Google has confirmed that its range of Nest smart home products is now covered by its super-secure Advanced Protection Program for Google accounts.
The internet search giant made the announcement on Monday (June 1), saying access to Advanced Protection was one of the top requests it had received from Nest users.
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Launched in 2017, Google's Advanced Protection Program offers very strong protections for anyone who is at high risk of being targeted by cybercriminals or spies. These include journalists, activists, business leaders and politicians.
With the aim of protecting users against phishing, malware and fraud, the program blocks unknown apps and fraudulent accounts, and limits access to emails and other data to mostly Google accounts.
Users must have either two physical two-factor-authentication security keys such as Yubikey or a Titan key, an Android phone running Android 7.0 Nougat or later, or an iPhone running iOS 10 or later with the Google Smart Lock app installed. Only Google apps and a small selection of third-party apps can be granted access to your Google account.
The program has been available for products like G Suite, Google Cloud Platform, Chrome and Android.
One of the top requests received by Google
But with cyber criminals increasingly hacking into smart home devices to eavesdrop on users and take control of them to be used as part of large botnet attacks, there’s increasing pressure on manufacturers to improve security.
Writing in a blog post, the programme’s Project Manager Shuvo Chatterjee, said the improvement adds yet another layer of protection for people with Nest devices.
“Today, we’re announcing one of the top requests we’ve received: to bring the Advanced Protection Program to Nest," Chatterjee wrote.
"Now people can seamlessly use their Google Accounts with both Advanced Protection and Google Nest devices -- previously, a user could use their Google Account on only one of these at a time.”
This isn’t the first time Google has taken steps to strengthen the security of its Nest devices, having announced a myriad of security features in February.
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