Can Google Nest Or Google Home Be Hacked? How To Prevent It 2024

Though Using Google Nest or Google Home makes our life easier the important question remains Can Google Nest or Google Home be Hacked?

Our household’s use of technological products has grown over time. Allowing these tech devices to be controlled over the internet via a server also makes them more vulnerable to hacking.

Because if you are careless, then any tech products under your control can be hacked, and the security of your tech products can be easily compromised. As a result, it is always advisable to take all necessary precautions to prevent a hack on your devices.

Even though our lives have been made easier by smart technology, some criminals have found new ways to access our private information and even our bank accounts.

As a smart device, Google Home has a powerful voice-activated assistant that enables you to do things like turn on a light or read your emails.

Can Google Nest or Google Home be Hacked? How To Prevent It

Since its launch in 2012, Google’s Nest has grown to be a household name and a major player in the smart home technology market. Smart screens, smart speakers, streaming devices, thermostats, smoke detectors, routers, and security systems such as Google Nest are some of the goods marketed by Google LLC under the Google Nest brand.

As a result, Google’s Nest places a high priority on the well-being and security of smart home customers. Because of this, users who use Nest products are likely to question if Google Nest is easily hackable.

Can Google Home or Google Nest Be Hacked?

Google Nest gadgets and Google Home, are vulnerable to hacking. Hackers can acquire access to your Google Home by, among other things, hacking your Wi-Fi router or installing suspicious third-party software on your device. There are, therefore, a bunch of options you may take to safeguard yourself against danger.

You can always safeguard yourself by following the normal safety standards that I am going to discuss next.

How To Prevent Google Home or Google Nest Be Hacked?

There are various ways in which your Google Home can be hacked and let me discuss those methods through which it can be hacked and how you can prevent it from being hacked.

1. Via Hacking WiFi And Preventing it Being Hacked

The first method through which your Google Nest can be hacked is using the very unsecured password or no password for your home WiFi network.

Hacked Google Home devices are most typically obtained through hijacking the Wi-Fi network. In this case, practically all consumer Wi-Fi routers use the Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) protocol.

How To Prevent Google Home or Google Nest Be Hacked

For easy connection and communication, the UPnP protocol allows for quick identification of devices and services. LANs, it is commonly used to connect devices.

You might wonder why the heck we are still using it? UPnP was designed to work within a secure network, not over the internet. Because of this, manufacturers have little motivation to solve the problem.

Prevent it By Disabling UPnP

Everything isn’t completely out of the woods, though. In the advanced settings of your WiFi router, you may turn off the UPnP service. Please contact your Internet Service Provider if you are unsure of how to accomplish this. After uninstalling UPnP, be sure to reset your Google Home device to its default settings.

Then, using the Google Home program, add the device once more. Not all routers, however, can deactivate UDP. If you find yourself in this situation, it is recommended that you update your router. Routers made by virtually all major manufacturers have been recognized as being extremely sensitive to this exploitation approach.

In the case of Google WiFi, however, it was not included on the list. Consequently, if you are considering switching routers, Google Wi-Fi may be a very excellent option because Google is likely to patch the security flaw.

2. Using Third Party Application To Access Google Nest or Google Home

Most of the time you will not think twice to download an application from a play store that offers you more features with your Google Home or Nest devices. If these applications are not developed by Google then you might be at a risk.

Previously, Security Research Labs researchers tried to ethically hack Google Home by inventing innocuous behaviors and submitting them for evaluation. If accepted, send a bogus error message instead of a regular message to convince the user that the gadget isn’t on or listening.

Using Third Party Application To Access Google Nest or Google Home

Then once the user was convinced that something is wrong they paused for a minute and then send a voice message to be played on the Google Nest that asked for the password to proceed and reset the device to working mode.

An unknown and nontechnical user without a doubt spoke the password to the Google Home device and they saved the voice record of the password to be spoken out. And it was sent to the hacker. This vulnerability hasn’t yet been fixed by Google.

Since in a lot of Phishing attacks on the users, the actual company cannot do anything apart from warning you not to disclose the password at any cost to anyone or anywhere.

And hence you will need to make sure that you are not disclosing even if you think Google is asking for it because they will never ask for such information it is against their privacy policy.

3. Enable Voice Recoginition On Google Nest and Google Home

You will need to make sure that your Google devices only respond when you are speaking. As this can also save you from disclosing unnecessary information to people you can send commands in different voices and then Google Nest speaks out all the information.

You have the option of configuring Google Nest to reply solely to a specific voice. Follow these steps to accomplish this:

Open the Google Home program on your smartphone.
To access the Settings menu, press the home button at the bottom of the screen.
Under the Google Assistant service, select More Settings on the Screen.
Then choose Assistant-> Voice Match-> Add Device on the Screen.

Now Google Home will not respond to the queries of Strangers hence securing your information from being disclosed to others and maintaining your privacy.

4. Keep a Tab On Authorization Emails from Google

If you are having your emails address updated and accessible that is registered through your Google Home devices then you will receive an email as soon as someone logs into your account on these devices. And if you are not the one who has logged into it.

Then immediately contact Google Support^[1] and let me know that your account has been compromised and they will provide you with more information on how to proceed.

5. Disable Microphone If you are Not Going to Use the Voice Assistant

If you are not going to use the Google Nest or Google Home voice assistant for a longer time then it is recommended that you disable the microphone. As most of the device now comes with a mute button through which you can disable the microphone.

Through this, your device will not be able to hear whatever you speak in your house. And mind you there has been news that if hacked, hackers can listen to everything you are discussing inside your home, and hence you can leak important personal information unwantedly to them.

And if you want to use your voice assistant on Google Nest or Google Home device then you will need to enable it.

Hence all the methods discussed above are the vulnerabilities of Google Home and Google Nest devices and methods through which you can avoid these vulnerabilities.

Wrap Up

Finally, it’s crucial to remember that while these techniques might increase your odds of preventing a hack, they are not completely trustworthy in all situations. To put it another way, none of these approaches will work completely on their own, but with your effort, they have a fighting chance.

Google Nest has the potential to be hacked again, and will these security steps be sufficient? I’m not sure, but for the time being, these policies are the most effective instruments we have for ensuring public safety.

As a result, I would advise you to make use of them all, as this may assist to reduce the danger you unintentionally accept.

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