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Google Exposes Web Surveillance Cams

An anonymous reader writes "Blogs and message forums buzzed this week with the discovery that a pair of simple Google searches permits access to well over 1,000 unprotected surveillance cameras around the world - apparently without their owners' knowledge." Apparently many of the cams are even aimable. Oops!

25 of 453 comments (clear)

  1. The question is by cainskltn · · Score: 4, Funny

    What is the search keyword.

    1. Re:The question is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      inurl:/view/index.shtml

    2. Re:The question is by AstroDrabb · · Score: 4, Informative
      Here is the webcam search URL:
      inurl:"view/index.shtml"
      Here is a list of others
      --
      If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land,
      it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. -James Madison
    3. Re:The question is by ffunch · · Score: 5, Informative

      I did a page at http://www.opentopia.com/hiddencam.php that picks up a few hundred of the cameras found in google with inurl:"axis-cgi/mjpg", scans them every couple of hours, grabs the first picture from the Motion JPEG stream, geocodes them with their general location, and shows them in one page for easy access. Saves a bit of the trouble.

  2. Security vs. Stupidity by bigattichouse · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This just underlines the engineer's problem with making something secure, yet making sure every moron in the U.S. can plug it in and turn it on and have it basically work.

    --
    meh
    1. Re:Security vs. Stupidity by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Insightful
      This just underlines the engineer's problem with making something secure, yet making sure every moron in the U.S. can plug it in and turn it on and have it basically work.

      Well, it's really just another example of engineers doing the job right, only to then have a PHB of some ilk tell them, "Now I want to be able to watch this from my office or my cell phone or from home, etc." Where the Engineer exclaims, "Doh!" and does it because he/she's not paid to THINK.

      --

      A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    2. Re:Security vs. Stupidity by JPriest · · Score: 4, Informative

      These are not peoples personal webcams, these are $500 - $2000 buisness cameras most of them are watching traffic and empty offices, and seem to be intended for public access.

      --
      Saying Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
    3. Re:Security vs. Stupidity by elpapacito · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's not the job of engineers goddamit !

      I'm sick and tired of hearing marketing, human resources, finance and 99% of the world of "business" come cry me a river when they complain system doesn't work as expected because they didn't know what the customer really wanted. Not even the customer knew what he wanted, they all came to me saying " it must be cheap and basically print me money "

      Yeah sure and If I had the method I'd be working for you fools would I ?

      Go ask Alan Greenspan you yahoos !

  3. some cameras by cat.os.mandros · · Score: 4, Informative

    For the curious, here there is an article (in spanish, sorry) with some links to cams and what terms to search to find more, happy watching :)

    http://sindominio.net/suburbia/article.php3?id_art icle=146

  4. The best ones so far by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    I got a jump on this from the Boing Boing post a couple days ago. I use inurl:"axis-cgi/mjpg".
    This one seems to show every page printed off of some printer. http://81.72.76.218/view/index.shtml. Right now it's some photo.
    This one http://217.148.2.106/view/index.shtml shows somes bar (German?) that seems very active.
    This one http://24.173.235.172:8001/axis-cgi/mjpg/video.cgi ?camera=&showlength=1&resolution=640x480 Shows animals under the knife, I've yet to catch a surgery yet.

    Anybody find any other cool ones?

    1. Re:The best ones so far by asreal · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Austin International Airport Security:

      http://lobbycamera4.abia.org/axis-cgi/mjpg/video .c gi?camera=&resolution=640x480

  5. interesting by mr_tommy · · Score: 4, Informative

    On pages with non-enlish text (E.G. this one http://aquashop-es.miemasu.net/MultiCameraFrame?Mo de=Motion&Language=1)

    change language=1 to language=0 to get english text.

  6. Simple solution by Snags · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It should be obvious, but any web server that doesn't want to be on google should serve up the appropriate robots.txt file. This includes webcams in their default configuration.

    --
    main(O){10<putchar((O--,102-((O&4)*16| (31&60>>5*(O&3)))))&&main(2+ O);}
    LN2 is cool!
  7. Welcome to last October by dq5+studios · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Johnny at IHackStuff has a huge list of fun things like this you can get from google.
    Here is the list of searches for network aware stuff: Google Cached since main site is down
    Some search phrases for cameras are: "camera linksys inurl:main.cgi" and
    "powered by webcamXP" "Pro|Broadcast"

    Don't forget that google can limit results to region by using "site:.jp" or similar.

  8. Does it matter they are public? by nurb432 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Since most of them are being used as simple security cameras for simi-public areas, there really isn't much secret data that is going to be discovered..

    So you can watch cars in a parking lot.. Or people mill around the mall...Big risk there..

    I don't see a big deal that most of them are not being locked down. Unless i missed something here..

    --
    ---- Booth was a patriot ----
  9. Re:Run your own surveillance by wankledot · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I work with IP video surveillance (among other things) for a living.

    This is a good example of why you SHOULD trust some other company. Chances are that company knows more than you do about setting up a system. Choosing the right people to work with is obviously important. I wouldn't trust myself to set up an alarm system for my offices, I would hire someone who knew what they were doing.

    Most of the good cameras out there have built-in webservers. Sending motion JPEG over a network from the embedded webserver on the camera is the most common and efficient way to manage a larger camera installation, especially if you are recording. If you have a school district with 10 sites, 5 cameras each, using a network video system and central recording is a fraction of the cost of a traditional CCTV or even DVR (digital recording of analog cameras) setup. Configuring the camera incorrectly leads to problems like this, taking a step backwards to CCTV or other technology is not the answer.

    --
    My sig is blank, I typed this by hand.
  10. Re:Daycares with cams by horza · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Maybe it's the paranoid dad in me, but while it may be nice to see what my kids and teachers are doing, it scares me that some pediphile may be watching what kids are doing, learning their favorite activites, and their overall daily schedule. The ped could even be a parent that has a kid registered at the school making access even easier. So in the end, I axed schools that has cams (especially wireless ones) and convinced my wife based on the reasons above.

    You sound totally paranoid. The driver of your school bus could be a pedo. In fact don't take your kid to the beach, a pedo-infested hunting ground. Statistically walking down the street your kid may pass a few.

    Despite what the media may say, the world is populated by mostly normal people. Teaching your kid the dangers and a bit of common sense, and a CCTV camera by the school gates where the kids are picked up, should ensure nothing happens. Please don't inflict your irrational fears on your kids, the media and certain Prominent Politicians will be doing far too much of that already.

    Phillip.

  11. Re:Daycares with cams by BorgCopyeditor · · Score: 5, Funny
    FerretFrottage (714136)

    Funny how people with one deviant obsession are so annoyed by people with another. ;-)

    --
    Shop as usual. And avoid panic buying.
  12. Re:Daycares with cams by danila · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You are an idiot. It is an order of magnitude more likely that your child would be raped/coerced to sex by your brother, uncle, father, cousin or another relative. Not to mention that you are extremely likely to mess up the life of the child in the future with your paranoia. No, Cindy, you can't go on a hiking trip with your class, a pervert may be hiding in the woods. No, Cindy, you can't go to a prom, there might be a paedophile there. No, Cindy, I don't like that boyfriend of yours, he seems to be sexually attracted to young girls. Meanwhile you probably secretly fantasize about having sex with underage cheerleaders yourself...

    --
    Future Wiki -- If you don't think about the future, you cannot have one.
  13. Re:Run your own surveillance by djdavetrouble · · Score: 4, Funny

    Listen, I am getting tired of this joke, sure, lots of you are socially inept nerds, but I do have a wife, and I know for a fact that she is outside showing the gardener something or other in the back yard. Let me pull up my surveillance cam, see, there she is showing the gardener the. um . WTF ?!

    --
    music lover since 1969
  14. Google stopped me by future+assassin · · Score: 5, Interesting
    If I use inurl:"webcam/index.php evantually I get this message from Google Thsi only happens with the above text using .php and not inurl:/view/index.shtml With .shtml I can search forever.

    Google Error We're sorry... ... but we can't process your request right now. A computer virus or spyware application is sending us automated requests, and it appears that your computer or network has been infected. We'll restore your access as quickly as possible, so try again soon. In the meantime, you might want to run a virus checker or spyware remover to make sure that your computer is free of viruses and other spurious software. We apologize for the inconvenience, and hope we'll see you again on Google.

    --
    by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
    1. Re:Google stopped me by kiddailey · · Score: 4, Insightful

      lol - it would seem to me that they their automated tools are mistaking a slashdotting for an infection.

    2. Re:Google stopped me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      mistaking?

  15. This is awesome... by Cryptnotic · · Score: 4, Funny

    Meanwhile you probably secretly fantasize about having sex with underage cheerleaders yourself...

    In case anyone didn't notice, danila looked up the posting history of FerretFrottage and found a post to use as incriminating evidence against him. This is a rather advanced flaming technique. I am quite impressed. Well done.

    --
    My other first post is car post.