Check Point had reported the vulnerability to Amazon and the company has already fixed the bug. (Express Photo: Nandagopal Rajan)Amazon Alexa had a critical flaw could have let hackers remove or install skills, access voice history and personal data. The flaw was first detected by cybersecurity firm CheckPoint. The company states that there was a critical flaw in Alexa’s subdomains, which required a single click on a malicious link and voice interaction by the victim.
According to the report, a number of Alexa subdomains could be exploited by hackers, using which they could send a malicious link to unsuspecting users. Once the user was to click on the malicious link that appeared to be sent by Amazon, the hacker would gain access to the victim’s voice history, the ability to install skills on a user’s Alexa account, view the entire skill list and remove any skills.
Amazon does not store any sensitive financial information. However, personal data like home addresses, usernames, phone numbers and more are save in the directory and could have been accessed by hackers.
CheckPoint had reported the vulnerability to Amazon and the company has already fixed the flaw. This means that any Alexa user can keep on using their devices without worrying about their data getting compromised.
Even though this flaw is fixed, there is no guarantee of hackers not finding another way to gain access to your personal data and voice recordings on Alexa.
To be safe, you can delete your voice recordings from time to time. To do so follow the steps given below:
Delete using Echo app
* Open the Echo app and head over to the Settings panel.
* Open the Alexa Privacy tab and tap on the ‘Review Voice History’ tab.
* Choose the ‘All History’ option and tap on the ‘Delete All Recordings’ button.
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Delete using a web browser
* Head over to amazon.com/myx.
* At the website, sign in using your Amazon account connected with Alexa.
* Click on the Your Devices option.
* Select the Echo device you want to delete the recordings for.
* Click the ‘Delete Voice Recordings’ button.
* Confirm the deletion.
Delete using Echo smart speaker
* Turn on your smart speaker using the wake word.
* Now ask it to “delete everything you’ve said today” or “delete everything you’ve ever said”
* These commands will take care of all the voice recordings and transcripts.
* It will also delete Alexa’s responses to those queries.
* Keep in mind, using this method will still leave traces of those transcripts in Amazon’s servers, so using the above two methods is a better option.