Posted on 01/31/2019 2:50:14 PM PST by Responsibility2nd
An Illinois couple said a hacker spoke to their baby through one of their Nest security cameras and then later hurled obscenities at them, CBS station WBBM-TV reports. Arjun Sud told the station he was outside his 7-month-old son's room Sunday outside Chicago and he heard someone talking.
~snip~
The voice was coming from another of the many Nest cameras throughout the couple's Lake Barrington house. "Asking me, you know, why I'm looking at him — because he saw obviously that I was looking back — and continuing to taunt me," Sud said.
The hacker hurled obscenities at them, including the N-word, Sud said. "It was terrifying," his wife Jessica Sud told WBBM-TV.
Later that night, Arjun Sud noticed the Nest thermostat they have upstairs had been raised to 90 degrees. He suspected the hacker was behind that too.
"And then they messed with our thermostat?" Jessica Sud asked. "Who does that?"
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
Hacker Uses Nest Camera to Broadcast Hoax Nuke Alert
security week ^ | 1/23/2019 | AFP
“5 minutes of sheer terror”: Hackers infiltrate East Bay family’s Nest surveillance camera (tr)
Mercury News ^ | 1/21/2019 | Matthia Gafni
Or Alexa.
Or anything that can hear or see or take commands from me.
Open the pod bay doors, Alexa.
Another hacked baby monitor.
Reports on this incident have emphasized that Nest security wasn’t compromised. This Nest owner had an insecure password that he used at multiple sites - the hackers used that insecure password retrieved elsewhere to access his in-house equipment.
Newsflash: if you’re using IP-connected devices that you can access from outside the home, chances are others can access it from outside your home, too. Especially if you haven’t changed the default passwords (or the manufacturer hasn’t left active backdoor passwords enabled).
I have been working in technology for nearly 30 years, and it only makes me leery of having any of this IOT stuff in my house. My TV has to be connected to the internets if I want to use the smart apps, but it doesn’t have a camera.
I wonder if they had default passwords.
Yep. How many FReepers use a simple, common password? Then, they’ve got your name and email address, at the least.
If you say that to alexa she’ll joke about it and call you “Dave”. At least she’s hip.
Your smartphone has a microphone on it and so do a lot of remote control devices for TV’s, DVR’s, and etc.
I keep my old android (I don’t know how smart it is. I do know they don’t make this brand anymore) in my handbag when not in use. I’ve never used the microphone option. I always use my landline when I’m home.
I haven’t purchased a new TV in at least 7 years so I don’t think there is a microphone in the remote.
You may have read about Samsung or other TV brands listening in to owners conversations.
IOIT
Internet Of Invasive Things
Chicago? Was the hacker wearing a MAGA hat and carrying a bottle of bleach?
Yes, I have.
In fact, I suspect that all Android devices are constant listening. Was discussing something reasonably obscure with a friend the other night, picked up the phone to search up something on the subject, and before I even finished typing the first search word, the first result was exactly what I was looking for (and it wasn’t something I’ve ever searched for before).
But they can’t see me through it, or control anything in my home with it, and disabling it would require killing its network connection, so I’ll let it be.
Smart devices: maybe a wee bit too smart.
Or perhaps lock your network down and use access restricted technology.
In other words, it was compromised.
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