Wyze data breach allowed 13,000 customers to view other people’s homes

Wyze data breach overview: 

• Who: Smart home products company Wyze disclosed in an email to its customers that 13,000 were impacted by a recent data breach. 
• Why: The data breach, which Wyze partly blamed on its web hosting provider Amazon Web Services, allowed users to briefly see into other peoples homes. 
• Where: Wyze cameras are used by consumers nationwide. 

The number of consumers affected by a Wyze data breach has ballooned to 13,000, days after the wireless camera company’s CEO said the company identified 14 people who were able to briefly see into homes not belonging to them. 

In an email sent to its customers, Wyze admitted that a data breach had occurred, apologized for the incident and attempted to lay part of the blame on its web hosting provider Amazon Web Services (AWS), The Verge reports. 

The breach reportedly occurred when Wyze was trying to bring its cameras back online after an outage the company attributed to AWS. Customers reported seeing mysterious images and video footage in their Events tab during that time.

Wyze, in response to the customer’s concerns, disabled access to the Events tab and launched an investigation into the incident, according to The Verge. 

Everyone affected by Wyze data breach has already been notified, company says

Wyze reportedly disclosed that 1,504 people tapped to enlarge a thumbnail that gave them a peek into another person’s home, with a few also able to see a video. 

The company, which is working to fix the issue by adding an additional layer of verification to view images or videos in the Events tab, said it has already notified everyone affected by the data breach and that more than 99% of its customers were not affected, according to The Verge. 

“We know this is very disappointing news,” the email states, as reported by The Verge. “It does not reflect our commitment to protect customers or mirror the other investments and actions we have taken in recent years to make security a top priority at Wyze.”

Wyze was involved in another data breach in December 2019, with that incident exposing 2.4 million customers’ personal information for the majority of that month.  

Were you affected by the Wyze breach? Let us know in the comments.

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