IMPORTANT: Make Sure Your IP Camera Is Secured!

Overview: If you own an IP Camera, this may come as a shock to you – a website is showing live footage from thousands of IP Cameras around the world! To find out what the site is, if your camera is affected and how to secure it in the future, read the blog below.

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A website called insecam.com has made the news recently after it came to light that it was streaming footage from over 70,000 IP Cameras without the owners' permission. Let's take a look at how this website gained access to these security cameras and what you can do to make sure your surveillance camera isn't targeted.

How Did The Site Gain Access To These Cameras?

One of the great features that IP Cameras have is that you can view and monitor your footage from anywhere so long as you have Internet access. To stop everyone else viewing your camera, it is generally protected by a username and password and most cameras come with default info that is intended to be updated once you set everything up. However, if you don't update these default username and passwords you can seriously compromise the security of your camera feed. This is how insecam.com has acquired footage from so many cameras – by using default information, such as “admin:admin” and “admin:12345” they easily gained access to a frame-by-frame account of the everyday events in yards, garages and homes all over the world.

How Can I Make Sure My Camera Isn't Featured On The Site?

The site states that the only way to remove your camera from their site is to “change your [camera's] default password” and this also happens to be the best way making sure it doesn't feature on the site in the first place. If you haven't already changed your camera's default password information it's crucial that you do it now!

Isn't This Website Causing A Security Issue?

It's true that insecam.com is compromising the security of thousands of surveillance set ups and in doing so, they've definitely committed a serious breach of privacy. However, the upside is that the news this site is generating will serve as a wake up call to IP Camera owners who still haven't made their cameras secure. Insecam.com would argue that had they not made this website, the footage would still be just as available, only less IP Camera owners would be aware of the issues. However, the users that this website will hurt the most are those that do not hear of it and continue to leave their cameras available to the Internet, and thanks to insecam.com, a much greater audience.

Bottom Line: This website has definitely crossed the line in terms of privacy and security, but it can't be denied that the news surrounding it will cause more people to update their IP Camera's security information. If you've seen insecam.com and read this blog post, then you'll be OK – you just need to make sure you've changed your password to something unique. The people that will suffer the most are those who never hear of this vulnerability, and who are now broadcasting their surveillance footage to a much greater audience.

To find out more about IP Cameras, Surveillance Cameras, and Security Cameras in general, contact Frontline Security in Calgary today on 403-291-9311.