‘Violating’: Hacker uses Ring camera to talk to Pierce County family’s dogs

PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. — A Pierce County family said someone hacked their living room Ring camera and shared video with KIRO 7 of a stranger using it to talk to their two dogs.

“Hi,” said a voice in a video recorded last week. "I got treats, get up.”

The dogs appear unfazed, but the man who shared the video said his terrified wife was nearby with their children.

"To her it sounded like someone was outside the door, which is what really freaked her out,” said that man, who did not want to be publicly identified. “I immediately told her to unplug the Wi-Fi, unplug everything."

He told KIRO 7 that the hacker not only accessed other cameras in the house, but messed with the family’s alarm and camera sirens. He contacted Ring for answers.

"It was some third party with an iPhone,” he said. “[Ring] just told me that I had a lax password and they could've guessed my password."

Recently, there have been several alarming reports of Ring cameras being hacked.

In a statement to KIRO 7, Ring said “we have no evidence of an unauthorized intrusion or compromise of Ring’s systems or network…Unfortunately, when the same username and password is reused on multiple services, it’s possible for bad actors to gain access to many accounts.”

The family said they’ve since removed all Ring security cameras from inside their home.

"It was really violating because we don't know how long they were watching us,” the man said, who told KIRO 7 he has requested the hacker’s IP address from Ring. “You kind of sleep with one eye open."

Ring encourages users to change their passwords, enable two-factor authentication and add people as a shared user instead of giving out login information.

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