Amazon Ring hacker accessed camera in child's room, told girl he was Santa Claus

A Mississippi couple said a Ring security camera placed inside their eight year old's bedroom was hacked by someone who began playing music and talking to the little girl – even telling her he was Santa Claus, according to a report.

The Amazon-owned device was set up in the little girl’s room, which she shares with her two sisters, in DeSoto County. The children’s mother, Ashley LeMay, said the camera – which allows someone on one end of the camera to speak to the other end – had been set up only four days before her daughter heard music playing in the bedroom, WMC Action News 5 reported.

“I was in the hallway, I thought it was my sister because I hear music,” the child told the outlet. "So I come upstairs and I hear some banging noise and I am like ‘who is that?’”

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After asking the question, the hacker responded: “I’m your best friend. I’m Santa Claus,” according to video posted by the news station.

When she called for her parents, the strange male-sounding voice spoke to her again.

“I’m Santa Claus,” the person can be heard saying. “Don’t you want to be my best friend?”

A spokesperson for Ring said in a statement to FOX Business the company encourages users to enable two-factor authentication, which the LeMay family admittedly had not done, WMC5 reported.

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“Customer trust is important to us, and we take the security of our devices seriously,” the spokesperson said, emphasizing that this instance appeared to be the result of an external breach. “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.”

Ring’s overall security was not compromised, the spokesperson added.

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Nonetheless, after the breach, the family decided to unplug their camera, the outlet reported.

“They could have watched them sleeping," LeMay said. "They could have watched them changing. They could have seen all kinds of things."

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This story has been updated to reflect that the LeMay family lives in Mississippi and not Tennessee.