Ring security system hacked to virtually invade 8-year-old girl's bedroom
The owner of the Ring camera, Ashley LeMay, said that she purchased the camera during a Black Friday deal. Only, four days after installing the setup, someone figured out how to manipulate it.
By ZACHARY KEYSERRing Home Security System(photo credit: WIKIPEDIA)
A Ring home security system mounted in the bedroom of an 8-year-old Mississippi girl was hacked by an outside user earlier this month, according to local NBC affiliate WMC5 News.The owner of the Ring camera, Ashley LeMay, said that she purchased the camera during a Black Friday deal. Only, four days after installing the setup, someone figured out how to manipulate it.“I did a lot of research on these before I got them. You know, I really felt like it was safe,” said LeMay.In a chilling video captured by LeMay's Ring, the hacker initially started projecting the eerie falsetto voice and music of Tiny Tim's Tiptoe Through The Tulips throughout the room, to catch the attention of 8-year-old Alyssa from the hallway.“First, what happened I was in the hallway I thought it was my sister because I hear music. It’s like ‘tiptoe through the window.’ So I come upstairs and I hear some banging noise and I am like ‘Who is that?'" Alyssa told WMC.A man voice's immediately answers back, "I'm your best friend!"From that point in the recording the girl yells for her mother, "Mommy!" she screams, to which then the voice replies, "I'm Santa Claus, don't you want to be my best friend?"LeMay's husband was home at the time of the intrusion and included that the hacker watching the room "encouraged destructive behavior" in addition to the creepy music and sentiments.“They could have watched them sleeping, changing. I mean they could have seen all kinds of things,” LeMay said to WMC. “Honestly, my gut it makes me feel like it’s either somebody who knows us or somebody who is very close by.”She told NBC that the Ring system is sitting on the counter disconnected, waiting to be returned. However, LeMay admitted that she failed take full advantage of Ring's security protocols by not installing the "two-factor authentication" for her account."Customer trust is important to us and we take the security of our devices seriously. While we are still investigating this issue and are taking appropriate steps to protect our devices based on our investigation, we are able to confirm this incident is in no way related to a breach or compromise of Ring’s security," A Ring spokesperson told WMC."Due to the fact that customers often use the same username and password for their various accounts and subscriptions, bad actors often re-use credentials stolen or leaked from one service on other services. As a precaution, we highly and openly encourage all Ring users to enable two-factor authentication on their Ring account, add Shared Users (instead of sharing login credentials), use strong passwords, and regularly change their passwords."
