Nelson, McCarty Hacked Ring Cameras, Swatted Residents: Feds
#Nelson #McCarty #Hacked #Ring #Cameras #Swatted #Residents #Feds Welcome to InNewCL, here is the new story we have for you today:
Click Me To View Restricted Videos
Photo: CC Photo Labs (Shutterstock)
Two men have been charged with hacking into at least a dozen Amazon Ring cameras across the country, beating the owners and streaming the episodes.
Authorities say that in November 2020, Kya Christian Nelson, 21, of Racine, Wisconsin, and James Thomas Andrew McCarty, 20, of Charlotte, North Carolina, went on a “beat-up spree,” carrying out a series of attacks on unsuspecting homeowners across the US
According to a Department of Justice press release from the Central District of California, where the men are now charged, Nelson and McCarty are accused of hitting random homes and then using the residences’ hacked ring surveillance cameras to track the police response into the social media to stream media. The duo’s alleged hacking attack took place over the course of a week between November 7th and 13th, 2020 and targeted homes in states as far away as California, Texas, Montana, Michigan, Georgia, Virginia, Illinois and Florida.
Swatting involves making 911 hoax calls, often in an attempt to trick police into falsely responding to specific locations, which can be incredibly dangerous. In a 2017 episode, a man was accidentally shot dead by police after two men ransacked his home. One of the gossips was later sentenced to 20 years in prison.
After police rushed to the homes in question, Nelson and McCarty would use the Ring cameras to “share the audio and video from those devices on social media during the police operation,” authorities said. They would also frequently “taunt” and threaten responding officers through the cameras, the indictment said. In one particular incident in West Covina, California, the men reportedly called the police while posing as a “minor child.” During the call, they reported that the child’s parents were “drinking and shooting guns in the apartment,” prompting a police response.
Authorities say the two men carried out their hacking activities under the guise of online pseudonyms – Nelson as “ChumLul” and McCarty as “Aspertaine”. In order to hack the home security systems, they allegedly used compromised Yahoo account credentials linked to the Ring cameras. It is not clear where Nelson and McCarty obtained these credentials, although it is easy to acquire this type of information on the dark web.
Nelson and McCarty were both indicted by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles last week and now both face felony charges of conspiracy to intentionally access computers without permission. In addition, Nelson faces two counts of intentionally accessing a computer without authorization and two counts of aggravated identity theft.
The attached indictment also states that the duo worked with a third co-conspirator, an unnamed youth. Other “knowns and strangers” are said to have been involved, which makes the whole thing sound a lot like a gossip gang making for sick laughs.
If convicted, Nelson and McCarty each face up to five years in prison. If convicted of aggravated identity theft, they face a mandatory two-year prison sentence. Nelson is already behind bars in connection with another case, officials say.
