An incredible and terrifying incident happened to a couple in the US when a hacker managed to compromise their “smart home” systems. The perpetrator allegedly began talking to the homeowners through the camera, playing music on the living room sound system and even raising the thermostat above 32 degrees Celsius.
According to Fox 6 News, the incident happened to a couple from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Samantha and Lamont Westmoreland, realized something was wrong in their home when they started hearing a voice coming from a camera in the kitchen.
The couple had installed a Google Nest (camera, doorbell, and thermostat) in their home in 2018.
On September 17, Samantha returned home to find the thermostat set to 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius). When she turned it down, the temperature started to rise again, and a voice addressed to the couple was heard from a camera in the kitchen. Later, the hacker started playing music from the living room sound system.
Changing the passwords didn't help. The couple later spoke to internet and changed the network.
The Westmorelands had spent a whopping $700 on the Google Nest system they installed in their home. The system offers a thermostat, cameras, doorbell, alarm system, locks, and smoke alarm.
But the Milwaukee couple aren't the only ones to be hacked in their own home. In January, a hacker took control of an Illinois couple's Google Nest camera and began talking to their child.
A family in California also had a similar experience when someone used their speaker to warn them of an impending missile from North Korea.
A Google spokesperson told FOX6 News: “Nest was not breached. These reports are based on customers using compromised passwords (exposed through breaches on other websites). In most cases, 2-factor authentication would resolve the issue.”
With 75 billion Internet of Things (IoT) devices expected to be in use by 2025, cybersecurity concerns are set to skyrocket as more and more smart homes are created.
