Dustin Brantley(ATLANTA) — A couple in Georgia said they were terrified recently when a stranger hacked into their Ring security camera set up in their bedroom.
The couple, who asked not to be identified, said they’d bought and installed a camera three weeks ago, so they could watch their puppy, Beau, while they were at work.
On Monday night, however, the woman said as she lay in bed after putting the dog in a crate she heard a cough over the camera.
“I see the blue light come on, and so I’m texting my boyfriend saying, you know, ‘Why are you watching? We’re laying down. We’re about to go to sleep.’ He’s like ‘What are you talking about?'” she told ABC affiliate WSB-TV in Atlanta.
Seconds later, she said she heard someone clapping and saying, “I can see you in the bed! … Come on! Wake the f— up!”
“I was terrified. I mean, I literally could not move my body,” said the woman, who recorded the stranger with her cellphone.
The voice then began talking to the couple’s dog. Her boyfriend said the camera was on a dresser and looked down at the cage where the dog slept.
The couple reported the incident to Ring and said they also planned to file a report with the police.
“I just want people to be aware because we got this Ring camera thinking about one thing, which was our dog, watching our puppy,” she told WSB-TV.
“Ring should have the safety precautions already set in place where you never have to worry about it,” the woman’s boyfriend said.
He told ABC News Wednesday that Ring had told him that his data had likely been stolen.
The couple told the affiliate that they’d checked the settings and learned that their Ring security camera had been hacked on four separate occasions; it was not clear whether it was the same stranger from Monday.
In a statement, Ring said: “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.
“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,” the company also stated.
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