Hackers find a way to whisper in Alexa’s ear

ALEXA, Amazon’s voice-activated virtual assistant, is susceptible to hacking, using commands inaudible to humans, scientists have found.

They have developed a technique where silent commands will be obeyed. The technique allowed them to make calls and open websites.

With the popularity of “smart” home devices, it could be used to unlock doors, wire money or buy goods online. The commands could be given to Google, Amazon’s Echo or Apple’s Siri-powered Home-pod by someone outside the user’s home, hidden in music or white noise.

An Amazon spokesman said: “We have taken measures to make Echo secure. These include disallowing third party application installation on the device, rigorous security reviews, secure software development requirements and encryption of communication between Echo, the Alexa App and Amazon servers.”