Saw this on the news yesterday. It's pretty creepy that you get this thing to keep an eye on your place, kids or pets and some creep taunts you or your kids.
...Four incidents of Ring-hacking were reported just this week — and because Ring cameras recorded the interactions, each comes with a creepy, horrifying video of the encounter...
If you are interested in how these are being hacked Threat Post has an article:
A Motherboard report found Ring lacking basic security measures for preventing hackers from hijacking the devices.
Serious security holes in the Ring smart doorbell have been uncovered, according to a new investigation. For instance, Ring owners aren’t notified of suspicious login alerts when devices are accessed on various IP addresses — and there are seemingly no limitations for incorrect login attempts.
The new findings, based on Motherboard’s security tests on the Amazon-owned connected doorbell, come on the heels of several privacy and security incidents relating to Ring this past year. That includes several disturbing stories emerging over the past week of hackers hijacking Ring devices and stalking to strangers through them.
For instance, Ring owners aren’t notified of suspicious login alerts when devices are accessed on various IP addresses — and there are seemingly no limitations for incorrect login attempts
That is almost criminal. It definitely in a 'cause of action' for a civil suit. Expect to see their name in the news.
Colbyt
Reducing my online presence to do some other things.
An update of how Ring is attempting to make their devices more secure:
...Ring also has an app update. This one will increase transparency and let you control your privacy from one panel.
Ring will add Control Center (not to be confused with the system menu in iOS) to its app for iOS and Android by the end of January. Its aim is to provide a one stop shop for setting privacy controls for all your Ring devices. These are as basic as who has access and as advanced as opting out of receiving video requests in areas where local police have joined the Neighbors app...
Where ever there's technology - online especially, there's some group of degenerates trying to hack it and milk it for all it's worth. Some are just "creepy", some are degenerates, some are just doing it "because they can". I don't see how the security "experts" can keep up with plugging holes, when there are groups of hackers exploiting every update.
Like Accrete says, and maybe I've got it wrong, but low tech might be the best option, at least internal to a home or office.
Not specifically regarding the issues above but 4 Ring employees have been fired for inappropriate access to customer feeds.
Ring said that four employees were fired because they for inappropriate access to customers’ connected video feeds.
Smart doorbell company Ring said that it has fired four employees over the past four years for inappropriately accessing customer video footage.
The disclosure comes in a recent letter to senators (in response to a November inquiry into the company’s data policies) from Amazon-owned Ring as it attempts to defend the privacy of its platform (which has been plagued by data privacy incidents over the past year). n the letter, Ring said that the four former employees were authorized to view video data, but their attempted access to the data “exceeded what was necessary for their job functions.”
Here's an interesting side bar to security systems: The "glass break" sensors that ADT (which is now Telus) use, can be triggered by a dog barking. These type of sensors are normally used for home owners with pets, negating the ability to use motion sensors, which I'd rather have (no pets at the moment). I added one glass break to my security system that has finally been replaced as it was faulty. It was running down the batteries really fast for some reason.
The Amazon-owned video doorbell uses third-party trackers to serve up rich data to marketers without meaningfully notifying users.
UPDATE
Amazon’s Ring Doorbell app for Android is a nexus for data-harvesting, according to an investigation by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). Privacy advocates allege Ring goes so far as to silently deliver updates on Ring customer usage to Facebook, even if the Ring owner doesn’t have a Facebook account.
“Ring isn’t just a product that allows users to surveil their neighbors,” EFF’s Bill Budington said in a posting on the findings, published Monday. “The company also uses it to surveil its customers.”
