Technology has made our lives a lot easier but it has also made hackers more prevalent than ever before. Two men have been accused of carrying out a “swatting spree” as they allegedly hacked into a dozen Ring doorbell cameras across the country and live-streamed police response.
Kya Christian Nelson and James Thomas Andrew McCarty were indicted by a federal grand jury for the incidents which took place over the span of a week back in November 2020. The pair allegedly “gained access” to several home security door cameras sold by Ring LLC and obtained login information from Yahoo email accounts.
With this access, Nelson and McCarty would then call 911 to the victims’ addresses and made fake reports, intending to generate an emergency response to their homes. This act is called “swatting.” The 21 and 20-year-old live streamed the audio and video on social media as authorities responded to the hoax calls, while allegedly taunting officers and residents through the cameras.
Incidents happened all over the country including California, Florida, Michigan, Montana, Texas and Illinois. The series of swatting incidents prompted the FBI to issue a public service announcement, urging anyone with smart home devices to use more complex passwords to prevent similar attacks in the future.
For their crimes, both Nelson and McCarty were charged with one count of conspiracy to intentionally access computers without authorization. Nelson was additionally charged with two counts of intentionally accessing without authorization a computer and two counts of aggravated identity theft. If convicted, each of the men faces a sentence of five years in federal prison.