Your home security camera stream possible online with zero passwords that protect it
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- Standard passwords and outdated firmware change your home camera into a public live stream, reports warnings
- Thousands of exposed webcams offer a chair in the front row in private and business life
- A simple web browser is everything that is needed to peep in 40,000 uncovered camerafeds
Thousands of internet-bonded webcamsIntended to improve safety and convenience, now unintentionally offer a window of private lives and secure environments.
Research by Bitsight claims that more than 40,000 webcams around the world are publicly online, often without knowledge of their owners.
These include security cameras, baby fanitors, office monitoring systems and even devices in hospitals and factories.
A growing digital threat, not a hypothetical threat
The research emphasizes how easily these cameras are easily accessible.
“No passwords. No protection. Just there,” João Cruz, chief scientist of main safety at Bitsight Trace, and noted that neither elite hacking skills nor expensive software requires. In many cases, the only thing is needed is a web browser and a valid IP address.
“We raised the alarm for the first time in 2023 and based on this latest study, the situation did not improve.”
Exposed images range from innocent scenes, such as bird feeds, to much more sensitive view, such as home entry points, live feeds from living rooms, whiteboards in office spaces and even operations in data centers.
Together, disturbing conversations have emerged on dark web forums, where some users share methods for finding exposed cameras or even sell access to live feeds.
“This is not hypothetical: this is happening now,” Cruz emphasized.
The United States leads with around 14,000 exposed cameras, followed by Japan, Austria, the Czech Republic and South Korea. These are not insulated incidents, but part of a broader failure in how cameras are implemented and managed with the internet.
The Bitsight team was scanned on cameras based on HTTP and RTSP, and the results suggest that these figures can only scratch the surface.
Many of the exposed devices are the result of basic settings errors: standard references, open internet access and outdated firmware that make systems vulnerable.
Although suppliers and manufacturers have to improve the security of the device, users also share responsibility.
Choosing products to be informed for cyber security can help, but users must also combine their camera setups with tools such as leading antivirus Software and great appreciated parental supervision Solutions that often include network monitoring to mark unusual access or unprotected devices.
Ultimately, private users must always check the accessibility settings remotely, change standard passwords, regularly update firmware and, in particular for companies, maintain firewall Protection and require VPN access.
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