Is your security camera safe?
There is a website where you can see live footage from cameras around the world. Bedrooms, living rooms, porches, kids’ rooms — all on view 24/7, all without their owners’ knowledge or consent.
We have heard stories of cameras being hacked. Like a Texas couple who woke one night to someone growling at their 4-month-old through a baby monitor. Another example is a hacker convinced a family that the United States was under a missile attack.
In 2021, a hacker hacked into 150,000 commercial security cameras. They Included cameras in hospitals, schools, police departments, and prisons.
Safe to say, there is no shortage of bullies out there making us feel violated and helpless in our own houses. Using the very home security cameras we have installed to protect ourselves. The good news is, nine times out of 10, you can put a stop to it.
How Can My Security Camera Get Hacked?
Security cameras make our lives safer, but they are also vulnerable to attack. How vulnerable comes down to two factors:
1. How seriously the manufacturer takes security.
2. How seriously we take security.
In the worst-case scenario, we buy cheap security equipment. Take no precautions, and easily fall victim to one of the following attacks:
• A hacker buys our credentials off the dark web after a breach and uses them to access our cameras because we reuse passwords.
• A violator hacks into our cameras because we have used weak passwords or have not changed our default login credentials.
• A criminal hacks into our cameras because we have not installed the latest security patches, or the cameras are not using strong encryption.
If this sounds abstract, here is how it could all come together in the real world.
A hacker tracks down the IP address of your cheap camera. They take that IP address and use it to log in to the camera’s back end. Using the default username or password, they type in the credentials, and voilà, they are spying on you in your living room.
Thankfully, residential security camera hacks are rare. However, we can reduce the threat of a breach to almost nothing if we take a few simple precautions.
Need advice or are ready to purchase quality cameras for your home or business, we are ready to serve you today. Call us at 877-686-6642!