back to article Swatting suspects charged with subverting Ring doorbell cams and calling cops

Two men have been charged with an alleged week-long US swatting spree in which they used stolen Yahoo email credentials to break into Ring door cameras, livestream the events on social media, and then taunt responding police officers. One of the two men, Kya Christian Nelson, aka "ChumLul," 21, of Racine, Wisconsin, is already …

  1. Gene Cash Silver badge

    Charges?

    Where's the charges of misuse of an emergency number, filing a false police report, and intent to endanger someone by filing a false police report?

    1. b0llchit Silver badge
      Facepalm

      Re: Charges?

      They probably billed the swatted families. Somebody gotta pay.

    2. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: Charges?

      There can't have been an attempt to endanger someone because armed US police would never harm someone unless it was absolutely unavoidable to protect innocent bystanders

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Charges?

        You forgot the sarcasm tag..

        1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

          Re: Charges?

          Does make it rather difficult to prosecute though.

          The accused knew that we, the police, are a bunch of trigger happy thugs who would shoot first and ask questions later and they were relying on this to get someone hurt.

    3. Ian Mason

      Re: Charges?

      It's there, it's just that the charges aren't detailed:

      If convicted, they each face a maximum of five years in federal prison for the conspiracy charges, while Nelson faces an additional seven years for the other counts related to the swatting spree.

      I note that "swatting" isn't a new thing, and I can't recall anybody being pursued with quite so much vigour before. I think the clue to the enthusiasm and efficiency of the authorities in this case is in the phrase verbally taunt responding police officers. Innocent people being threatened at gunpoint is one thing, but failing to "Repect mah authoritah!" is an altogether more serious matter.

      1. The Axe

        Re: Charges?

        "failing to "Repect mah authoritah!" is an altogether more serious matter."

        This is the key thing about this case.

        1. NoneSuch Silver badge
          Pirate

          Re: Charges?

          Watch out for a Ring camera to be installed in the prison shower so the victims can get their own back watching the two little darlings surrounded by real crims.

          Hover over Pirate icon for the perfect catch phrase.

      2. Helcat

        Re: Charges?

        One of them was in prison already: That suggests the police had access to his computer and phone and found some evidence of these crimes and followed it up to catch the other guy, too. Emails, phone calls: The usual.

        So I'm not so convinced this was followed up with vigour: More likely it was just stumbled upon as part of a follow up investigation.

      3. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: Charges?

        > I can't recall anybody being pursued with quite so much vigour before

        This was an outside person doing it.

        Rather than the call being made form the payphone inside the police station against a house they couldn't get a warrant for

  2. Will Godfrey Silver badge
    Facepalm

    I'm trying to be surprised by this.

    ... but failing miserably. It was 100% predictable that sooner-or-later someone would do this. The kit is almost designed to fail.

    Hmmm. Did I say "designed".

    1. b0llchit Silver badge
      Big Brother

      Re: I'm trying to be surprised by this.

      Yes, it was designed. Not to fail, but to be used for surveillance. No, not to the benefit of the owner... all for the seller to monetize the imagery and get paid handsomely from the owners and even more from the police in semi secret deals.

    2. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: I'm trying to be surprised by this.

      Isn't it also a plot point in the sequel to William Gibson's neuromancer from about 30 years ago ?

  3. mhoulden

    Of course the culprits deserve punishment. But why is it so easy to get an armed response unit out on the strength of a single phone call in the first place?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Amadhouse the great

      In US the police all have guns. In US there are too many guns, thus making the first point necessary. These unfortunate facts have been in place for quite a while. I'm amazed at your amazement.

      BTW: Someone recently made an observation as follows: "I don’t think our plan to have a society made up of 300 million rugged individualists is going well."

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: Amadhouse the great

        >In US the police all have guns

        Which is just unnecessary these days. Instead of calling 911 and have the police send a unit to shoot the target we could have a simple phone menu system linked to precision artillery.

        Press 1 for high explosive, 2 for armoured piercing

        Thank you, please enter the coordinates of the address press pound when finished.

      2. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

        Re: Amadhouse the great

        Unfortunately it's more like 300 rugged individualists and 2999700 self-deluded wanna-bes.

        (Some of the 300 may be self-deluded as well.)

      3. low_resolution_foxxes

        Re: Amadhouse the great

        To be fair, the police also have to encounter and subdue a fair share of American heavily armed psychopaths.

        It is quite bizarre watching US videos of cops dealing with armed mental health patients...

  4. sarusa Silver badge
    Devil

    Seems kind of poetic

    If you have a Ring doorbell you stuck a badly designed surveillance device on the front of your house that shares its video footage with the cops (paid for using your tax money). The fact that the cops love these makes it doubly delicious that they'd get taunted by their own spy devices.

    Victims sometimes get killed by trigger-happy pigs when they're SWATted, so I probably should tut tut, but since nobody actually got hurt that I can tell, it's rather hilarious.

    1. Danny 14

      Re: Seems kind of poetic

      so you would find it hilarious if your wife and kids are woken at 2AM by a squad of armed police shouting and booting the door in? Not aure I find it hilarious.

      What about if it was the neighbours house and the swat teams used your lawn, fence and back yard to go piling through?

      Doesnt sound like fun to me. I assume you have never seen such an operation in effect. You might have a lot of bravado now but it isnt like the movies and is a lot more scary in real life. Especially if you have your own kids who are crying in terror.

      1. ChoHag Silver badge

        Re: Seems kind of poetic

        The fun part is watching the system eating itself. People suffering for the cause an unfortunate side effect that your media has conveniently immunised us to.

        I've no doubt it's possible to get armed police to bash down a stranger's door outside the US but you guys make it SO EASY. Now it's all coming out and your police are caught with their trousers* down, exposing the executive branch for what it is. Big Tech getting a kicking is the delicious icing on top. And we all get to watch. Where's the popcorn?

        [*] Sorry, pants. Or is that panties?

        1. Bongwater

          Re: Seems kind of poetic

          Cho'Gall > Cho'Hag!

          For the Swarm!

          I mean horde!!!

          Btw I loved that series by Edding.

          Silk is my favorite character (probably kind of obvious I guess) and then the knight whose name begins with M.

          I swear it's Mandorellan? I knew it was close to the Star Wars nomenclature.

    2. Jellied Eel Silver badge

      Re: Seems kind of poetic

      If you have a Ring doorbell you stuck a badly designed surveillance device on the front of your house that shares its video footage with the cops (paid for using your tax money). The fact that the cops love these makes it doubly delicious that they'd get taunted by their own spy devices.

      A simple solution. LEO's can jump into the Ring as soon as the crime is reported to start collecting intelligence. Or they can hop onto the Prime Crime channel, select 'crimes in progress' and join the watch party. Then to improve public safety, homeowners Rings will be stretched by integrating Alexa and internal cameras. This sensor integration will obviously greatly improve public safety and resource allocation.

      Kinda suprised Amazon hasn't already included a 360 degree camera in Alexa hardware (or have they?) given the potential value of the footage it could capture.

      1. Helcat

        Re: Seems kind of poetic

        They foolishly fitted a physical cover for the lens, so the camera can be blocked.

        Not so the audio... that looks like it's a soft switch.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Seems kind of poetic

      If you've never been on the wrong end of an armed police house raid (drug raid at a wrong address) in the US, you don't know how close you can come to dying due to "stupidity". The police are shouting to shock-and-awe you into compliance (they're trained to do that), but, they are all shouting different things. "Freeze!" "Get on the ground, now!" "Put your hands above your head!" etc. The officers are all adrenalized and twitchy, but because they disagree on what you are supposed to do, anything you do, or do not do, can be viewed as the 'wrong' thing and can result in you being shot. And, it's not even as clear as I wrote above: all I heard was a stream of loud, random syllables; I wasn't able to mentally process what I heard, because I was adrenalized and scared as fuck.

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: Seems kind of poetic

        Look that baby might have had a WMD concealed in its cot - it was necessary to throw the stun grenade in there to protect lives

  5. Winkypop Silver badge
    Stop

    Charge the scrotes $100 per officer per minute

    Including dispatchers, patrol officers and processing clerks.

    1. Danny 14

      Re: Charge the scrotes $100 per officer per minute

      A stretch with bubba will certainpy change their minds. They will be traded like playing cards.

      1. ChoHag Silver badge
        Thumb Down

        Re: Charge the scrotes $100 per officer per minute

        You are a worse example of a human being than these two combined.

        1. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

          Re: Charge the scrotes $100 per officer per minute

          Don't know if I'd go that far, but it is time for people to grow up and stop treating prison rape as a joke or an appropriate form of punishment, rather than as a reprehensible crime and inexcusable failure of an already broken-by-design incarceration system.

          The US, at both the Federal and State levels, likes to officially pretend its prison system is rehabilitatory (albeit with a tendency to use the rather sinister term "corrections") and unofficially celebrate it as punitive, when it's mostly institutionalized racism and government-controlled slavery. Changing that starts with assuming (and saying) it ought to be better, rather than celebrating its flaws.

  6. DS999 Silver badge

    Another reason not to get a Ring doorbell

    If swatters are more likely to swat those who have one so they can watch the result happening live instead of reading police reports the next day.

    1. Danny 14

      Re: Another reason not to get a Ring doorbell

      Agreed, but we who post on here are more likely to have an arduino project than ring. Its the regular joes who think they are helping thair parents or spouse and kids while they are away that bothers me.

  7. A random security guy

    Questions about security and privacy model

    Two of my neighbors have Ring cameras. They have videos of a guy who breaks into our mailboxes. The police can't do anything.

    I have a few Simple questions:

    1. Is the username/password combo the only authentication required?

    2. What is the data retention policy when the video is shared with the police?

    3. Is there a right to be able to get a copy of the data?

    4. Are the police or private companies mining the data?

  8. FlamingDeath Silver badge

    First question

    What is wrong with these people?

    I don't think prison will help them, possibly the mental asylum might?

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