There have been numerous reports of Ring security cameras and video doorbells being hacked, and many of them revolve around one thing: Poor passwords.
It's not just Ring, either. Owners of Nest, Blink, and other security cameras have also had their devices taken over by others, mainly due to reused and easy-to-guess passwords.
However, there's one other thing that would have made these home security cameras much more secure: Two-factor authentication. When enabled, this feature sends a verification code to a pre-assigned phone number or email address. So even if a hacker were to guess your password, they'd need either your phone or your email account in order to access your Ring account.
Here's how to set up two-factor authentication for your Ring camera.
1. Open the Ring app, and open the menu on the upper left-hand side.
2. Select Account from the menu.
3. Select Two-Factor authentication.
4. Press the button that says Turn On Two-Factor.
5. Confirm your Ring email address and password.
6. Confirm your phone number and press Continue. This is the number that the Ring app will send a verification code.
7. Enter the verification code into the Ring app. You should then see this screen.
You're all set. Your Ring camera now has two-factor authentication enabled. If you want to switch the phone number used, you have to first disable two-factor authentication, and then re-enable it with the new phone number.
Since you know what you're doing with 2FA now, you might also want to know how to set up two-factor authentication on Facebook, how to set up Gmail two-factor authentication (2FA) on your phone, how to enable 2FA on the Epic Games Store and how to enable Epic Games two-factor authentication on Fortnite.
