Ring Smart Camera Claims They Were Not Hacked, Terrorized NYC Family Used Same Passwords Stolen From Other Sites
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – The video doorbell company Ring says it found no evidence of its network being compromised after a disturbing incident inside a Staten Island home.
"You're playing games… What's up homie? I can still see you," a hacker ominously tells teenager Blake Sgarlato.
The 13-year-old boy was home alone when a mysterious voice came from the family's ring cameras.
MORE: Staten Island Mom Says Hackers Used Ring Smart Cameras To Terrorize Her 13-Year-Old Son
He unplugged one, but the hacker followed him around the house on other cameras.
The family has since taken the cameras down. They now have a warning for others who have similar technology in their homes.
"I don't know if there's other surveillance you can have but I want people to realize your kid could be sitting alone in your house and be a target of a maniac," Staten Island resident Gina Sgarlato said.
Ring says it investigated the incident and determined the alleged hacker obtained user names and passwords from accounts not associated with Ring.
They were then allegedly able to log in with the same information and take over the cameras.
Ring released the following statement in response to the incident:
"Customer trust is important to us and we take the security of our devices seriously. Our security team has investigated this incident and we have no evidence of an unauthorized intrusion or compromise of Ring's systems or network.
"Recently, we were made aware of an incident 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.
"Upon learning of the incident, we took appropriate actions to promptly block bad actors from known affected Ring accounts and affected users have been contacted. Consumers should always practice good password hygiene and we encourage Ring customers to change their passwords and enable two-factor authentication."
