Hacker uses Ring camera to spy on Mississippi girl in her bedroom: ‘I’m Santa Claus’

Just days after Mississippi parents put a Ring security camera in their daughters’ bedroom, a hacker accessed it and began talking to their child, media outlets report.

Ashley LeMay says she bought the Ring camera on Black Friday to watch and talk to her three daughters while working overnight shifts as a nurse, WMC reported.

“I did a lot of research on these before I got them,” LeMay told the Memphis, Tenn. TV station. “You know, I really felt like it was safe.”

But now she has plans to get rid of it, WMC reported.

A hacker taunted LeMay’s 8-year-old daughter, Alyssa, when she walked into her bedroom, WZTV reported. The TV station obtained the footage from LeMay.

“Hello there,” the hacker said, before playing “Tiptoe through the Tulips” over the speaker and talking to the girl.

“Who is that?” Alyssa asked.

“I’m your best friend,” the hacker says. “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.”

“Who is that?” Alyssa asks again.

“I’m your best friend,” he replies. “I’m Santa Claus.”

“Mommy!” Alyssa yelled.

“I’m Santa Claus,” he said. “Don’t you want to be my best friend?”

“I don’t know who you are,” she replied before leaving the room to tell her parents.

A Ring spokesperson said it is investigating the video and iterated this was not a breach of the company’s overall security, the company told McClatchy News. The company urged customers to enable two-factor authentication for security, which the local TV stations reported the family had not done.

“Customer trust is important to us, and we take the security of our devices seriously,” a spokesperson told Fox Business. “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.”

Still, the family is returning the device, WMC reported.

“They could have watched them sleeping, changing,” LeMay told WMC. “I mean they could have seen all kinds of things.”

How to protect your Ring from hackers

Ring says it’s investigating incidents of hacking. According to the company, hackers have accessed the systems of individual customers in isolated cases by obtaining usernames and passwords from separate, external services that were reused for to set up Ring accounts.

“Unfortunately, when people reuse the same username and password on multiple services, it’s possible for bad actors to gain access to many accounts,” according to Ring.

The company provided five tips to protect your Ring system from being hacked.

1. Use two-factor authentication: If enabled, this setting in the Ring app sends a unique code in a text message to your cellphone whenever your or someone else tries to log into your account.

2. Add shared users: Instead of sharing your login information, add other users through the system. Here’s a link with instructions.

3. Don’t use the same password for different services: Creating different passwords for your various online apps and services will make it more difficult a hacker to access all your accounts.

4. Create strong passwords: Mix up letters, numbers and symbols with “non-dictionary” words and don’t use sequential characters such as “123” or “abc.”

5. Change passwords regularly: Update your password every three to six months. Here’s where you can learn to change your Ring password.

Ring says it plans to continue adding security features to ensure its customers aren’t hacked.

“We understand what a big decision it is to pick a home security product, and we don’t take that decision lightly,” the company wrote in a statement. “We will continue to introduce additional security features to keep your Ring account and devices secure.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported where the family lives.

This story was originally published December 11, 2019 at 3:26 PM with the headline "Hacker uses Ring camera to spy on Mississippi girl in her bedroom: ‘I’m Santa Claus’."