Ring slapped with lawsuit following reports of camera security breaches
Despite Ring's suite of security offerings, the federal complaint says it failed to set up “even basic cybersecurity protections."
A Mississippi couple whose story made headlines after a hacker breached their Ring security device and called their 8-year-old daughter racial slurs has filed a class action complaint against the Amazon subsidiary.
Ashley Lemay and Dylan Blakeley filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on Friday alongside a Texas couple, Tania Amador and Todd Craig, who were threatened with “termination” by a person who hacked into their Ring system if they did not pay a 50 bitcoin ransom.
The consumers seek to hold Santa Monica, California-based Ring LLC accountable for “widespread reports” of defective systems, and are asking the court to require the company to fix the vulnerabilities and compensate potential class members for the damages.
“Even as its customers are repeatedly hacked, spied on, and harassed by unauthorized third parties, Ring has made the non-credible assertions that it has not suffered any data breaches and that there are no problems with the privacy and security of its devices,” write plaintiffs counsel from Tycko & Zavareei and Stueve Siegel Hanson in the complaint.
The plaintiffs are suing for negligence, breach of implied contract, unjust enrichment and intrusion upon seclusion.
A spokesperson for Ring said the company does not comment on legal matters.
Despite offering a suite of security offerings, the complaint contends that the company has failed to set up “even basic cybersecurity protections,” such as two-factor authentication, protections from repeated attempts to log in to a device or automatic alerts when someone logs in from an unfamiliar IP address.
The plaintiffs are represented by Tycko & Zavareei’s Hassan Zavareei, Katherine Aizpuru and Annick Persinger; and Stueve Siegel’s Norman Siegel, Barrett Vahle and J. Austin Moore. The attorneys did not respond to a request for comment.
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