Family security expert Leena Elias urges a variety of security measures, including a network solution like the Avast Omni
A chilling incident in which a hacker harassed a child through a Mississippi family’s Ring security system is the latest event pointing out the need for home network security, Avast’s Leena Elias says.
“This is heartbreaking,” says Elias (pictured), a family security expert and Avast vice president. “This family bought a device to feel more secure, and ended up traumatized. What this points out is the vulnerability that the Internet of Things has brought into our homes.”
In the Mississippi incident, an 8-year-old girl was called racial slurs and harassed by a hacker who accessed the family’s Ring camera set up in her bedroom. The hacker told her he was Santa Claus and asked to be her best friend, The New York Times and others reported.
Ring, which is owned by Amazon, said the incident did not reflect a security compromise on the company’s part, and urged customers not to re-use passwords, and to set up multi-factor authentication, which requires users to enter a code sent to another device in order to sign in.
Ashley LeMay, the Mississippi girl’s mother, said that response was insufficient. The family purchased the camera to check the health of another of their daughters, who experiences seizures. Now their daughters are scared to be in the bedroom, and the family has disconnected the camera.
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