November 20th 2014
Regular visitors to this website and national news websites will recall a news story from September about IP video cameras in homes and businesses being hacked and the footage streamed online.
The dangers have been exposed again this month after a new website was launched that allows people to watch live footage from some of the insecure cameras located in 256 countries across the world. The website – based in Russia – accesses the information by using the default login credentials, which are freely available online, for thousands of cameras.
The footage is being collected from security cameras used by businesses and members of the public, ranging from CCTV networks to keep large premises secure, down to built-in cameras on baby monitors. Some 350,000 of these cameras were purchased in the UK alone last year.
Simon Rice, Group Manager for Technology at The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) – the UK's data regulator – has today published a blog warning about the vulnerabilities of these cameras and how to set them up correctly in order to safeguard your privacy. The prevention advice is based around making sure you change from the manufacturer's default password to your own as soon as the device is set up. We add to this by saying that the new password should be chosen carefully, kept safeguarded and not be one that is used for your other accounts.
You can also find information and advice on this site on 'the internet of things' (into which category internet-connected cameras fall) and choosing and using passwords safely.
