Now might be a good time to go ahead and unplug your webcam. A Russian website has hacked thousands of webcams from across the globe and is currently streaming them live for the world to see, including more than 4,000 from the United States.
Why is the site doing this? Evidently, to make a point about cyber security, or the lack thereof.
"All these cameras were viewed by a lot of users and (the) camera's owners have no chance to know about it for many years," a site administrator told Sky News. "Only mass media can help users to understand the importance to set a password."
The footage is all from cameras using default passwords or no passwords at all, which makes it easy for hackers to search the web for readily available default passwords and gain remote access to camera feeds.
In addition to hacked webcams from the U.S., more than 2,000 French streams can be viewed, as well as around 500 from the United Kingdom. U.K. information commissioner Christopher Graham says that if site administrators truly did want to make a point about cyber security, "now we all know and please will they take it down."
That doesn't seem like it will happen soon. Site admins tell Sky News that will only happen once all the cameras become password protected. Considering the owners of the webcams streaming to the site are likely blissfully unaware they've been hacked, that could take a while.
Linksys, Panasonic and the Chinese company Foscam are the makers of a large number of the compromised webcams being streamed on the site. Linksys says it is important to regularly change passwords, and that the company has no way to force customers to change from the default webcam passwords.
"We will continue to educate consumers that changing default passwords is extremely important to protect themselves from unwanted intruders," a Linksys spokesperson told BBC.
"Our newer cameras display a warning to users who have not changed the default password; users receive this warning whenever they log into the camera, until they set a new password."
In the meantime, the best security measure may be to just unplug your webcam when it's not in use.
Photo: Cory Doctorow
