DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A Brookhaven, Georgia, couple is sharing a chilling video of the moment they say a stranger hacked into their Ring security camera.
The woman said she was in bed when it happened.
“I was terrified. I literally could not move my body,” the woman said.
The woman gave WSBTV the video that has the man’s voice yelling into the bedroom.
"Wake up!" the man yells at one point and starts clapping his hands.
"Hello! Hello! Come here, puppy," he says at another point on the video.
The woman, who asked not to be identified, said she and her boyfriend installed the camera, so they could keep a close eye on their dog Beau while they’re at work.
But on Monday evening…
“I was laying there and had just put him in his crate, and I hear a cough over the Ring camera,” the woman said. “I see the blue light come on, so I text my boyfriend saying, ‘Why are you watching?' We’re laying down, and we’re about to go to sleep, and he’s like, ‘What are you talking about?'”
Seconds later…
"I can see you in the bed! C'mon! Wake the [expletive] up!"
Scared for their safety, the couple reported the incident to Ring.
“I just want people to be aware. We got this Ring camera thinking about one thing --- watching our puppy. Not somebody looking at us,” the woman said.
WSBTV contacted Ring for a comment about this story. A spokesperson sent a statement saying:
“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.
“Ring has investigated this incident and has taken appropriate actions to remove the bad actors from all affected accounts. All affected users have been contacted.”
“Ring should already have the safety precautions already set in place where you never have to worry about it,” the woman said.
The couple says when they went back and reviewed their history, they discovered that someone had hacked their account on four separate occasions.
Right now, it’s unclear if it was the same person. They told WSBTV they plan to file a police report.
© 2019 Cox Media Group
