Despite of our repeated warnings, some people thought about hackers breaking into a child’s room by hacking into baby monitor an isolated incident. We continued to voice our concerns and warned people that the same surveillance cams responsible for securing their homes can (and will) be used against them.
Therefore, we were not surprise when a Russian website – who’s name we will not disclose due to privacy concerns – recently shocked the entire world by streaming live video from thousands of private US surveillance webcams and other webcams from around the world. The hacked webcams were installed in baby rooms, hospitals, offices and many other private locations.
Who is Responsible? We Are!
The hackers found it very easy to accomplish their evil task since most of the webcams still had their default or manufacturer password as security.
Furthermore, the default login credentials set by the manufacturers are not complex at all and are just a Google-search away since they are freely available online. It is our responsibility to protect our privacy, rather than expecting hackers to turn over a new leaf.
Do You See the Light Now?
So, who’s to blame for this fiasco; the hackers, the website or the people who took their security too lightly? The answer is all three. However, the blame mostly rests on the shoulder of the people who installed these webcams and ignored the all important task of changing the password.
Don’t Be Careless
The website that streamed the content from these webcams “claims” that it did so to raise awareness and draw attention to the fact that people are in fact very careless about their own security.
While we don’t buy the notion of invading someone’s privacy to raise awareness, we do agree that the website got access to them because of the webcam owner’s own carelessness.
Privacy? What Privacy!
We are not mentioning the name of the website because we don’t want to promote the unethical practice of invading people’s privacy. However, we did browse through the website to check legitimacy of the website and saw live streams from the U.S., France, Japan, Hong Kong, etc.
UK’s Reaction
The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) group manager, Simon Rice, said that it was
“A threat that all of us need to be aware of and be taking action to protect against”.
Mr. Rice further said,
“The ability to access footage remotely is both an internet camera’s biggest selling point and, if not set up correctly, potentially its biggest security weakness. Remember, if you can access your video footage over the internet, then what is stopping someone else from doing the same? You may think that having to type in an obscure web address to access the footage provides some level of protection. However, this will not protect you from the remote software that hackers often use to scan the internet for vulnerable devices. In some cases, insecure cameras can be identified using nothing more than an internet search engine”.
What to Do Now?
Change your passwords. Don’t EVER keep default passwords. Come up with strong passwords that are difficult to guess, even for those who know a lot about you.
Plus, you need to be invisible on the internet, hide your data stream and encrypt your webcam data transmission. Get PureVPN and enjoy 3 core benefits:
– Become invisible on the internet by hiding your real IP with 77,000+ IPs from 87+ countries.
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– Encrypt all your data using up to 256-bit of military-grade encryption.
Do not take your privacy lightly. Get PureVPN, now!
PureVPN
November 24, 2022
1 year ago
