Mother releases chilling video of hacker talking to her daughter, 8, through Ring security camera

A mother has released a chilling video of a hacker talking to her eight-year-old daughter through a Ring security camera in her bedroom.

The footage was recorded at the family home in Desoto County, Mississippi. 

Ashley LeMay had installed the Ring security camera in order to watch over her three daughters and to feel connected to them during her night shifts as a nurse.

She said that she had done extensive research before buying the product during the Black Friday sale and that it had also been recommended to her by another mother.  

But her eight-year-old daughter Alyssa said that she began hearing strange sounds in her bedroom including voices and music shortly after it was installed. 

The footage released yesterday shows what happened after Alyssa went to investigate the noises as the haunting tune Tiptoe Through the Tulips began to play. 

A mother has released a chilling video of a hacker talking to her eight-year-old daughter through a Ring security camera in her bedroom that was installed at the family home in Desoto County, Mississippi

In the clip, she can be seen momentarily standing still in the middle of her room.

She shouts out ‘who is that?’ as someone can be heard breathing as if behind the camera.

Then a male voice replies and says: ‘I’m your best friend, I’m Santa Claus.’

There is a brief pause before Alyssa calls down in distress to her mother. 

The man repeats himself once more by saying ‘I’m Santa Claus. Don’t you wanna be my best friend?’ and the video ends shortly after.

Alyssa’s parents re-watched the tape later that evening and Ashley’s partner immediately disconnected the camera. 

Speaking to WBC, Ashley said: ‘They could have watched them sleeping, changing. I mean they could have seen all kinds of things.

‘Honestly, my gut makes me feel like it’s either somebody who knows us or somebody who is very close by.’

The family, who had only had the security camera for four days, have released the footage in order to issue a warning to other parents.    

They have also now increased other security measures in the house including changing their WiFi settings so it is no longer visible to others.  

In the clip, the young girl can be seen momentarily standing still in the middle of her room before she shouts out 'who is that?'

In the clip, the young girl can be seen momentarily standing still in the middle of her room before she shouts out ‘who is that?’

A male voice then replies and says: 'I'm your best friend, I'm Santa Claus.' There is a brief pause before Alyssa shouts down in distress to her mother

A male voice then replies and says: ‘I’m your best friend, I’m Santa Claus.’ There is a brief pause before Alyssa shouts down in distress to her mother

A spokeswoman for Ring said: ‘Customer trust is important to us and we take the security of our devices seriously. 

‘While we are still investigating this issue and are taking appropriate steps to protect our devices based on our investigation, we are able to confirm this incident is in no way related to a breach or compromise of Ring’s security. 

‘Due to the fact that customers often use the same username and password for their various accounts and subscriptions, bad actors often re-use credentials stolen or leaked from one service on other services. 

‘As a precaution, we highly and openly encourage all Ring users to enable two-factor authentication on their Ring account, add Shared Users (instead of sharing login credentials), use strong passwords, and regularly change their passwords.’     

Desoto County investigators and Ring are now both looking into the identity of the interceptor. 

There have been increasing reports in recent months of other cameras also being compromised.

In October, Jack Newcombe, a father from San Jose, California, spoke about how his Google Nest camera was hacked while he and his wife were at work.

Their 18-month-old son was at home at the time, being cared for by a nanny, when a woman’s voice spoke through the device.

She originally stated that the family had a nice house but became increasingly agitated before saying: ‘I’m coming for the baby if you don’t answer me, bi**h!’ 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk