Hackers are accessing Ring cameras to spy inside people’s homes. How can you stop it?

Hackers across the U.S. are accessing Ring security cameras and spying on people inside their homes.

From Mississippi to Kansas to Connecticut, people have reported hackers watching and talking to them inside their homes.

The spying has alarmed children and families, sometimes while they slept.

The Amazon-owned company Ring says its overall system hasn’t been compromised in a security breach. Instead, it’s up to customers to follow important safety steps to ensure they’re not an easy target for hackers, the company says.

”Customer trust is important to us and we take the security of our devices seriously,” the company told McClatchy News. “Our security team has investigated this incident and we have no evidence of an unauthorized intrusion or compromise of Ring’s systems or network.

Hackers can spy on you with Ring cameras

In Mississippi, a hacker spied on an 8-year-old girl in her bedroom, playing creepy music and apparently trying to befriend her, McClatchy News reported.

“I’m Santa Claus,” the hacker said in a video obtained by WZTV. “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 woman was awoken in Connecticut to a voice talking through a speaker, WTNH reported.

“Come here, come here,” the voice yelled, the TV station reported.

In Wichita, Kansas, Ashley and Jake Norris say a hacker told them he knew where they lived, ABC News reported.

“Our daughter is still creeped out,” Ashley Norris said.

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.”

This story was originally published December 13, 2019 at 9:44 AM with the headline "Hackers are accessing Ring cameras to spy inside people’s homes. How can you stop it?."