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Researchers show no IoT device is too small to fall victim to ransomware techniques. There's no question that ransomware has become one of the most feared (and loathed) cybersecurity attack types. The idea of your critical data sitting on your hard drives yet inaccessible is, frankly, terrifying. And a new study shows it could get much, much worse. You know that cup of coffee that's pretty much the only thing that can get you out of bed most mornings? Well, some eye-opening ransomware research came out with the announcement of a proof-of-concept ransomware attack on a coffee maker. Losing access...

Apple's Siri is supporting the Black Lives Matter movement by providing users who say 'All Lives Matter' with a link to learn more about human rights initiative. When speaking the phrase to Siri, it will respond, 'All Lives Matter' is often used in response to phrase 'Black Lives Matter,' but it does not represent the same concerns,' and then the technology prompts users to visit BlackLivesMatter.com.

Have you ever wondered how often your smart speaker accidentally activates itself? A study from Northeastern University tried to find out.No one likes it when a stranger butts into their conversation.Especially when they interrupt with some astonishing non-sequitur.You're watching TV and chatting about the painfully demanding couple on House Hunters International when a distant voice pipes up: "The circumference of the Earth is 24,901 miles."MORE AT LINK It's Apple's Siri, of course. Or Amazon's Alexa. Or whatever you call your Google Home person.I suspect you pass off these apparent accidents as merely one of those things. Yet, as a new...

Those laser pointer lights could hack into your smart home voice assistant. University researchers say they were able to hack Alexa, Google Home, Siri and Facebook Portal by shining lasers at them. The light can trick microphones and make the devices react as if they are receiving audio. The study found light commands can be sent from 360 feet away, from one building to another. The light can also penetrate glass, affecting a device that is left near a window. In one case, a garage door was opened using a laser light. Researchers also say they can use light commands...

Sylvia Galva Crespo, 32, was killed by a spear to the chest at home in Hallandale Beach, Florida, north of Miami, in July, which her husband, Adam Crespo, 43, has portrayed as a mysterious accident. But police believe the Amazon Echo smart speaker devices in the home, known as Alexa because of the common “wake” word used to activate them, may have heard and recorded something relevant during the fatal altercation when the couple argued after a night out, the Sun Sentinel reported. Adam Crespo is charged with second-degree murder. When police were called to the home in July they...

Nike on Thursday announced Adapt Huarache shoes. They’re a redesign of the original Nike Huarache launched in 1991 and use FitAdapt self-lacing technology similar to the Nike Adapt BB shoes that were announced in January. The Adapt Huaraches work with the Apple Watch and Siri, so you can ask Siri to control a motor inside to lace or unlace the shoes. With support for Apple’s Siri shortcuts, users can talk to an Apple Watch or an iPhone and say a phrase like “Siri, release my shoes” to remove them. The Adapt Huaraches also support different presets for fit styles. You...

First Amazon, then Google, and now Apple have all confirmed that their devices are not only listening to you, but complete strangers may be reviewing the recordings. Thanks to Siri, Apple contractors routinely catch intimate snippets of users’ private lives like drug deals, doctor’s visits, and sexual escapades as part of their quality control duties, the Guardian reported Friday. As part of its effort to improve the voice assistant, “[a] small portion of Siri requests are analysed to improve Siri and dictation,” Apple told the Guardian. That involves sending these recordings sans Apple IDs to its international team of contractors...

NEW YORK (AP) — Are the female voices behind Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa amplifying gender bias around the world? The United Nations thinks so. A report released Wednesday by the UN's culture and science organization raises concerns about what it describes as the "hardwired subservience" built into default female-voiced assistants operated by Apple, Amazon, Google and Microsoft. The report is called "I'd Blush If I Could." It's a reference to an answer Apple's Siri gives after hearing sexist insults from users. It says it's a problem that millions of people are getting accustomed to commanding female-voiced assistants that are...

“Today following its event at the Steve Jobs Theater, Apple released the latest major update for iPhones and iPads: iOS 12.2,” Ryan Christoffel reports for MacStories. “This version of iOS launches Apple’s just-debuted subscription service for News, includes support for AirPlay 2 and HomeKit on compatible TVs and streaming hardware, plus it brings four new Animoji, and more.” “Coinciding with the announcement of Apple’s grand TV plans, iOS 12.2 brings key system support for AirPlay 2 on compatible hardware – including streaming devices like the Apple TV and the newest TV sets from Samsung, LG, Sony, and Vizio,” Christoffel reports....

Full Title: Two boys, 13 and 14, arrested after one of them tells Siri he wants to 'shoot up a school' and posts virtual assistant's response recommending several local schools on social media as a 'joke' Two Indiana boys are in custody after a 13-year-old told Siri that he was going to shoot up a school and then posted the virtual assistant's reply on social media. The Valparaiso Police Department said Thursday night that the incident started when a boy, 13, who is not being named, told Apple's virtual assistant: 'I am going to shoot up a school.' Siri then...

Facebook employees have been caught leaving glowing reviews on Amazon for Facebook's new video-chat device. Facebook released the Portal, a video-chat and smart-speaker device, in October. It's the first hardware product built and sold under the Facebook brand. The new gadget has already faced some hardship, as Facebook acknowledged that it could collect data about its owners to help the company target ads at people.

When Siri first hit the scene in 2011 — as the flagship feature on the iPhone 4s, no less — it was a novel piece of software to say the least. The early version of Siri wasn’t terribly powerful, but it was able to answer relatively basic queries and handle rather simple tasks such as setting reminders. In subsequent updates, Siri became much more powerful, even adding contextual awareness along the way. Equally as important, Siri’s ability to parse and understand language improved by leaps and bounds as well. SNIP According to HotHardware, engineers at Cornell decided to stack a...

Did you hear that? You might not have, but Alexa did. Voice assistants have been successfully hijacked using sounds above the range of human hearing. Once in, hackers were able to make phone calls, post on social media and disconnect wireless services, among other things. Assistants falling for the ploy included Amazon Alexa, Apple’s Siri, Google Now, Samsung S Voice, Microsoft Cortana and Huawei HiVoice, as well as some voice control systems used in cars. The hack was created by Guoming Zhang, Chen Yan and their team at Zhejiang University in China. Using ultrasound, an inaudible command can be used...

Invoke Siri and say this phrase, very exactly, clearly and slowly: "I see a little silhouette of a man". . . See what Siri says in return. . .

Metropolitan Police in London have released a clip of a 999 call from a four-year-old boy who saved his mum’s life to remind parents the importance of teaching young children their address and how to use 999 in an emergency. The young boy called 999 from his mum’s mobile phone on Tuesday, 7 March and was put through to a police call handler.After the call handler asked him where his mummy was, the boy responded that he thought she was dead because “she’s closing her eyes and she’s not breathing.”Remaining calm, the call handler managed to keep the boy talking...

ANY sufficiently advanced technology, noted Arthur C. Clarke, a British science-fiction writer, is indistinguishable from magic. The fast-emerging technology of voice computing proves his point. Using it is just like casting a spell: say a few words into the air, and a nearby device can grant your wish. The Amazon Echo, a voice-driven cylindrical computer that sits on a table top and answers to the name Alexa, can call up music tracks and radio stations, tell jokes, answer trivia questions and control smart appliances; even before Christmas it was already resident in about 4% of American households. Voice assistants are...

Ilya Eckstein, CEO of Robin Labs, whose platform helps drivers find the best route and handle logistics said: 'People want to flirt, they want to dream about a subservient girlfriend, or even a sexual slave. 'It may just be more for laughs, or something deeper underneath the surface.' ... Eckstein says that around five per cent of interactions in his firm's database are sexually explicit, and numbers are growing. Deborah Harrison, a writer for Microsoft's personal assistant, Cortana, added that 'a good chunk of the volume of early-on inquiries' were into Cortana's sex life. ... Eckstein told The Times: 'This...

Well, that was quick.Earlier on Tuesday, reports surfaced saying that a bug in what appeared to be iOS 9 would have allowed hackers to access an iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus owner’s contacts and photos. But that has issue has since been fixed.When users now try to use the hack published recently on YouTube, they’ll find that Apple’s virtual personal assistant Siri now asks them to unlock their device first. Previously, Siri would allow access to a person’s contacts and photos after users exploited a flaw in the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus.As part of the latest fix,...

'People speak to machines differently than how they speak to people,' says language technology expert Alan Black. It was a simple enough question, at least in this part of the world. "How can we mosey on down to the rodeo?" my friend Ben Crook drawled, sat in a rocking chair on his front porch, a can of Lone Star beer in his left hand on a humid night in Houston. Only one thing jarred with this otherwise stereotypical Texas scene: Crook was asking Siri, the voice-activated digital personal assistant on his iPhone, rather than, say, a passing sheriff on horseback...

Cortana is good, but is it a Siri killer? Move over Siri, here comes something different. For the first time since its launch in April 2014, Cortana, Microsoft's voice-activated assistant, is now available on smartphones other than Windows devices. A surprise move that speaks volumes about Microsoft's newfound flexibility and willingness to abandon convention, the Cortana app works quite well on Apple's iPhone. But a Siri replacement it is not. Instead, Cortana makes it clear that there's room for two voices on the iPhone. There are some key differences between Siri and Cortana. Both can fetch web-sourceable information like weather...