There are concerns that private webcams around the world could be unsecure and streaming live images or video to anybody who wishes to view them — all without their owner knowing. This security issue has arisen over the past few years as the use of laptop, household, and baby security webcams are now connected via the Internet giving us the convenience of monitoring them with a single click of mouse or tap on an app. But with this convenience, comes greater responsibility and much concern when securing internet connected cameras of all types and kinds.
With the rise of the connected home, many different products around your house are connected to the internet; from expected devices like your laptop, smartphone and television to less expected products like your fridge, kettle and even your toaster. Security cameras, baby monitors and laptop webcams are normally the most targeted and almost by necessity also connected, meaning that if they are not secured properly, not only yourself but anyone with the means and ability could potentially access them as well. The problem for most security cameras is that because they are connected to the Internet, they need to be accessible from apps and websites which will need usernames and passwords and therefore are potentially open to anyone. This means that to access your live camera , a hacker only needs the address and correct login details (username and password) for your device.
Many of the off-the-shelf security cameras and baby monitors usually ship with the same default login details and sometimes don’t force the user to change them when setting them up, and these default login details are freely available online from the manufacturers website. As for laptop and computer webcams, hacking into them would require the user to get infected with a virus, either through an attachment in an email or browsing questionable websites which, without adequate antivirus protection, would allow the hacker access to the camera while the computer is on;something like what was reported in the news earlier this month when a 27-year-old Toronto woman had intimate photos of herself and her boyfriend watching Netflix sent to her by a hacker who was able to gain access to her laptop’s webcam or back in July a southwestern Ontario family had a creepy encounter with a camera monitoring their young child when it suddenly began playing music and a voice said they were being watched.
To make using web-connected cameras more secure the first thing you should always do is change the system’s password. Many of the common web monitoring cameras out there now usually have the same default username and password and so just by changing it that will reduce your chance of getting hacked into. While changing the default password is a good first step, you really need to make sure that password is not an obvious one like your name or popular choices like “password1” or “12345”. Also too, when it comes to computer webcams, people can protect themselves from device hacking by installing software updates and guarding against phishing scams where hackers attempt to solicit sensitive information. In any event, if you are using any web-based camera make sure you have some checks in place to minimize your risk getting hacked into.
For further information the government of Canada’s website has lots of tips and helpful hints to securing your webcam. You can find out more at: http://tiny.cc/staysecure.
How To Protect Yourself From Webcam Hackers
