Piracy of surveillance cameras: what is the problem and how to protect yourself?Piracy of surveillance cameras: how to protect yourself?

The phenomenon is not new, but it is clear that despite the many warnings in the media in recent years, it has continued.Thousands of webcams around the world, and several dozen in Belgium, are accessible to everyone via the Insecam website.org.A subject broadcast on the VRT this Wednesday, August 2, proved it once again.

Most often they are cameras arranged in warehouses, parking spaces in front of houses, horses of horse...or, more worrying, in living rooms of individuals, even children's rooms.

What is the problem ?

When you install a surveillance camera at home or in your business, you have the choice between two possibilities:

It is in this second case that you have to be very careful.If you do not protect your camera with a username and password, anyone, by connecting to the right internet address (IP address), will be able to see the images broadcast by your device.The principle is the same as when you do not secure your WiFi network.Without password (or without sufficiently secure password), anyone can access your network and surf on the web.

But above all, do not use the password provided by default by the webcam manufacturer.It is in this fault that the Insecam site.ORG rushed.The creators of this site have undertaken to seek all the cameras of the world connected to the Internet without password...or with the password configured by default by manufacturers such as Panasonic, Linksys, Sony or Tplink.

It's a well -known thing about computer lovers.Often user names and passwords are identical for all the same devices.It is up to the user to choose a password known to him alone.Thus, at the dawn of the 2010s, all the BBOX modems of Belgacom had the same password by default.It was enough to know him to connect to any network for which the owner had not bored to configure a personal password...

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How to protect yourself?

You must change the username and the generic password created by the manufacturer.But it all depends on the camera model....It is better to take a look in the user manual of your device.Or, if you don't have it anymore, tap in a search engine the terms "change camera password + device model".

What about computers?

Another point to emphasize: the webcam found today above the screen of the majority of computers can also be hacked remotely.The user is often not warned, not even on a Mac computer which in principle displays a small green light when the camera is active (see this article of the Washington Post published in 2013) on this subject).

It is therefore better to equip itself with an antivirus, do regular analyzes of your hard drive and - it is advice that is worth in all situations - make regular backups of your data.But the surest is undoubtedly to hide the webcam on your computer when you don't use it.This is the solution chosen by Mark Zuckerberg Himself.The Facebook creator uses a MacBook Pro laptop which he took care to obstruct the camera and the microphone with black tape...

We even find on the internet small "webcam hide", a sort of eyeleton that we can open and close depending on whether or not to use your computer camera.