Turning an Amazon Echo Into a Spy Device Only Took Some Clever Coding

It's important not to overstate the security risks of the Amazon Echo and other so-called smart speakers. They're useful, fun, and generally have well thought-out privacy protections. Then again, putting a mic in your home naturally invites questions over whether it can be used for eavesdropping--which is why researchers at the security firm Checkmarx started fiddling with Alexa, to see if they could turn it into a spy device. They did, with no intensive meddling required. The attack, which Amazon has since fixed, follows the intended flow of using and programming an Echo.