Another Man Hacked a Ring Camera and Made Explicit Comments to a Woman
Update, December 19, 2019: Another Ring camera was hacked this month so that a strange man could speak to a woman in her Calabasas, CA home.
The woman, who referred to herself as Tammy, told CBS Los Angeles that the man's voice coming from the camera said "Yo, what’s up? How’s your day?" He continued saying "horrible, horrible things" including "Hi, show me some [expletive]." Tammy had only had her Ring camera for four weeks, purchased to watch over her sick dog, before this happened. "They could have been taking photos of me, they could have been sending those out to the internet," she says. She reached out to Ring about the incident and they issued the following statement: “Our security team has investigated this incident and we have no evidence of an unauthorized intrusion or compromise of Ring’s systems or network." They also encouraged Tammy to enable two-factor authentication.
Original story, December 12, 2019: Home-security cameras were created to surveil the property and give families peace of mind. But for the LeMay family, their experience with the Ring camera was nothing short of a nightmare.
Ashley LeMay purchased the Ring security camera during a Black Friday sale for the bedroom where all three of her daughters sleep, reports WMC5 News. The camera allowed the mom to watch and speak to her girls from the convenience of her phone, while she worked night shifts. But four days after installing the device, Ashley's 8-year-old daughter Alyssa heard a strange music-like noise and banging sound coming from her room. When she went to go check it out, a man's voice was coming directly from the Ring camera.
"I'm your best friend. I'm Santa Claus," the unidentified, faceless man said. Alyssa, all alone, called for her mom and kept asking "Who is that?" Fortunately, Ashley's husband heard the commotion from his daughters' room and was able to shut it down, as Ashley was out running an errand. If you want to feel super creeped out, you can watch the clip below of the hacker speaking to Alyssa.
Each time I've watched this video it's given me chills.
A Desoto County mother shared this Ring video with me. Four days after the camera was installed in her daughters' room she says someone hacked the camera & began talking to her 8-year-old daughter.
More at 6 on #WMC5 pic.twitter.com/77xCekCnB0— Jessica Holley (@Jessica_Holley) December 10, 2019
“They could have watched them sleeping, changing. I mean they could have seen all kinds of things,” Ashley tells WMC5 News. “Honestly, my gut makes me feel like it’s either somebody who knows us or somebody who is very close by.” Since the incident, the camera has been disconnected and the LeMay family plans to return it. Ashley admits she had not set up the two-factor authentication for the Ring account, which would have added another level of protection against potential hackers.
A Ring spokesperson shared a statement with WMC5 News about the incident. They claimed it wasn't actually a security breach, suggesting that someone may have cracked the username and password of the device, allowing them on to the account. Whether or not that's true, this video sure gave us the chills, like an episode of Black Mirror come to life.
Some advice? Research the purchase of a security camera, always enable two-factor authentication, never give out your password, and change your log-in credentials frequently.
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