According to a Los Angeles grand jury indictment, two people were charged during a week-long nationwide hit-and-run spree. The accused allegedly made 12 hoax emergency calls and live-streamed the police response on social media in November 2020. The pair gained access to 12 Ring home security cameras in nine states by hacking Yahoo! Email accounts.

Kia Christian Nelson, 21, of Racine, Wisconsin, and James Thomas Andrew McCarty, 20, of Charlotte, North Carolina were charged with conspiracy to access computers without authorization. The former was charged with two counts of intentionally accessing a computer without authorization and two counts of aggravated identity theft. He also serves in Kentucky in an unrelated case.

Regarding the matter, Ring issued a statement to Fox News Digitalsays;

Hitting is a serious crime, and those responsible for it should be prosecuted. … We take our customers’ security very seriously – that’s why we’ve made two-step verification mandatory, run regular scans for Ring passwords compromised in non-Ring breaches, and continually invest in new security protections to harden our systems. We are committed to continuing to protect our customers and vigorously pursue those who seek to harm them.

The security and vulnerability of smart homes go hand in hand. With the proliferation of smart devices, the issue of targeted attacks for subversive purposes and theft of the treasure of personal information is becoming more and more common.

Although smart homes offer greater control and convenience, they are also vulnerable to data attacks including IoT-enabled door opening and remote control of smart devices. A report by SAM Seamless Network indicated that one billion security-related attacks occurred in 2021 alone, of which 900 million were IoT-related.

Through: Bloomberg