SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — A Utah cybersecurity expert is weighing in on Ring’s settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over privacy and security concerns.
“It’s not atypical for what you might see in a smaller company,” said Brandon Amacher, director of the Emerging Tech Policy Lab at the UVU Center for National Security Studies. “But you would hope that something on the size of Ring, which is now a subsidiary of Amazon, would have their act together a little bit more in terms of controlling access and then also just implementing basic security measures on such sensitive data, sensitive content.”
Ring pushes back on the FTC’s claims and said they’re settling the case to see an immediate resolution.
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Amacher believes that in many situations like this, it’s simply lack of foresight that gets companies in trouble.
“A lot of it breaks down to just carelessness,” said Amacher. “Just carelessness with this sensitive data. They failed to protect it both from internal employees, restricting access to their internal team, but then also implementing pretty basic cybersecurity measures to keep people from the outside out.”
Other than not purchasing smart camera devices, Amacher said customers need to be extra cautious if they want to protect themselves.
“With these types of smart devices, be aware of where you’re placing them in your home,” he said. “We saw that a lot of the major abuses that are coming up from this case were cameras that were placed in bedrooms or in bathrooms.”
