Ring security cameras have a password, to prevent unauthorized people accessing your video. You should always add 2-Factor Authentication for additional security.
There are videos in the news lately (Dec 2019) of Ring and other brands of Internet-connected video cameras being hacked. One shows a hacker talking with a young girl in her room; this was done making a podcast to show they could hack the camera. One of the simplest ways to prevent this is using 2-Factor Authentication.
Hackers are able to guess your password, unless you use a very good password. 1) The password has to be actually hard for hackers to guess; and 2) the password has to be different than all your other passwords. Hackers have gotten millions of user name and password combinations from hacked websites.
The “rules” we’ve been taught for decades on how to make a password, are rules that all hackers know and can therefore use to guess your password. To make a secure password, and to use a password keeper software so you can keep track of all your passwords and easily fill them into your sites, see https://computerhelp.glerner.com/2016-strong-passwords-for-wordpress/
Definitely Use 2-Factor Authentication
“2-Factor Authentication” aka “2FA”, blocks someone from logging in even if they know your password. The second factor in authentication is you typing in a code that is generated on your mobile phone. (The device or site you are logging into, negotiates with your phone which code to display on your phone that you have to type into the login.)
For your Ring camera, you have the option of using 2-Factor Authentication. You run a free app such as Authy on your mobile phone, and type the code shown on the app into your Ring. (You can use the same app for all the websites that offer 2-factor authentication.)
Some of the best 2-factor authentication apps for your mobile phone are: Authy, Google Authenticator, LastPass Authenticator, QR Code, Push Notification, Soft Token and Security Questions(KBA). I picked Authy because it ran on older Android devices, has lower overhead; but you can use any well-written app.
On WordPress, I recommend using the 2-Factor Authentication built into WordFence (or if you prefer, in iThemes Security). Since you definitely should be running one of these security plugins, don’t install a separate plugin for 2-Factor Authentication.
Leave a Reply