By James Simons-
Several individuals were subjected to death threats, racial slurs, and blackmail after their in-home ring smart cameras were hacked, a legal suit claims.
The individuals are suing Amazon ring over what they described as “horrific” invasions of privacy.
A new class action lawsuit combining a number of cases filed in recent years, alleges that lax security measures at Ring, owned by Amazon, allowed hackers to take over their devices. Ring provides home security in the form of smart cameras often installed on doorbells or inside people’s homes.
The suit against Ring is built on previous cases, joining together complaints filed by more than 30 people in 15 families who say their devices were hacked and used to harass them.
The plaintiffs claim the company failed to adequately update its security measures in the aftermath of such hacks, blamed the victims, and offered inadequate responses and spurious explanations.
Compensation
Those who could be compensated includes tens of thousands of customers who purchased a Ring doorbell between 2015 and 2019, even if they were not hacked.
“I would imagine that there are a whole lot more people out there who have been hacked,” said Hassan Zavareei, the lead attorney on the case. “This is probably just the tip of the iceberg. ”The suit outlines examples of hackers taking over Ring cameras, screaming obscenities, demanding ransoms, and threatening murder and sexual assault.
One Ring user says he was asked through his camera as he watched TV one night, “What are you watching?” Another alleges his children were addressed by an unknown hacker through the device, who commented on their basketball play and encouraged them to approach the camera.
In one case, an older woman at an assisted living facility was allegedly told “tonight you die” and sexually harassed through the camera. Due to the distress caused by the hack she ultimately had to move back in with her family, feeling unsafe in the facility where she once lived.
A hacker allegedly got into a Ring camera and told an eight-year-old girl he was Santa Claus and asked if she wanted to be his ‘best friend’. Photograph: Plaintiffs’ complaint. Ring has not said who is behind the hacks, and victims say they still do not know who accessed their homes through the devices.
Strong Passwords
Ring blamed victims for not using sufficiently strong passwords, the suit claims. It says Ring should have required users to establish complicated passwords when setting up the devices and implement two-factor authentication, which adds a second layer of security using a second form of identification, such as a phone number.
However, as the lawsuit alleges, Ring was hacked in 2019 – meaning the stolen credentials from that breach may have been used to get into users’ cameras. That means the hacks that Ring has allegedly blamed on customers may have been caused by Ring itself. A spokesperson said the company did not comment on ongoing litigation.
The suit said that, at present, Ring “has not sufficiently improved its security practices or responded adequately to the ongoing threats its products pose to its customers”. Security and privacy experts have also criticized Ring’s response.
“After a slew of terrifying headlines about their poor security practices, Ring has finally made some improvements,” said Evan Greer, the deputy director of the privacy advocacy group Fight for the Future. “But implementing basic security that they should have had in the first place does nothing to change the fact that Ring cameras make communities less safe, not more safe.”
In addition to hacking concerns, Ring has faced increasing criticism for its growing surveillance partnership with police forces. Ring has now created law enforcement partnerships, which allow users to send footage and photos to police, in more than 1,300 cities.
“Ring’s surveillance-based business model is fundamentally incompatible with civil rights and democracy,” Greer said. “These devices, and the thinking behind them, should be melted down and never spoken of again.”