Amazon's Alexa service suffered an outage on Friday (21.01.2022), leaving homes across the UK and Europe without lighting or heating.
Amazon Alexa has suffered an outage
The virtual assistant device - which works on voice commands - launched a Home Automation system in 2015 allowing users to control power but more than 8000 users were unable to get a response from the device, leaving their homes unheated and unlit and locked.
While Amazon are yet to respond to reports of the issues, a global security insider was unable to rule out a cyber attack on the Alexa as the root cause of the problem.
Reports of the outage surfaced on Twitter around 07:00GMT on Friday, with several users noting that Alexa was "refusing to acknowledge" them and another claiming to be "sitting in a dark house in the cold where the door won't open" as a result of the issue.
Jake Moore, Global Cyber Security Advisor at ESET said: "Although it is difficult to predict whether or not this is a cyberattack on Amazon’s servers, it does pose the question of whether or not we are putting too much emphasis on smart technology in our homes. Cyberattacks are still possible despite the increasingly sophisticated anti-malware technology that exists, and therefore we must never become complacent against the possibility of such a hack which can dramatically effect large numbers of people."
The security expert them went on to claim that by putting "all technological eggs in one basket", the point of failure can cause a "huge impact" on daily lives.
He is quoted by the Daily Express as saying: "Once we put all our eggs into one technological basket, there becomes one simple point of failure that can have a huge impact in a smart home and therefore our daily lives. Using smart devices to control lights, heating and other areas of a home is extremely tempting but it is advised to always know if the backup ‘old fashioned’ switches are still applicable."