Mine is a “no school” sticker from a early 2000s “Mom calendar.” My husbands is actually a EFF sticker for that purpose cause he is way geekier than I am.
I can’t believe nobody has pointed out that we aren’t talking about the standard webcams.
We’re talking about IP cameras–cams set up connected to streaming servers. These are things like security cameras and nanny cams, that exist so that people can check in on whatever the camera is pointed at, regardless of where they are.
This has nothing to do with a standard webcam that’s integrated in or connected to one’s computer.
All this service is doing is finding IP cameras that are either unprotected or protected with the manufacturer default username/password & connecting to their less-than-secure stream. There’s no “hacking” going on.
People who have nanny cams and security cams in their bedroom should be well aware they can get hacked. That’s like taking nudie pictures or recording yourself having sex, and then being shocked when your ex posts in on the internet.
Not that I blame the victim - its bad and wrong to do these things. But at the same time, lock your door and don’t walk around with your wallet sticking out of your back pocket.
Bravo.
This is partially my point.
Those are the “cameras spying on sleeping kids” that Shodan is capturing. The talk of webcams just obfuscates the issue.
But it goes beyond just having a nanny cam.
Shodan isn’t running a password cracker. The cameras they’re capturing are either unencrypted or encrypted with the (publicly available) factory default settings.
While these things are able to be hacked by password crackers, these “videos of sleeping kids” wouldn’t be publicly accessible through Shodan, even with the nanny cam installed, if the parents just changed the username/password (or, in some cases, added one).
People are putting too much focus on Shodan & not enough on the idiots who complain that their privacy is being infringed because they’re live streaming to the entire Internet with a less than secure setting.
That’s not victim-blaming, that’s just helping other people not be such a moron. (The situation would be different if there was actual hacking/password cracking, but, again, there is none of that here.)
Talk about criminal use of a webcam! :eek:
A big part of the problem is bad design – the initial setup ought to include “pick a password” (complete with “not that one, dumbass; try again” if it matches a standard list of passwords an idiot would have on his luggage).
You’d ask for them to share the videos with you?
I was drinking tea, you bastard.
Thread title should go into the Straight Dope Hall of Fame.
This is the sort of response that makes me love the Dope.
I actually am planning to install a couple of cameras of the type that might get hacked (though one, if I can get it to work, is of my chicken coop, to warn me about foxes, and that I don’t really care about being hacked) so this thread has become a helpful public service announcement.
Better make sure there’s no two-way audio capability. You don’t want a hacker whispering to your chickens, inciting them to mayhem and poor egg-laying. :eek:
How is trying a username and password to a computer or system you have no business accessing not hacking? Just because you know the password doesn’t make it not wrong. Just as having a key doesn’t automatically give you permission to enter the house.