A mother has released a chilling video of a hacker talking to her eight-year-old daughter through a Ring security camera in her bedroom.
The footage was recorded at the family home in Desoto County, Mississippi.
Ashley LeMay had installed the Ring security camera in order to watch over her three daughters and to feel connected to them during her night shifts as a nurse.
She said that she had done extensive research before buying the product during the Black Friday sale and that it had also been recommended to her by another mother.
But her eight-year-old daughter Alyssa said that she began hearing strange sounds in her bedroom including voices and music shortly after it was installed.
The footage released yesterday shows what happened after Alyssa went to investigate the noises as the haunting tune Tiptoe Through the Tulips began to play.
In the clip, she can be seen momentarily standing still in the middle of her room.
She shouts out ‘who is that?’ as someone can be heard breathing as if behind the camera.
Then a male voice replies and says: ‘I’m your best friend, I’m Santa Claus.’
There is a brief pause before Alyssa calls down in distress to her mother.
The man repeats himself once more by saying ‘I’m Santa Claus. Don’t you wanna be my best friend?’ and the video ends shortly after.
Alyssa’s parents re-watched the tape later that evening and Ashley’s partner immediately disconnected the camera.
Speaking to WBC, Ashley said: ‘They could have watched them sleeping, changing. I mean they could have seen all kinds of things.
‘Honestly, my gut makes me feel like it’s either somebody who knows us or somebody who is very close by.’
The family, who had only had the security camera for four days, have released the footage in order to issue a warning to other parents.
They have also now increased other security measures in the house including changing their WiFi settings so it is no longer visible to others.
A spokeswoman for 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.’
Desoto County investigators and Ring are now both looking into the identity of the interceptor.
Credit: Daily Mall
Oh no…..
Emily Covella where was her mom? Or any parent. It happened for 5 min and the daughter was yelling for the mom ????????♀️
Larissa Monique Perez how’d you get the clip? When I open it it doesn’t show it
Danielle Nuernberg I watched it on a different news website
Stephanie Brander
Natasha Morano yeah eff that
Roxane Arteaga
Kelly Mueller
Karen Acker
Nicole Ann i t!!!!! A friend sent this to me today I’m like wtf!!!!! ????????????????
Scary. Seen an episode on Dr. Phil last week about a family going through this with home alarm system. Turns out the hacker making threats and watching them was a 17 year old who lived 1500 miles away
Kayla Kristy Phillips
Yikes
This is exactly why you do not use crap passwords that you can actually remember. Password managers are commonplace auto-generated super secure one time use passwords no excuse for this nowadays. This is 100% user fault. I know people like the blame the hackers but it’s not their fault that security problems exist. if things were built with security in mind the internet would will look way different than how its design now.
This is exactly why you do not use crap passwords that you can actually remember. Password managers are commonplace auto-generated super secure one time use passwords no excuse for this nowadays. This is 100% user fault. I know people like the blame the hackers but it’s not their fault that security problems exist. if things were built with security in mind the internet would will look way different than how its designed. The internet was never designed with security in mind or privacy. Its sole purpose and design was to send and receive information that is all. If security is not part of the initial design it always does poorly when it’s added on later.
Matthew William Burtis let me say this clearly…. Do not victim blame. It is NOT the users fault someone out there is breaking the law….
Lisa Miller Herbert It is the users fault just as if you leave you car running and you run into wawa and someone steals it. Yea the person who took it may get chought and sent to jail But your insurance is not going to pay a dime because you are at fault. It is the users fault it could of been 100% prevented.
Matthew William Burtis this is not 100% the user’s fault. You’re way off.
Jenni Blood-Opalenik Keith Opalenik
Mariie Danielle
Megan Jones bye i already saw I’m sweating.
Mariie Danielle so creepy!
Jaelyn Marie Sabey do u have this?
Janine Stefanelli Casler the ring is outside I have diff cameras inside
Jaelyn Marie Sabey omg ok????
Edwidge Campos
Samantha Anne
Tommy Dickles I saw this! And there was another one in a kitchen. I put on two factor authentication.
Scary
Victoria N Danny Reed
Patricia Reed I saw this!!! So crazy!
Always use a Verification Code.
That and one password per site. A good password should look like this “qazx346cEIHJN*4*GHG”. A good password manager or a notebook and a safe are your friend.
Kristy Marie Dave Colangelo Danielle Marie
Apathetik Tuesday
Brian Zinderman!!!!!!
We’re secure, don’t worry
How do you know??
Kristen De Martino-Zinderman trust me
I have recently installed a RING which I love. I hesitate to get Alexa or something like that. I don’t think I need it.
Debbie Kipikasha I don’t trust the Alexa. I heard that it’s constantly recording.
To hack a ring, or any wifi enabled camera and Alexa and other smart devices all the hacker needs to do is hack into your WiFi. My dad went to school for business and computer stuff and when we were talking about this he said it’s not the brand or device itself as long as they can hack your WiFi they then can do whatever they want. There are some cheap cameras that can be hacked without getting into the WiFi but as far as the ring and the alexas and all that, it all comes down to how secure your WiFi password is
There’s way more to it than just being on the same wireless network and being on the same wireless network isn’t the skeleton key into all attached devices. This person wasn’t sitting within WiFi range that was talking to the kid I’d guarantee it.
Thomas Ur There are ways where he would only need to be in range one time to hack into it and then do certain things remotely, this being one of them. He could’ve parked outside once, hacked in, and that’s that.
Kelly Ellen this is what I was talking about yesterday!
Mom’s shoulda changed that pw
It’s like “Meghan is Missing”. Scary what people can do to hack peoples electronics like that.
Kerry Ward
Jen DeLuca-Stuban
Who didn’t see this coming, they were hacking baby monitors years ago..
Chris Denisewicz make sure we do the steps prior to setting it all up
It can happen to any wifi device. It happens all the time to people who don’t secure their devices and wifi with good passwords and authentic verification.
Oh shit….and I wanted one for my home….maybe not now
Joy Fishman-Witt
Jaclyn Tosoni
Katie VanPelt because I’m not paranoid enough already-How do I see this video?!
Jaclyn Tosoni ???? I have no clue! I told you I saw this on the news.
Tom Trufolo
Heather L Lombo
Megan Heaney Marquis
Carrie Ann????
Carly Rose????
Jessica Alparone
Mandy Silver
Brittney Ramsey
Samantha Belfiore omg wtf
Super creepy!!!!
Kayla Eileen
Fay Picioccio Wielgolinski terrifying
This isn’t the first story I have heard about this ring camera!
Krystal Ashley Ken Kaminski
Donna Lee freaks!
Kelly Daletto
Liz Gabe
Desireé Michelle vin showed me another one where the hacker ordered them a pizza to prove he knew where they lived….I really hate people ????. This versus catching thieves stealing boxes off porches at Christmas time.
Julie Trivigno
Flipping insane
Dedria Willard
Secure your wifi
Robert Kusnic
Weirdos
There was another story about hackers actually seeing into a home using the ring security system. Ring said that they have never had any incidents like this, and are not refunding the person spied upon by the hackers!
Danielle Marie
Mike Fernandez
Kyle Ray oh damn
Christina Yaeger
Jessica Little
Ew
Ring? Alexa? No thanks.
Kassandra Karagiannakis