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Website Peeps Into 73,000 Unsecured Security Cameras Via Default Passwords
colinneagle writes: After coming across a Russian website that streams video from unsecured video cameras that employ default usernames and passwords (the site claims it's doing it to raise awareness of privacy risks), a blogger used the information available to try to contact the people who were unwittingly streamed on the site. It didn't go well. The owner of a pizza restaurant, for example, cursed her out over the phone and accused her of "hacking" the cameras herself. And whoever (finally) answered the phone at a military building whose cameras were streaming on the site told her to "call the Pentagon."
The most common location of the cameras was the U.S., but many others were accessed from South Korea, China, Mexico, the UK, Italy, and France, among others. Some are from businesses, and some are from personal residences. Particularly alarming was the number of camera feeds of sleeping babies, which people often set up to protect them, but, being unaware of the risks, don't change the username or password from the default options that came with the cameras.
It's not the first time this kind of issue has come to light. In September 2013, the FTC cracked down on TRENDnet after its unsecured cameras were found to be accessible online. But the Russian site accesses cameras from several manufacturers, raising some new questions — why are strong passwords not required for these cameras? And, once this becomes mandatory, what can be done about the millions of unsecured cameras that remain live in peoples' homes?
The most common location of the cameras was the U.S., but many others were accessed from South Korea, China, Mexico, the UK, Italy, and France, among others. Some are from businesses, and some are from personal residences. Particularly alarming was the number of camera feeds of sleeping babies, which people often set up to protect them, but, being unaware of the risks, don't change the username or password from the default options that came with the cameras.
It's not the first time this kind of issue has come to light. In September 2013, the FTC cracked down on TRENDnet after its unsecured cameras were found to be accessible online. But the Russian site accesses cameras from several manufacturers, raising some new questions — why are strong passwords not required for these cameras? And, once this becomes mandatory, what can be done about the millions of unsecured cameras that remain live in peoples' homes?
Film at 11...
The truth is, many people are using technology today without really understanding any of it. Even my own wife is pretty gumby with computers, if I wasn't there to do something about it, I have no doubt they would be full of malware and viruses.
To quote my own Mother, "I don't want to learn all that technical stuff, I just want to use my computer".
Yea, I have to say, I have to clean her machine off of crap every year. Every time I go over there, Internet Explorer has 5 or 6 toolbars installed because she clicks on everything.
And no, she won't let me restrict and lock down the machine, I've tried that.
http://www.insecam.com/
Default, simple or non-existent passwords on consumer appliances have nothing to do with programmers.
So, I had a wireless router once that would not turn on until I changed the password. It is very much a problem that can be solved by programmers.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
I know you are joking, but the line was plagiarized/borrowed. The original line was "life, liberty, and the pursuit of property". But It wasn't simply about the right to accumulate a bunch of luxuries; in context, it was referring to the pursuit of things that are somehow relevant to a satisfying and productive life. So it would be the right to pursue home ownership for your family, maybe fields for farming, and for many ./ers, it would be the right to accumulate gadgets, for the musically inclined, the right to procure instruments, etc. It doesn't take much of a stretch to go from this sort of enlightened satisfaction, to calling it merely "happiness" for simplicity.
Take it from someone who, at 51, is debt-free, has a net-worth of almost $2M, but lost his wife in 2006 after 20 years together, "property" does not make "happiness". Though having "things" might make your pursuit of satisfaction and/or productivity (whatever that means to you) easier, property is a means to an end. Happiness is something you realize from within and, possibly, experience with someone else.
Even after 20 years together, Sue and I held hands where ever we went - I miss that and nothing else I have can, or could ever, compensate for losing her. Remember Sue...
The line is better written as, "the pursuit of happiness."
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .