People need to secure their home webcams

[citiesofbismuth]

This is scary. I'm on a site where you can see live webcam feeds. Most of them are boring surveillance views, but one or two are of people's houses. Kids playing in a lounge.

CV10 8** secure your webcam if you happen to be on mn.

I’ve put a little sticker over the camera on our computer.

Ds1 has a sticker over his laptop webcam. You can't really do it with phones because of the camera.

I hope someone will correct me, but I seem to remember it included baby video monitors. Things like home surveillance, cctv, video doorbells and so on.

If you search online for unsecured home cameras, unsecured home webcams, and unsecured home surveillance cameras, the websites should come up.

The thing is not to panic, but to act.

This probably means making sure your's is protected with a very strong password.

Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will come along.

Bill Gates does the sticker thing too.

I have a sticker on my imac webcam. I think you should name and shame the site OP since more people will then become aware

I don't want to draw attention to these people though. Everybody will be looking at them then.

but then they can be alerted

I'm certainly worried now about our CCTV but have no way of knowing whether we're affecetd

For the baby monitors, it's only Ines which connect to the internet that can be hacked as far as I know.

I've got a simple bt video monitor which doesn't connect to the internet and can't be hacked that I'm aware of. Unless anyone knows any different?

Ah, found it. Daily mail published the name.

Again, search for unsecured baby monitors. Which tested some, for example, and gives advice.

There are a few such websites, unfortunately, plus individual hackers trawl the web for unsecured cameras.

I read that devices are sold with factory passwords, printed in instruction booklets. Unless you set your own strong password instead, your device is vulnerable.

There seemed to be a baby sleeping in a cot being shown online.

Can you type in a post code on The website to check your own ??

Ive just looked on the website (now completely paranoid and need to scroll through them all to check ours isn't showing) and there are around 500 in the UK. Most are dark alleyways but as the OP said, there are live streams from people's living rooms!

I haven't seen anything indoors as yet with the exception of a dark church interior in Coventry. No idea if I'm looking at the same website.

@Frankenterfer I saw one inside can't find my MIL though

I think Bill Gates and Zuckerberg are highly more likely to be hacked than a random mumsnetter 🤣 I don't think everyone needs to go down the plaster over their phone route

CV10 8** I found one here, too.

If our grounds cameras are being hacked hopefully they will see two large dogs and a man walking around with a shotgun.

That postcode is very near me too! I don't have a home webcam though. Scary to think they are so easy to view.

What's the website?

We have a Lego brick sticky taped over the cam on the DCs' homework laptop.

That's a security risk in itself, LadyP. It would enable someone to see what and who would need to be bypassed, and plan when. Even dogs and guns can be dealt with or stolen, unfortunately.

BD4 8PW - stairs landing and babygate.

CV10 8JZ living room

RG14 5QP - front door and hallway

Ive posted the full codes since these span a whole street and so are not in themselves identifying anyone. But if anyone recognises those postcodes...