Streaming video from surveillance cameras around the world is available to the public on a website, not because they have been hacked, but because their owners failed to protect access using a password.
Inadequate security protection is certain to be subject to scrutiny by third parties. However, many users seem to not value the protection of their privacy, nor that of their customers. Don't laugh because you may well be the customer whose store, hotel, or business has innocently exposed you.
So the administrators of the website insecam.com have created a system that automatically searches the internet for cameras and DVR systems that, to protect them from unauthorized access, have the default username and password of the classic pair admin: admin and admin: 12345 (in 2014 please).
It should be noted that cameras that are built into personal computers or connected via USB are not taken into account. But in addition to these, there are also IP cameras (cameras with a built-in IP address so that they can be connected directly to the internet) which are widely used to monitor homes, the interior or exterior of a residence, or even in public places to prevent theft.
It seems that the administrators of the website insecam.com want to raise awareness about the importance of implementing a personal password to keep data private , otherwise anyone can search the Internet and find cameras that use default credentials for access.
Imagine also that just as you can see this information, burglars can do the same, and even online. All they have to do is press the record button and record the victim's daily life.
Now, notice, the FAQ section of the website clearly states that the availability of the video streams is not the result of a hack attempt, but simply the use of publicly available and free online tools that help you locate them. Google is a way to start, but there are other search engines that can be used, such as Shodanhq.com which is specifically designed to find components online based on various criteria.
"The owners of these cameras use the default password for an unknown reason. There are many ways to search for such cameras on the Internet using Google, search software or other specialized search sites," we read in the site's FAQ.
There are tens of thousands of cameras on insecam.com, and new ones are being added all the time. If you recognize a familiar place, you can ask its owners to disable it, or change the default password.
At the time of writing this article, on November 12, 2014, at the top of the list of insecure IP cameras is the United States with 11,046, the Republic of Korea with 6,536, China with 4,770, etc. With a rough calculation, we estimate the total to be around 73,000.
[alert variation=”alert-info”] There are 335 cameras in Greece and searching among them we found private villas, the interior of a hotel in Attica (lobby, swimming pool, gym, corridors, parking, etc.), shops (external and internal cameras that “see” the cash register), tutoring centers and a bunch of businesses. The photo in this article is from a hotel in Attica where we have removed some areas that were crowded at the time of sampling, for privacy reasons.[/alert]
Source: secnews.gr
