Vanhoef’s team found that an adversary could trick a victim device into reinitializing the pair-wise key used in the current session (this is not the Wi-Fi password) by crafting and replaying cryptographic handshake messages. As described in their paper, KRACK attacks were mostly aimed against the four-way handshake – a mechanism used for two purposes: confirming that both the client and access point possess the correct credentials, and negotiation of the key used for encryption of the traffic. They had found serious weaknesses in the WPA2 standard, a protocol that at that time was securing virtually all modern Wi-Fi networks. In 2017, two Belgian researchers, Mathy Vanhoef and Frank Piessens, made a surprising announcement. This was also the case for at least one generation of the widely used Amazon Kindle e-readers.Īll identified flaws were reported to – and subsequently patched by – Amazon’s security team. Despite the efforts of some vendors to develop these devices with security in mind, ESET Smart Home Research Team discovered that even the popular Amazon Echo – the original hardware of Amazon Alexa – was open to Key Reinstallation Attack (KRACK) vulnerabilities.
In recent years, hundreds of millions of homes have become “smarter” and internet-enabled using one of the popular home assistant devices. These are my favorite features to disable on Alexa-enabled devices, but what are yours? Share some of your picks in the comments, or let me know why you think mine are wrong.ESET Smart Home Research Team uncovers Echo, Kindle versions vulnerable to 2017 Wi-Fi vulnerabilities From here, switch on Brief Mode (and also the useful Whisper Mode, if you so choose).
To turn on Brief Mode, open the Alexa app, tap More > Settings > Voice Responses. It's one of my personal favorite features, because Alexa's parroting quickly gets on my nerves when I'm playing music (and I usually can tell it misinterpreted my command immediately, without hearing the voice confirm that). OK, this isn't technically turning off a feature, but in effect, Brief Mode "turns off" Alexa parroting your questions and commands back to you. Read more: Echo Show 15: A look at Amazon's giant wall-mounted Alexa display Turn on Brief Mode on your Amazon Echo To disable your camera, simply use the physical toggle on each Echo Show device.
Hacking laptop cameras and other webcams is a notorious method of spying on people - one used by governments and individual hackers alike - and keeping your camera disabled is a simple way to protect yourself. If you use an Echo Show ( $150 at Amazon) device, make sure your camera is disabled or covered when you aren't using it. This is a really simple one, but it's easy to forget. From here, you can choose the data type you want to access and then toggle each skill on or off.Īlexa is all over your house, but that doesn't mean you can't have privacy. To control these permissions, tap More > Settings > Alexa Privacy > Manage Skill Permissions.
ALEXA HANDSHAKER 4 HOW TO
Read more: Amazon, Apple and Google are always listening: How to opt out and delete your voice recordings While you're turning off this feature, you might also consider setting your voice recordings to automatically delete after three months, an option you can find on the same page as Use of Voice Recordings. Next, scroll down to Help Improve Alexa, and switch the Use of Voice Recordings to off. From here, select Choose How Long to Save Recordings > Don't Save Recordings > Confirm. In the Alexa app, go to Settings > Alexa Privacy > Manage Your Alexa Data. Whether, like me, you're uncomfortable with the data-gathering potential of such a feature, or you don't like the idea of a real person listening in on your daily interactions with ( or potentially just in proximity to) your Echo device, turning this feature off is probably the best move. Simply say, "Disable Hunches." Prevent Amazon from listening to your voice recordingsįrustratingly, Amazon still seems by default to opt users into its program using voice recordings for research purposes. You can turn off Hunches using this method in the Alexa app, or by voice. To switch off Hunches, open the Alexa app and tap More, then Settings, then Hunches. Sometimes these suggestions are helpful, for instance offering to lock your door at night or suggesting a new way to use timers, but they can also be annoying and disruptive when you're in the middle of a phone call and don't want to have to tell your voice assistant to stop talking. Over the past two years, Amazon has very slowly been ramping up the use of Hunches, those follow-up questions Alexa asks you after you interact. Not so nice to have that friend "drop in" on you unexpectedly when you're still in your pajamas. It's nice to virtually share a cup of coffee with a friend.