Researchers say smart speakers are vulnerable to security threats

Instead of talking to a voice assistant to get it to do what you want, shining a laser pointer or flashlight at the speaker’s microphone, or other voice-assisted devices, can give one control of the gadget.

According to the researchers at the University of Michigan and Japan's University of Electro-Communications, any individual as far as 100 metres outside a house can perform this act.

As long as there is direct sight of the smart device and some personal motivation any gadget can be hijacked.

The researchers said that they were able to shine a laser that had a ‘light command’ such as “OK Google, open the garage door,” encoded in it.

When the light beam hits the microphone it caused it to vibrate in the same way it would if someone had spoken that command.

The light commands enable the attacker to highjack any digital smart system attached to the voice-controlled assistant, and do anything from playing music, opening doors or buying items on the internet.

The method was successfully tested on a range of products such as Google Home, Facebook's Portal Mini, the iPhone XR and the sixth-generation iPad, among others.

This could be a concern for consumers as well companies. It was reported that voice-assisted smart speaker sales ballooned in the past five years. Over 26 million smart speakers were exported in the second quarter, according to data from technology market researcher Canalys.

Smart speakers are highly vulnerable as most consumers place them in open sight like kitchen counters while playing music, this makes them easy targets.

Although the security issue has not been taken advantage of, the only way to be safe is to make sure your speaker cannot be seen by anyone outside the house.

Researchers also noted that the weakness can only be fixed by redesigning the microphone.

Meanwhile, Spotify is giving away Google Home Mini speakers to its Premium subscribers.