An alarming announcement was given by the National Cyber Security Center or the NCSC regarding the use of smart cameras and how the settings should be immediately tweaked after buying them! There have been a few incidents where hackers are able to infiltrate the smart cameras and communicate to children, which poses a huge threat to parents everywhere! Although the smart camera is a great innovation, it also comes with some cyber risks. .
A shocking recent incident called for this announcement
In a shocking revelation, there was a new incident where an attacker was able to speak to a young girl in the comfort of her own home, pretending to be Father Christmas. The hacker was able to infiltrate the smart camera system and had been able to communicate with this young girl. The smart camera was installed so that the parents would have full access to their daughter and would be able to ensure her safety at all times, but since the hackers were able to breach into the smart cameras, there was more harm done than saved. Even some reports of kid's toys that have been hacked have surfaced.
In another incident, hackers were able to breach an adult toy used by a couple and had made the video available to be watched for thousands of times online without the couple knowing! Although this incident happened way back in 2017, there is still a huge question as to whether or not these kinds of attacks may happen again. These are but a few of the reported incidents but there may be more unfortunate incidents that have not even been reported yet or even discovered.
Are smart cameras still reliable?
Despite incidents like these, smart cameras have proven to save quite a number of lives as well. Smart cameras are there for a reason, and that is to safeguard the whole family from threats both within the house and for threats that might come into the house. This innovation was created for that purpose alone, but hackers have found a way to infiltrate this safety measure and have used it for mischievous purposes.
There are certain measures you can take to increase the security of your smart cameras
The first would be the most obvious, make sure you have a solid password! Do not use regular and obvious passwords like "admin" or "00000" or even "12345". A suggestion would be to use a code that you can easily remember, but it would be hard to come up with at the top of the hacker's head. If you know another language, it could be very advantageous for you to incorporate this in your password since English is the easiest language to hack.
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Aside from this, make sure that your smart camera's software which is sometimes known as the firmware is updated. Safety is always a top concern when it comes to you and your family, and the use of smart cameras properly can improve the security of your home.
