digital personal assistants, voice assistants, or smart assistants. Operated by artificial intelligence, technologies such as Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant, and Cortana have become ubiquitous in our culture. But what exactly do they do? And how serious...

A week in security (May 28 – June 3)

Last week on Labs, we talked about the significance of SEO poisoning in the world of search marketing, blackmail attempts against financial institutions in Canada, voice command flaws in smart assistants, survey and potential phishing scams on Instagram, and the latest changes in Office 365. We...

Researchers discover vulnerabilities in smart assistants’ voice commands

Virtual personal assistants VPA, also known as smart assistants like Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Assistant, are in the spotlight for vulnerabilities to attack. Take, for example, that incident about an Oregon couple’s Echo smart speaker inadvertently recording their conversation and sending it to...