It’s unsettling to think your home may not be the safe space you intend it to be. As rewarding as technology is, it also carries home safety and privacy threats.
You’ve probably heard stories of people and companies listening to your conversations through smart speakers or smartphones. (Yes, this really happens.) Maybe you’ve even heard about nightmare scenarios where people get access to a home camera system, which is a growing concern as in-home cameras from any number of brands — Blink, SimpliSafe, Ring, Nest and Arlo — grow in popularity.
Folks use these cameras in their homes to check in on kids, seniors and pets. They also use them to monitor their homes for threats. Unfortunately, hackers can gain access to this footage, too.
When it comes to hackers getting into your home camera systems, there are two possible scenarios: Someone accesses the live feed and watches you in real time, or someone hacks into your recorded videos from the past weeks, months or years, experts told HuffPost.
How does this happen? And what can you do to protect yourself? Here’s what security experts say:
If you don’t change the default password after buying your camera, it’s more subject to hacking.
Most people’s home security cameras won’t get hacked, but it does happen in certain scenarios.
And, typically, when you talk about getting into in-home cameras, it’s because of a bad password, said Dave Chronister, the CEO of Parameter Security.
First, if you use a default password for your home camera, it’s more vulnerable to nefarious activity, said Alex Hamerstone, the advisory solutions director for TrustedSec, an ethical hacking company. Your camera generally comes with a default username and password when you buy it, he explained.
“And hackers know, and scammers know, the default username and password so they can log into cameras if you have not changed the default username and password,” Hamerstone said.
“There’s a site called Shodan that people oftentimes share links to and what Shodan does is it goes on and looks for items with default passwords,” he added. “So, whether it’s a webcam or a router or something like that... it posts the footage from the cameras.”
Hackers can also scan for default passwords associated with cameras to get into your system, Chronister said.
“We have found this in a lot of areas,” he said. Particularly, hackers will steal illicit videos of people in their homes and go on to share the footage on public websites and adults websites.
If you are the target of a scam, you may also be at risk.
Your camera could also be compromised if someone is targeting you or you’re a victim of a phishing scandal, said Hamerstone.
“If I’m a specific target, somebody may try to phish me and find out my passwords whether it’s for the camera or something else,” he said.
“And then they may, accurately, guess that someone’s using the same password for all the different accounts, including cameras, and then log in that way,” he added. Then, they can gain access to your feed and any saved videos.
In most cases, if you are being actively watched, the camera light should turn on.
According to Chronister, the light that flashes on when you turn on a camera should turn on whenever that camera is in use, even when a hacker is in control. But, there may be camera manufacturers out there that don’t have this feature — or, there could be a way to disable the light from turning on, he added.
If you see your camera light turn on when you aren’t actively using it, that’s clearly a red flag — but isn’t the only sign that someone is in your system.
Bad actors can also get into your camera’s files and look back through your recorded videos, which may not cause the light to switch on.
There are a few things you can do to protect yourself:
While you may never be victim to camera hacking, the risk is still there. “My big thing is I just want people to be aware of the risk and then make an informed choice,” Hamerstone said.
While having cameras in your house does mean someone could access your videos, there are a few things you can do to bolster your security.
Disable default passwords.
“Number one, the biggest thing is disable any default passwords,” said Chronister. This is true for cameras and with anything else you buy, Hamerstone added.
“Hackers are lazy. If there are 10,000 cameras out there and 9,000 have the default password, they’re not going to try to crack the other 1,000,” noted Chronister.
Don’t reuse passwords.
Don’t use your go-to password for your camera system. Really, you should never reuse old passwords, said Hamerstone, but especially for crucial things like cameras and banking.
Turn on multi-factor authentication.
“For most of us, if we have cameras we can go on our phone and log into that account and see [the footage or live feed],” Hamerstone said.
You should turn on multi-factor authentication, like receiving a text code, when logging into the camera app. This makes the app more secure.
Keep your camera operating systems updated.
Chronister said it’s also important to keep your camera systems up-to-date.
“They are mini-computers. There should be an ability to update them to new firmware when needed,” Chronister said.
Software can have vulnerabilities that require system updates to address the vulnerability and keep your account secure.
Get rid of old, unused cameras in your home.
If you have a camera in your home that has been installed yet unused for years and years, take it down, said Chronister.
These cameras are old and outdated, which can open them up to security threats, he noted. Old cameras and old software don’t have the same safety protections as newer alternatives.
And make sure you don’t have your cameras in the more private spaces in your home.
It may sound like an oxymoron, but if you are going to have in-home cameras, keep them in the more public spaces in your home, said Hamerstone.
“So, maybe keep them in the kitchen, but not your bedroom or something like that,” he said.
It may go without saying, but you should also keep cameras out of your bathroom, Chronister said. The risk outweighs the benefit when it comes to having cameras in your bedroom and bathroom, he added.
If someone does access your in-home camera footage, you don’t want it to be recordings of your most private moments. Someone watches you walk in your front door? Fine. Someone watches you have sex with your partner? Not fine.
If you do install in-home cameras to watch loved ones or monitor your security, be sure to do it in the spaces that won’t lead to problems if a bad actor eventually gets their hands on the footage.