Google Introducing Features to Protect Nest Accounts After 3rd-Party Hack

“Nest was not breached,” a spokesperson emailed us, after reports by a customer in Orinda, California, that a Nest security camera blasted a warning claiming to be from Civil Defense of ballistic missiles headed to three U.S. cities. The third-party hack was the result of a compromised password exposed through “breaches on other websites,” the Google spokeswoman said. In December, a Houston family reportedly heard a stranger’s voice over a baby monitor saying sexual expletives through a Nest security camera and then threatening to kidnap the child. “In nearly all cases, two-factor verification eliminates this type of security risk,” the spokeswoman said: Google takes security in the home “extremely serious 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.”