A mother is warning parents to take extra precautions around in-home security cameras after a live video of her daughters’ bedroom ended up online.
The Houston mother – who wanted to remain anonymous – installed the cameras throughout her home to keep an eye on her three young daughters.
But she was alerted to the hack after a stranger saw a live stream video from inside the bedroom on the “Live Camera Viewer” app and posted it to Facebook in an attempt to alert the family involved.
The Houston mum quickly realised it was her house – and that her security cameras had been hacked.
“I have cameras to protect my kids and I kind of feel like we failed them,” the mother told KPRC News. “We didn’t protect them. We actually put them in harm’s way.”
While she quickly took the cameras offline, she does not know how long it was live streaming across the internet, or how many people watched it.
The family believe the cameras were hacked after one of her daughters played a video game online.
University of Houston IT expert Mary Dickerson says webcams being hacked is more common than we think, but there are ways to protect yourself and your family.
“If you don’t change the default password settings, they’re the same for everyone who bought one of those devices,” Dickerson said. “That means there are thousands of people around the world who know what you user ID and password is.”
She says the best thing you can do is to make sure you have a secure password that is only accessible to members of your household.
NetSafe New Zealand also suggests covering webcams when they are not in use simply with a piece of sticky tape or paper.
