In yet another example of a smart home hack, an in-home Amazon Ring camera was hacked to make inappropriate comments toward a woman in her California home.
A Calabasas, California, woman who referred to herself as Tammy told CBSN Los Angeles that she heard a voice coming from her Ring security camera that was located in her bedroom.
“Yo, what’s up? How’s your day?” a man’s voice reportedly said, followed by, “Hi, show me some [expletive].”
Tammy said the hacker was also able to set off her home’s alarm system.
“I knew he was tapping into this camera, he was tapping into my bedroom camera,” she told CBSN Los Angeles. “So it became a little bit overwhelming for a few moments.”
We reached out to the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station to find out if anyone has been charged from this incident, but we haven’t yet received a response.
“They could have been taking photos of me, they could have been sending those out to the internet,” Tammy said.
She said she had had the camera for four weeks and originally bought it to watch her dog. Tammy said she reached out to Ring about the incident, and that they responded via email that the hack was due to a weak password and that she should change her password.
A Ring spokesperson told Digital Trends that this incident was not a result of Ring’s network or systems being compromised.
“Recently, we were made aware of incidents where malicious actors obtained some Ring users’ account credentials (e.g., username and password) from a separate, external, non-Ring service and reused them to log in to some Ring accounts. Unfortunately, when the same username and password is reused on multiple services, it’s possible for bad actors to gain access to many accounts,” the Ring spokesperson said.
It’s the second time in a week of reports of Ring camera systems being hacked. Last week, a man was able to access a Ring camera located in a little girl’s bedroom. The man was able to talk to the girl in her bedroom, telling her, “I’m your best friend … I’m Santa Claus.”
He also told her, “You can do whatever you want right now. You can mess up your room. You can break your TV. You can do whatever you want.”
Ring’s security camera has HD video, night vision, and a two-way talk feature, so the hacker was most likely able to not only talk to the little girl, but also see her.
While both instances are creepy all-around, it’s an important reminder that if you do have smart home technology in your home, it’s essential to set up two-factor authentication if possible and regularly change your password.
