Unbeknownst to the CEO of a company who was interviewed on TV last year, a hacking group that was trailing the CEO taped the interview and then taught a computer to perfectly imitate the CEO's voice -- so it could then give credible instructions for a wire transfer of funds to a third party. This "voice phishing" hack brought to light the growing abilities of artificial intelligence-based technologies to perpetuate cyber-attacks and cyber-crime. Using new AI-based software, hackers have imitated the voices of a number of senior company officials around the world and thereby given out instructions to perform transactions for them, such as money transfers. The software can learn how to perfectly imitate a voice after just 20 minutes of listening to it and can then speak with that voice and say things that the hacker types into the software. Get The Start-Up Israel's Daily Start-Up by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up Some of these attempts were foiled, but other hackers were successful in getting their hands on money.

That shiny new smart light bulb that can be turned on and off with Alexa and change colors with the Google Assistant could be vulnerable to a hack. Security researchers from Check Point tested the Philips Hue models, the most popular smart lights brand, and says it successfully hacked into a home's computer network. It went to Philips to show its findings and says Philips has now fixed the issue, but Yaniv Balmas, Head of Cyber Research at Check Point Research says consumers of off-brand lights may not be as lucky. Amazon lists many brands in its smart light offerings, including Philips, Wyze, Teckin and Berennis. Oh no:Amazon's Ring security shares your personal data with Facebook and Google, report says Balmas warns that the same protocol flaw found in the Hue bulbs is also used by other popular devices, including the Amazon Echo speakers and Belkin's WEMO.