Wiretap Nation; The Amazon Echo
You think I bought this?
Absolutely not.
Photo by Fabian Hurnaus from Pexels
I won it at Cisco Live.
Did I feel like a sellout accepting it?
Absolutely.
But it’s free technology.
Do I like it?
It doesn’t like the 5 GHz Band on channel 36 either @alexa99
Imagine not being tech savvy and trying to set this up! But they just throw it on their main network and call it a day.
Want a bit of security and this is how we’re penalized 🙃 https://t.co/vHba0pg6tU
- Morgan Lucas, technical writer (@runtcpip) June 27, 2020
If you haven’t been able to tell so far, I’m not fond of it.
Just because it was free doesn’t mean I won’t be honest.
Doesn’t Play Well (or At All) on Segmented Networks
The surprising bit was when I attempted to make another network. I have an old router I attached to the working one, a completely separate network for the smart speaker to sit upon from other devices.
The network works, but — And this will not shock you — This device is hellbent on listening to every bit of network data that passes by, and so —
- It refuses to connect to segmented networks.
- It refuses to connect to guest networks.
- It really wants to be on my main network.
I’m not Amazon’s biggest fan, and this wiretap’s insistence on wanting to be on my main network makes me want to pack it up and resell it. There are other reasons to practice good network segmentation — Documentation.
To be fair; The NetGear router I’ve attached to make a separate network is trying to advertise about 3 different networks;
- 70KCUS-NET [fake name] (2.5Ghz)
I can stop the Guest, but for some reason, the other two keep going, and it might confuse the device.
I found a decommissioned AT&T router I had. The wireless option was disabled, so I went into the settings to turn it on— And it still wouldn’t connect!
However, Alexa would connect to my extender. So, provided I simply have nothing else on it, can it sniff my other traffic? Turns out, sniffing Alexa traffic is yet another Herculean effort by the House of Bezos. Yes — I have sniffed traffic before — Even a Foxconn part in my Nintendo Switch.
SETUP: If you want any kind of security, such as having it on a segmented network, it’s a pain in the ass. Well done, Amazon!
I turned the microphone off, and have simply never spoken around it. It probably would hear it and note my voice anyway, just…not respond.
(EDIT: I occasionally ask it to set a timer.)
Sound
I chose the Smooth Jazz channel in the music section. I believe it’s a sampling, as I don’t have whatever Amazon-branded Music Service is out there.
It played some top 40 Smooth Jazz hits of all time. Songbird by Kenny G. A bit of Sade.
Legends? Yes. However, might I introduce you to ConjureOne and 3rd Force?
For instrumentals, it’s nice. Spoken word (podcasts) — Be mindful of where you place it. For a podcast where people have deeper, more resonant voices, it sounded like there was a bit too much bass behind them until I moved it away from a bottle of water. Now it’s reasonably clear.
Upbeat music sounds … awesome! It doesn’t encourage the backing track to overpower the song.
It sounds great either way. But for a bit less money and far less snooping, in 2013, with money from my first job as a mobile phone technician, I bought my father a Bose Bluetooth Speaker for about 90$.
7 Years later, besides a minor instance of crossing frequencies, it still works flawlessly.
I wanted to set an alarm on it, and the options are different. I can have a Hotel Transylvania character yell at me. Finn Shepard can warn me about a Sharknado. There are many calmer options, like Glimmer. Some of these also seem like default iPhone stock alarms.
Alarms and Reminders can be set through the app, though timers cannot be without speaking to the device. Reminders do help, by repeating the text twice with a musical ping. I found the App pretty pointless for my needs.
You can’t use the ‘Skills’ (The Alexa’s version of apps) on the app, you have to speak it. There are exceptions, like the pairing with Spotify, but you have to open that app and cast the sound to the device.
It felt odd to not use the main feature. I remembered a workaround — let someone else do the talking for me. That way, Alexa recognizes a voice, I record it, and there is a video to show you right over here.
Alexa sits quietly, unplugged and muted, except when I absolutely must listen to a podcast on it. I’m sure there’s black-market software to permanently mute the microphone and cut the connection to Amazon’s servers using whatever AWS has to parse human speech.
Overall, the main reason I’m not discounting IoT devices is for one reason:
It helps people. If you can tell Alexa to turn on the floor lights, that’s you not bending on your bad knees. Someone doesn’t have to squint at a clock to guess the time.
If you get one, just to think these things are neat, sure! Take the proper precautions to secure them…if the vendor cooperates.
Originally published at https://www.runtcpip.com on July 8, 2020.
