Intruder spied on Long Island family via Nest cam, sought personal info from 5-year-old boy

A stranger had been spying on a Long Island family through their Nest cam and he could have gone undetected for months if not for the 5-year-old son telling his mother, writes Rare.

Because of their facial recognition technology, Nest cameras are commonly used as security cameras and home monitoring systems. Which is exactly how Nest was used in this particular case – the mother used it keep an eye on her son.

Since Nest easily connects to cell phones and comes with a microphone and speaker, the boy used it to speak with his dad every day after school.

The mother figured something was wrong when the boy said “it’s not daddy talking to me. It’s not daddy.”

According to the mom, who wishes to remain anonymous, the unsub tried to trick the child into revealing personal information such as how he got home from school, what toys he had and which bus he took. He also tried to convince the child to keep quiet about their conversation. When she went into the boy’s room, the person also addressed her so she immediately called the police.

She also reached out to Nest, but was disappointed by their reaction as they advised her to change her password and configure two-factor authentication. So she has made it her mission to warn families about the risks of keeping unsecured smart devices in their homes.

Following the press coverage of the incident, Nest released a statement saying:

“We have seen instances where a small number of Nest customers have reused passwords that were previously exposed through breaches on other websites, and made public. None of these breaches involved Nest. This exposes these customers to other people using the credentials to log into their Nest account. We are proactively alerting affected customers to reset their passwords and set up two-factor authentication, which adds another layer of account security. Customers can reach out to Nest customer support with questions or report anything suspicious to security@nest.com.”