The Guardian reveals minimal security when reviewing Skype and Cortana voice recordings from China

In recent months we have witnessed a number of controversies related to voice recordings made when contacting our personal assistants. The cases of Siri, Google Assistant, Alexa or Cortana were in the eye of the hurricane when learning that parent companies had access to user recordings and not precisely by machines.

We had news of all kinds and even the affected companies themselves gave their point of view of the news. Information that is once again the protagonist thanks to the statements of a contractor who had access to these recordings and who has kept an eye on the lack of security surrounding them

From home and via the web

In an interview in the prestigious media outlet The Guardian, the contractor specifically refers to the recordings made with Skype and Cortana and affirms that safety was conspicuous by his absence. These were reviewed by non-Microsoft personnel from Beijing.

Apparently, and according to this contractor, people outside the American company had access to the users' voice recordings . A service to which they had access even from their home and after a start in which they had accessed from an office, they could then have access from their personal computer and without any kind of control.

This person, in charge of monitoring these recordings, told The Guardian that to do so they made use of a web service used to review the recordings , for which he only needed a username and password and without the need to use complementary security methods such as two-factor authentication.Furthermore, it claims that the password was the same for all users.

But the problems related to the lack of security did not end there, as this person hired to analyze the recordings says login details were sent by email via plain text They could therefore be easily intercepted by any cyber attacker.

At the time, Vice echoed the news about listening to recordings by third parties, so much so that Microsoft was quick to change its way of proceeding and affirm in a statement that since over the summer, had changed its review programs for Skype and Cortana recordings and moved this monitoring to secure facilities, all of which are outside of China.

Via | Engadget Font | The Guardian