Does this mean a hacked doorbell?

[ankp27]

Hello,

We were burgled last Sunday AM. Our nest doorbell which we thought would record someone breaking in went offline for long periods with the message (your camera was either off or offline). We have a first gen nest aware subscription with 24/7 recording and we literally have never had holes in our recordings ever. I called up nest support and they (conveniently) said that our internet must have had an outage at those times - I've checked my router logs and my VPN logs and I didn't suffer any disconnections. Also, my understanding of how Nest Doorbell/Cams work was that even if there is an internet outage, as long as there is power, the cams keep recording and upload once an internet connection is available - grateful if someone can confirm if this understanding is correct?

And if it is correct, does getting this 'off or offline' message mean that the camera was hacked? Are they so easy to hack?

Thanks

[ankp27]

So to give you an idea, the parts where there are blanks in the footage are the parts where the burglars are active. Except this day, we've never had any blanks in our footage

[MplsCustomer]

That is a strange coincidence, with the multiple gaps.

[Juni]

Hi there,

I want to check if you have additional questions and concerns about your device. Let us know by updating this thread, and we're glad to assist you further.
 

Regards,

Juni

[Juni]

Hello there,

Just checking in to make sure that you saw our responses. I'll be locking this thread if we don't hear back from you again in 24 hours. Should that happen, feel free to create a new one if you have more questions or have other concerns in the future.
 

Thanks,

Juni

[zoeuvre]

Hi ankp27, 

I know it's been a while, and I'm sorry to hear about what happened. I'd like to take a look at this foryou. 

What type of Nest Doorbell do you have? Also, if you've confirmed that there was no disconnection during those times that the device was offline, has there been any recent power outage in the area? This might result in the Nest Doobell being offline.

I'll look forward to your response. 

Best,

Zoe

[MplsCustomer]

@ankp27 

If you have a 1st gen Nest Aware subscription then you must have a Google Nest Hello Doorbell. We have 3 Nest Hello Doorbells, but I've never heard of an ability for them to keep recording when there is an Internet outage; there'd be no way to power the doorbell to do so.

The newer 2nd gen battery doorbell and battery camera can record detected EVENTS when there is a power outage (and presumably when there is an Internet outage).

I don't know about your doorbell's camera being hacked; I don't think it easy to hack Google Nest cameras and doorbells, but I suppose their Wi-Fi signal could be jammed somehow, but I think that might have affected your other devices.

Just my two cents worth.