Security News

How Amazon red-teamed Alexa+ to keep your kids from ordering 50 pizzas
2025-05-01 17:09

Will the personal assistant shop for groceries? Or get hijacked by a teen? RSAC If Amazon's Alexa+ works as intended, it could show how an AI assistant helps with everyday tasks like making dinner...

How Amazon red-teamed Alexa+ to keep your kids from ordering 50 pizzas
2025-05-01 17:09

Will the personal assistant shop for groceries? Or get hijacked by a teen? RSAC If Amazon's Alexa+ works as intended, it could show how an AI assistant helps with everyday tasks like making dinner...

Amazon to kill off local Alexa processing, all voice requests shipped to the cloud
2025-03-17 21:12

Web souk says Echo hardware doesn't have the oomph for next-gen AI anyway Come March 28, those who opted to have their voice commands for Amazon's AI assistant Alexa processed locally on their...

Amazon agrees to $25 million fine for Alexa children privacy violations
2023-07-21 12:02

The U.S. Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission announced that Amazon has agreed to pay a $25 million fine to settle alleged children's privacy laws violations related to the company's Alexa voice assistant service. Amazon also faces a $5 million fine for privacy violations associated with its Ring video doorbell service.

FTC Slams Amazon with $30.8M Fine for Privacy Violations Involving Alexa and Ring
2023-06-03 08:05

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has fined Amazon a cumulative $30.8 million over a series of privacy lapses regarding its Alexa assistant and Ring security cameras. Amazon has also agreed to fork out an additional $5.8 million in consumer refunds for breaching users' privacy by permitting any employee or contractor to gain broad and unfettered access to private videos recorded using Ring cameras.

Amazon Ring, Alexa accused of every nightmare IoT security fail you can imagine
2023-06-01 06:33

The e-tail giant's Ring home security cam subsidiary was accused of "Compromising its customers' privacy by allowing any employee or contractor to access consumers' private videos and by failing to implement basic privacy and security protections, enabling hackers to take control of consumers' accounts, cameras, and videos." The FTC complaint also alleges Ring knew its cloud services were susceptible to credential stuffing and brute-force attacks but did little to stymie such efforts.

Amazon faces $30 million fine over Ring, Alexa privacy violations
2023-05-31 20:44

Amazon will pay $30 million in fines to settle allegations of privacy violations related to the operation of its Ring video doorbell and Alexa virtual assistant services. According to a proposed order, Ring will have to pay $5.8 million in refunds to consumers and will be barred from profiting from unlawfully obtained consumer videos.

How to manage your Alexa voice recordings and privacy
2022-05-05 19:45

How to manage your Alexa voice recordings and privacy. Perhaps you'd like to review those conversations to find mistakes that Alexa has made, rate the accuracy of Alexa's responses or remove any recordings that may be sensitive.

Hacking Alexa through Alexa’s Speech
2022-03-07 12:20

The attack works by using the device's speaker to issue voice commands. As long as the speech contains the device wake word followed by a permissible command, the Echo will carry it out, researchers from Royal Holloway University in London and Italy's University of Catania found.

Amazon Alexa can be hijacked via commands from own speaker
2022-03-03 18:31

Without a critical update, Amazon Alexa devices could wake themselves up and start executing audio commands issued by a remote attacker, according to infosec researchers at Royal Holloway, University of London. Executing the attack requires exploitation of Amazon Alexa Skills.