Cyber Espionage’s Latest Target? Your Baby Cam!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaGhGqcv2JoΩ&rel=0]
Just over a year ago I appeared on Fox Business and wrote a blog about a Texas couple who learned their child’s baby monitor had been hacked when the intruder started screaming obscenities through the device. At the time the webcam system itself was found to have some glaring vulnerabilities, which were fixed by a firmware update, but I pointed out that the bottom line is that owners had not taken the necessary steps to secure their device and the onus was ultimately on them.
Now the news has broken about the latest in cyber espionage: a Russian website that is streaming footage from thousands of devices, including baby monitors, bedroom cameras, office surveillance systems and CCTV from gyms, in more than 250 countries, including feeds from 4,591 cameras in the United States. Not only are they streaming the footage, but they are providing the coordinates of where the cameras are located!