Nest Hack Leaves Homeowner Sleepless in Chicago

A deep voice in a baby's room and a thermostat set to a tropical temperature were the first signs a Chicago-area homeowner had that there were problems with the home's IoT devices. When the voice followed the family into the living room, "… my blood truthfully ran cold…" the man reported.

The family's two Nest thermostats and 16 Nest cameras had been hacked by unknown threat actors. According to Google, the breach occurred because of duplicated passwords stolen from other online sites. The homeowner told a local television station that the family wasn't aware that two-factor authentication was a possibility for a Nest account. He says that the family hasn't slept well in the days since the breach and now wants to return the smart thermostats and cameras, and be reimbursed.

According to a Google statement provided to the television station reporting the breach, "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."

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