A mom was horrified to discover her kids’ bedroom monitors allegedly were hacked by total strangers who talked to her child at night.
Kurin Adele, a mom who boasts more than 335,000 followers on TikTok, claimed that her family’s Owlet baby monitors were compromised, resulting in a “terrifying” situation involving her young son.
“I have noticed over the past couple of weeks to a couple of months, he’s been unplugging his camera,” she said of her son in a viral clip that scored 6.2 million views.
When she said she turned to her husband, asking him to plug it back in, their child began to cry.
“He’s like, ‘I don’t want my camera plugged in, I don’t want my camera plugged in,’” she recalled. “‘Someone talks to me at night and it scares me. Someone wakes me up and talks to me and I’m scared — I don’t want my camera plugged in.’”
But Adele said she and her husband don’t speak to their children through the Owlet monitors, which use Wi-Fi.
She claimed the only reason they weren’t aware of the hack was because their son thought it was them talking to him through the monitor.
Adele claimed her son begged for his camera to be unplugged.kurinadele/Tiktok
When the couple went to change the password online, they received a notification that login credentials had appeared in a data leak, potentially compromising their account.
“Who the heck knows how long someone has had our password and has been messing with my son,” she said before claiming, “Owlet never notified us.”
The incident prompted them to go “running to Target” to purchase a new camera — one that doesn’t need Wi-Fi.
“If you are able to, get rid of your Wi-Fi cameras because there have been data breaches, data leaks, and people are hacking into baby monitors left and right, just to mess with people, ” Adele urged her viewers. “And it’s terrifying.”
In a subsequent clip with 44,000 views that was posted Monday, Adele gave her followers a widely-anticipated update this week.
She claimed that the response from Owlet was “dismissive” until the company stumbled across her viral video.
“I’m a bit bummed because I know the only reason they’re reaching out to me is because I have a platform and my video went viral,” she admitted, adding that she’s looking forward to seeing how Owlet rectifies the issue.
When she went to log into the Owlet account, an iOS notification alerted her that the password appeared in a data leak.kurinadele/Tiktok
However, in a statement provided to The Post, Owlet said it “takes customer safety and security very seriously” and confirmed that it has been in contact with Adele while conducting an investigation.
“Our team has reviewed all available data on our end including firmware, mobile, and server logs and we are very confident that there was no suspicious activity,” a statement from the company read.
“All access to the customer’s cameras came from the devices owned by the family, and we have no reason to believe there was improper access by external IP addresses based upon our review,” the statement continued. “Further, Owlet has zero confirmed cases of our cameras being compromised, nor have we identified any failure in our security protocols.”
Wi-Fi cameras have been hacked in the past.Getty Images/iStockphoto
Owlet said it does not store customers’ passwords but would inform customers “promptly” should there be a data breach.
The company urged customers to “be vigilant and use password best practices with all devices,” such as not reusing the same or similar credentials across multiple accounts.
“We encourage users to change their passwords regularly and, if they receive a pop-up from iOS or Android about a potential data leak, to change their password(s) immediately,” the statement concluded.
In the comments for both of Adele’s clips, aghast viewers expressed their horror.
One user said they were “about to purchase 2 of their cameras,” but after hearing Adele’s experience, they’re “unsure” and “don’t really feel safe.”
“I haven’t plugged mine back in since I saw your video. Too worried!” another viewer wrote.
“This same thing happened with our owlet camera. I was walking past my sons room and i heard someone telling him to ‘calm down buddy.. it’s ok,’” one more claimed.
“This exact situation happened to us and our owlet went straight in the trash. Immediately switched to infant optics,” someone else chimed in.
“We never used a Wi-Fi monitor because of this reason! So scary!” one person wrote.
Adele said she was “bummed” by Owlet’s customer service response.kurinadele/Tiktok
She revealed a new camera set-up, which did not utilize Wi-Fi.kurinadele/Tiktok
Many users advised against using Wi-Fi monitors due to how hackable they can be.
According to CNET, hackers can infiltrate household cameras either through the Wi-Fi network or from leaked credentials online.
Norton reported last year that infected routers comprise 75% of attacks on IoT devices — objects that are connected to the internet, also known as the Internet of Things.
Cameras connected to those routers, according to Norton, made up 15% of IoT attacks.
But Adele’s family isn’t the only one reportedly affected by hackable cameras.
Household cameras, such as Rings, have allegedly been hacked in years past; one family who used a Nest camera supposedly heard a prankster threatening to kidnap their baby.
In 2021, a concerned parent claimed that her Owlet monitor had also been hacked, just like Adele’s.
Wi-Fi baby monitors have been a source of concern for parents who fear hackers spying on their kids.Getty Images
“I just found that our baby monitor has been hacked. We use the owlet monitor,” an anonymous Redditor wrote in a forum for new parents.
They reportedly discovered someone was watching due to a red light that illuminates on the monitor, which they had positioned above their infant’s bassinet.
“I was in the room so I wasn’t using it. I called my husband and asked if he was watching it and he wasn’t. I opened and closed that app as well and it was still on!” they wrote. “I have no idea how long this has been going on. I’m super spooked by it.
“Who knows if they’ve been talking to my little one as well,” they added, saying that they “hate this sooo much.”
Source link: https://nypost.com/2023/05/09/my-baby-cam-was-hacked-it-was-terrifying-for-me-and-my-infant-son/