Smart-home technology gives residents the ability to remotely control everything from their thermostat to their lighting, and view who is ringing their doorbell. The technology is marketed as a way to keep homes secure. But that was not the case for a couple in Milwaukee after a hacker took over their smart home.
Samantha and Lamont Westmoreland had initially installed a Google Nest system in their home in November 2018. On September 17, Samantha came home and discovered that the thermostat had been turned up to 90 degrees. She thought it was a mistake and reset the thermostat.
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The couple realized something was wrong when the thermostat went back up to a scorching heat. Then, suddenly, a disembodied voice began to talk to her husband through the camera in the kitchen, taking over the in-house video system. It also began playing loud and obscene music throughout the house. Samantha told Fox 6 News:
“My heart was racing. I felt so violated at that point. So I unplugged it and turned it facing the ceiling.”1
After contacting their internet service provider, the Westmorelands changed their network ID. They believe that someone had first hacked into their Wi-Fi and then began using their Nest. Samantha added:
“People need to be educated and know that this is real, and this is happening, and it is super scary, and you don’t realize it until it’s actually happening to you.”1
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The Westmorelands are not the only smart-home owners to be hacked. A Nest camera belonging to a couple from West Barrington, Illinois was hacked in January, and the camera began speaking to their 7-month old son. Arjun Sud told WBBM-TV:
“I was shocked to hear a deep, manly voice talking. My blood ran cold. [He was] asking me, you know, why I’m looking at him — because he saw obviously that I was looking back — and continuing to taunt me.”1
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The hacker flung vulgarities and increased the temperature in the house to 90 degrees. Sud disconnected the cameras and contacted Nest, which advised him to use two-factor authentication when logging in for additional security.
Also in January, a family in California says someone hacked into their Nest camera’s speaker and began warning of an imminent missile strike from North Korea.
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In February, Google released a statement maintaining that those incidents didn’t stem from a system breach but rather customers “using compromised passwords … exposed through breaches on other websites.”1
While there are 14.2 billion smart-home devices in use this year—and 25 billion expected to be in use by 2021. there is no one organization responsible for monitoring or regulating security measures for the numerous devices.1
