Family Claims Nest Hacker Hurled Insults, Raised Thermostat
(CBS SF) – After a Bay Area family claimed they were terrorized by someone hacking their Nest camera, an Illinois family says a hacker watched them and spoke to them through their Nest system.
CBS Chicago reports that Arjun and Jessica Sud said the hacker spoke to them and their seven-month-old son through the system in an incident on Sunday. Arjun Sud said the hacker hurled obscenities at them.
"Asking me, you know, why I'm looking at him because he saw obviously that I was looking back and continuing to taunt me," he said.
The Suds also claimed the hacker was also able to adjust their upstairs thermostat to 90 degrees.
Following the incident, the Suds unplugged the cameras, called police and Nest, which is based in Palo Alto.
Arjun Sud raised questions about the company's security, and said he attempted to return his system, which they refused.
"What I'm truly upset about, other than the obvious, is that it seems like the executive leadership at Nest fell asleep at the wheel," Sud said.
Google, Nest's parent company, sent a statement to CBS Chicago, which read, "Nest was not breached. These recent reports are based on customers using compromised passwords (exposed through breaches on other websites). In nearly all cases, two-factor verification eliminates this type of security risk. We take security in the home extremely seriously, and we're actively introducing features that will reject compromised passwords, allow customers to monitor access to their accounts and track external entities that abuse credentials."
Earlier this month, Laura Lyons of Orinda said a hacker sent a warning to her family's Nest camera, claiming that the U.S. was under attack.
"It came on like the emergency sounds of an amber alert," Lyons said. "Then a man's voice announced that North Korea had launched three intercontinental ballistic missiles toward the United States."
After calls to 911 and to Nest, she learned the warning wasn't real and someone had hacked into her Nest camera.
Following that incident, Google also said that hackers did not breach Nest and that someone obtained Lyons' password and hacked into her account.
Google said the company is introducing features that will reject compromised passwords. Nest users are also recommended to enable two-factor authentication to reduce the risk of being hacked.
