October isn’t just a month for scary Halloween stories, it’s also Cybersecurity Awareness Month, which comes with some pretty scary or creepy stories.
If you think it’s creepy to have a peeping Tom looking through your windows it’s nothing like hackers, and really anyone online anywhere around the world, peeking through your security cameras and you’d never know.
There are a number of websites featuring live video feeds from connected cameras around the world. Many of those cameras are known to be public, like national parks, busy streets, and where anyone can watch wildlife, sunsets, or the ocean.
But amongst those videos are live streams of someone’s backyard, a home swimming pool, a doorbell camera, and home security cameras in bedrooms, kitchens, and dens. Some of the videos are later found on YouTube as people play pranks by talking through the speaker and opening and closing the garage door.
How does it happen?
Most of the time it’s when a homeowner takes a WiFi router out of the box and connects it to their home internet connection without changing the username and password the router came with.
Anyone who knows what they’re doing can find those default usernames and passwords online from the manufacturer’s websites. Using the login information, they log into those home networks. Anything connected to those networks the hacker can see, and even control.
The FBI has issued warnings urging Americans to check their router’s login information to make sure it isn’t using the default username and password. Warning in 2022 that hackers working for the People’s Republic of China were installing malicious code through compromised routers.
Cybersnoopers are known to just watch people as they go about their day in their homes.
If you still need to do so, download your router’s app and change the username and password. Install any updates that you see recommended by the app.
Set a reminder to reset the router every couple of months by simply unplugging it, and then plugging it back in that’ll install any security updates you may have missed. This will likely speed up your home WiFi connection as well.
if your security camera or any smart device moves, makes a noise or blinks a light, contact police because someone may have hacked it and might be watching you.
