Former ADT employee spied on hundreds of Dallas area families for 7 years, company says – SecurityInfoWatch

An employee of Boca Raton-based ADT Security Services had access to streaming security camera footage from inside homes of hundreds of the company's customers, according to a federal lawsuit filed Monday, May 18, 2020.

(Joe Cavaretta/Sun Sentinel)

At least 220 Dallas-Fort Worth families were spied on in their homes by an ADT employee who hacked home security cameras in the area, according to the security company.

Two class-action federal lawsuits were filed Monday against ADT, which is one of the largest security companies in the country. One suit was filed on behalf of ADT customers and the other represents those who were spied on in those customers homes.

In April, aDFW customer discovered an unknown person had access to their ADT security camera. After an investigation, ADT found an employee had access to hundreds of customers accounts and had been watching people in their homes for seven years, according to the lawsuits filed in the Southern District of Florida, where the company is based.

I am just horrified that a company that holds itself as the number one security option allowed this to happen, attorney Amy Carter said. They gave access to someones home when they were seeking additional security.

In a statement, ADT said the company reported to police in April that an employee gained access to 220 accounts in the Dallas area. A spokesman said the company put measures in place to prevent this from happening again, but did not expand on what those measures were. The employee has since been fired.

We deeply regret what happened to the 220 customers affected by this incident and have contacted them to help resolve their concerns, the statement said. We are supporting law enforcements investigation of the former employee and are committed to helping bring justice to those impacted by his improper actions.

In late April, ADT started to contact customers and tell them what happened. The company offered confidentially agreements to customers in exchange for monetary payments, according to the lawsuit.

One of those customers was DFW resident Shana Doty, the plaintiff in the first lawsuit.

ADT told Doty over the phone that the technician who worked on her indoor security camera system had granted himself remote access and had spied on her, her husband and her minor son an unknown amount of times, according to the lawsuit. Based on the position of the wide-angle camera, the technician would have been able to see the family members in their bedrooms in all of their private moments.

Other customers got the same call. One worked for Homeland Security and had a teenage daughter, who had also been viewed on the camera. Another was a mother who found out she and her daughter had been spied upon in the nude and their most private moments, Carter said.

Carter said they do not know where all the affected customers live, but they believe most of them are in the DFW area, south of Interstate 30. That area includes Fort Worth, Dallas and Arlington. Carter said they believe up to 400 households could have been hacked.

Flawed security system

The technician was able to give himself access to peoples cameras and homes because ADT did not set up simple security protections, Carter said.

The technician would add his email onto customers accounts in the ADT Pulse app when he installed or did work on a camera, the suit said. ADT did not have a dual security system in place to notify customers when an email was added. The technician was not only able to spy on households in real time, but he was also able to review previous footage, download clips and upload them to the internet, according to the lawsuit.

This was the system and policy they had set up nationwide, fellow attorney Matthew McCarley said. We dont feel very confident at all this hasnt happened elsewhere.

ADT serves 7.2 million residential and business customersin the U.S. and Canada, according to the companys website.

Carter said the FBI is investigating the employee, who was identified as Telesforo Aviles in the lawsuit. DeSoto police were also involved in the investigation, she said.

The lawsuit is asking for more than $5 million in compensation.

McCarley said ADT customers should verify who has access to their cameras and double check no one else has email access or permission to view footage.

We hope that based on the facts of the case that ADT will take this seriously and get this resolved as soon as possible, McCarley said. Because a lot of people have been hurt. The invasion of someones privacy you cant get that back.

2020 the Fort Worth Star-Telegram

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Former ADT employee spied on hundreds of Dallas area families for 7 years, company says - SecurityInfoWatch