If you own a Ring camera or if you've been reading the news lately you might be aware of the dangers that come with the device and how hackers are easily gaining access to your camera and spying on you.
Recent Incidents
Earlier this week, a Tennessee-based couple was left traumatised after a stranger hacked into the ring camera mounted in their daughter bedroom and started talking to her through the device, as we previously reported.
At first, she thought she heard music coming from her bedroom so she made her way there thinking it was her sister. Once she entered the room, she started hearing a banging noise and upon enquiry, the stranger speaks out of the camera's speakers to the little girl, saying he wants to be her best friend.
In a separate incident, a Georgia couple woke up with a scare after their Ring camera, which they had installed to check on their puppy while they're at work, was hacked by a man who tried to wake them up while they were sleeping.
How to protect yourself?
As it turns out, you are responsible for the security of your Ring camera account and it's quite easy given that hackers aren't using some extraordinary techniques to break in and gain access to your camera. What they're doing is exploiting vulnerabilities in users' security practices to force their way into these accounts.
Avoid reusing passwords from other accounts
Hackers are extremely skilled at finding the chinks in your security armour, and they'll jump at the chance to take advantage of people who use the same password for multiple accounts. If an online account you use suffers a security breach and your password is stolen and leaked online, it puts the other accounts at risk, even if you've set a really strong password.
So you need to stop re-using the same password across multiple accounts and create a unique password for each account. It can be hard to remember but you can store it in either your browser's password manager or use third-party tools designed for this purpose, which also help in generating strong, unique passwords.
Do not share your credentials
If you have to grant others access to your Ring devices, do not share your login details with them and instead add them as a shared user. Also, make sure they're using strong password security, too.
Enable two-factor authentication
One of the main reasons why hackers can easily infiltrate your device is that users do not enable two-factor authentication, which protects your Ring camera even if hackers break into your account using your username and password information. If this security measure is activated and someone tries to hack your account, don't fret, you'll receive a notification that a login attempt was made and allow you to change your password to something unique and secure.
These security measures are as easy as they come; they should take an average person no more than five minutes to set up, and help you prevent strangers from gaining access to the cameras you've set up around your house.
