A little boy's claim prompted parents to unplug the ring camera they installed in their son's room after the boy said a strange voice had been speaking to him through the camera. Ring cameras are Amazon's internet-enabled home security cameras.
The family thinks their security camera has some people side-eyeing their in-home security camera. The mother, Fran Chelle, gained more than 14.9 million views and almost 10,000 comments when she uploaded the video account, YahooLife reports.
Scary voices from the camera
Fran's husband tried to put their three-year-old son to bed in the video. The dad kisses the little boy and turns to leave the room when the boy's face looks worried, and he starts to point to the camera.
His father asked why he did not want the camera.
To his astonishment, the little boy replied that the camera was talking.
The father asks him if the camera talks at night, and the boy confirms. The dad calls for the mother, Fran, to come to the room. The mother asked for the son's confirmation, and he told her that the camera had been asking if he wanted ice cream. The father spoke in the background, saying it must be true because he had said that before.
Because of that, they wasted no time in removing the camera from his bedroom. The mother also called the company to report the incident.
The little boy's incident seems not an isolated case. In 2019, Jessica Holley on Twitter shared that a mother from Desoto County shared a ring video. The mother said that four days after installing the camera in her daughter's room, someone began talking to her eight-year-old daughter, Business Insider reports. A video recorded the claim. The stranger talks to her in the video, taunting her and claiming he is Santa Claus before the voice gets cut off.
Securing Home from Security Breaches
When Yahoo called Ring for comment for the little boy, it said they are taking customer privacy and security extremely seriously. The company said it worked directly with the particular customer in February to investigate the matter. However, they found no indication of unauthorized access or suspicious activity related to the device.
Amazon said that while the hacks are chilling, it is preventable. Gavin Millard, vice president of intelligence for cybersecurity firm Tenable, said that the intrusions are not about the firmware but how the owners set up the device.
One of the recommendations, which the Ring Company also recommended to Mom Fran, was to change the password and turn on the two-factor identification setting. The two-factor authentication means logging into the device that requires the password input and confirmation on another device, such as entering a code sent to your phone. The features are meant to stop hackers from getting in using a stolen password. It also recommended changing the password regularly, updating the Ring software, and practicing good security hygiene.
