The smart home security camera market is booming, with estimated consumer spending in the U.S. alone expected to reach nearly $10 billion by 2023. While big players like Ring, Nest, and Arlo (owned by Amazon, Google, and Netgear, respectively) are vying to claim top spot on your doorstep and inside your home, the industry has been plagued by headline-grabbing breaches and terrifying security cam threats. The bad guys are even hacking into video baby monitors. Yep, strangers in the nursery. Pretty scary stuff.
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SHOCKING STORIES
South Carolina: Upon waking one morning in June 2018, Jamie Summitt, noticed the baby cam pointing directly at her as she lay in bed. Initially, she didn’t think much of it, simply assuming her husband was checking in on her and the baby from the office.
Later that day, while the baby slept, Jamie’s smartphone alerted her of camera movement. But this time, her husband was sitting across the dinner table from her. She told NPR that when she checked her phone app, she saw the camera pan across her bedroom and stop on the couple’s bed, where it paused before moving back to the bassinet.
While she first chalked it up to her app being “haunted,” the couple came to realize, with almost certainty, their baby monitor had been hacked. After the ordeal, Jamie posted the following on Facebook, "I honestly don't ever want to go back into my own bedroom."
Mississippi: Four days after installing a Ring camera to keep an eye on her daughters while she worked, Ashley Lemay said her 8-year-old daughter heard banging and creepy music emanating from her bedroom. When the daughter went to investigate, she stated a voice spoke to her from the Ring cam saying, “I’m Santa Claus, don’t you want to be my best friend?” The stranger on the other side of the cam also told her, “You can do whatever you want right now… you can break your TV.”
LeMay said that while she immediately changed passwords, the child was left shaken. “I was even scared of my room for a few days. I’m still a little bit scared of it.”
Who wouldn’t be?
Texas: In January 2021, ADT technician Telesforo Aviles pled guilty to computer fraud after admitting to repeatedly hacking into customers’ security cam feeds. Apparently, Aviles added his own email to the accounts of attractive female customers and would then view their footage. Over four-and-a-half years, the man accessed approximately 200 customer accounts nearly 10,000 times. He now faces up to five years in federal prison.
CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT
In December 2020, a new class action lawsuit was filed against Ring after dozens of users (including the Lemay family) claimed they were subject to death threats, racial slurs, and blackmail by hackers who accessed their in-home smart cams. Cybersecurity experts are keeping a close eye on the case, and the number of class members is expected to rise, potentially including tens of thousands Ring customers.
It appears that Ring’s defense is going to amount to blaming the victims of the security cam breaches, who they say did not implement strong enough passwords or use two-factor authentication.
THE WHY OF SECURITY CAM THREATS
The thought of creepy strangers spying on you or talking to your children is bone-chilling, amounting really to psychological terrorism. The reasons bad actors target security cams are:
Testing their skill at hacking by breaching a system that will have little consequences for the perpetrator due to the unlikelihood they will ever be caught.
Crowing rights. Breaching Ring’s security system gives the hacker clout in the hacker community by causing a stir or attracting news media coverage.
Monetary gain. Security cam hackers can identify opportunities for burglary and other crimes where surveillance of the target is consequential. For instance, hackers can surveil home interiors of vacationing victims.
Voyeurism & Peeping Toms. Some individuals get off on viewing unsuspecting people in the homes or workplace, unaware they are being watched as they undress, shower or even do mundane household tasks. This is considered a psychological disorder.
Stalking. Security cams are sometimes used by stalkers to electronically surveil their victims. So that hacker could be a past or current romantic interest or some other shadowy figure with ill intent.
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