With the gradual improvement of human and car dialogue capabilities, the security of intelligent voice assistants will inevitably receive the attention of enterprises and consumers. However, some researchers and engineers have said that when intelligent voice assistants like Alexa enter the car, in addition to allowing you to free your hands for convenience, there are also some potential risks, such as vehicles being cracked and Tracking and suffering from sonic attacks, etc.
Amazon's voice virtual assistant Alexa has become the darling of the technology industry and is very popular among consumers. It can tell you jokes, pizza, and the kitchen faucet, so it's not surprising that Alexa begins to "invade" the car.
However, some researchers and engineers have said that when intelligent voice assistants like Alexa enter the car, in addition to allowing you to free your hands for convenience, there are also some potential risks, such as vehicles being cracked and Tracking and suffering from sonic attacks, etc. Depending on how these voice assistants are connected, hackers may carry out a variety of attacks on vehicles, ranging from the pranks of suddenly opening windows to rainy days, and the possibility of burglary by remotely opening doors.
Nadir Izrael, chief technology officer of cyber security agency Armis, said, “Now the devices around us are smarter and more networked, so the possibility of attack is increasing. And the car is one of them."
Last year, Armis discovered a vulnerability called "BlueBorne," which affected billions of connected devices, including Amazon's Echo and Google Home smart speakers, which increased the risk of hacking. In addition, Bluetooth-enabled cars will also become vulnerable due to the existence of this vulnerability.
Unisys Hellbrun, chief marketing officer of Argus Cyber ​​Security, a network security company that has just been acquired by Continental, points out that in the eyes of hackers, attacking cars will bring them huge profits. “This kind of high-speed mobile private transportation is a necessity for your daily commute, and it costs a lot of money to buy a car. If a hacker implants malware in your car, then you are willing to spend it,†he said. How many bitcoins are used to exchange security?"
Why did Alexa become the darling of the automotive technology circle overnight?
Many car navigation systems now recognize the driver's voice, although not perfect, but basically have voice recognition. After connecting your phone to the car entertainment information system, you can actually use the Apple Siri or Google Assistant to achieve in-vehicle voice control.
However, with the connection method of mobile phone mapping, the voice control function that consumers can enjoy is very limited. For example, you can't start the car remotely or open the window. Siri can't even achieve the most basic switching radio channels. But Alexa is completely different from products like Siri. With detailed pre-programming commands, it can interact with tens of thousands of networked devices to turn on lights, unlock, disable home security systems, and even schedule a whole year of toilet paper. It has now connected home and car almost perfectly.
Whether it is a traditional car manufacturer like BMW, Ford, Hyundai, Nissan, or a startup like Beit, they are all eyeing the potential of Alexa. Although some new models of Mercedes-Benz and Toyota have begun to carry the Alexa-based intelligent voice assistant function, Alexa's vehicle control skills are unidirectional, that is, they can only control the car at home, and they need to use the model official. Smartphone applications can only be implemented.
Denise Barfuss, senior manager of Nissan's Internet Services, said: "Alexa is the carrier of our smart applications. Especially in the cold winter, you can start the vehicle remotely at home via Alexa and turn on the air conditioner for heating." Of course, you can also let Alexa control the car to flash or whistle through some simple instructions, but if you want to issue a command to change the state of the vehicle, such as locking the door or opening the engine, you need to use the voice to report the PIN code of the vehicle. Row.
Although convenient but not safe
Although both Alexa and Google Assistant recognize different sounds, for example, they can remember the sound characteristics of family members and the music listening preferences of each person, they currently do not provide any form of biometric security features, such as voiceprint analysis. In this way, Alexa's speech recognition technology is not safe. Imagine if anyone can get the PIN code of the vehicle, they can drive away, and the victim can only stay in the same place, "Alexa, my car?!"
However, according to an official spokesperson of Amazon, there are several special teams within Amazon who are focusing on software review and upgrade, so it is not ruled out that Alexa has the possibility of higher security in the future.
In addition, cyber security experts are also concerned that voice assistants may expose cars to more complex cyber attacks.
Gang Wang, an associate professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, said: "The means of these attacks can be some aggregated sound clips. These sounds may sound just noise in humans, but it may be a clear message for the machine. The instructions. So an explosion of video clips played on nearby TVs or tablets may still contain a lot of secret information in it."
Other attacks include ultrasound attacks, which humans cannot hear, but machines can. And even if Alexa has biometric capabilities, hackers can still record the owner's voice and then use machine learning algorithms to synthesize a new voice command to fool the vehicle.
Also, when smart voice assistants are used for car-home interconnection, their security is even more challenging. For example, when you are driving on a highway, you can remotely open the garage door in your home or turn off the lights in the living room. At present, Ford has provided such an interconnection function with the "Ford+Alexa App", which allows drivers to use approximately 25,000 Alexa skills through the Sync 3 car system. At the same time, in order to avoid misuse, Ford also added the option to start Alexa by pressing the button.
This can effectively prevent the children in the back row from giving orders to Alexa. Ford’s director of connected cars and services, Muluel Platanelli, said, “The owner can turn off the voice-activated Alexa function when needed, and Alexa will only start when a button on the steering wheel is pressed. ".
Ford's approach also limits the control of the vehicle by car thieves and parking administrators. The person who steals the car can't open the door of your home in the car, because this operation requires your smartphone app to work together, unless he steals it with your phone.
Be a smart voice assistant who knows how to be "mute and dumb"
Adding a language assistant to a vehicle seems like turning the car into another Internet of Things (IoT) device, but its practical significance is far more than that. Wang Gang said: "The vehicle has also added the function of real-time positioning. You can always check where your car went when."
Of course, if it is broken, Alexa can let criminals know a lot of your information, such as purchase records, driving habits and historical driving routes. Moreover, in order to be able to connect with other smart devices, Alexa will also scan other compatible devices. The CEO of the security agency Avira pointed out that all of this information will be sent to Amazon's servers and shared with other companies. This sharing of information increases the probability that the vehicle system will be attacked.
But in any case, the convenience of the digital assistant in the car may make it a must-have feature for future cars. Nuance, a well-known speech recognition technology company, has collaborated with a number of automakers who are currently developing voice operating systems for automobiles. Eric Montagu, senior director of product marketing and strategy at the company, said the company plans to launch a system this year. What makes it special is that drivers don’t need to wake up hot words or press any buttons to enable voice assistants. Features.
In the end, our car will understand when you are talking to it, and when it should be dumb. Martin Humphries, vice president of NXP, a Dutch semiconductor supplier, said: "With the gradual improvement of human-to-car dialogue capabilities, the security of intelligent voice assistants will continue to receive the attention of enterprises and consumers."
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