Security Expert Says, "Webcams Are Not Security Cameras, They Can Be Hacked!"
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Security Expert Says,
"Webcams Are Not Security Cameras,
They Can Be Hacked!"
"Webcams Are Not Security Cameras,
They Can Be Hacked!"
This may sound a bit creepy. But there's a certain appeal to do-it-yourself home security: My San Francisco neighborhood has had a spate of robberies, and I'd love an inexpensive and simple way to know if someone is at my window who shouldn't be. The question is, can a webcam really keep me safe?
I remember this girl at school who always had a tape on her webcam. It was very intriguing to me back then, but I never got a chance to ask her why she did that...I guess now I totally understand. Watch out, tape your webcam!!!
Hacking webcams is no big deal now-a-days. Anyone can easily do it if they have they have the proper software. If you are still thinking hacking webcams is possible only on Movies. Chat live with one of our security experts!
But to my surprise many people still don't believe that their webcams can be hacked. It is possible to hack or take control of your webcam without the hacker having personal contact with the system.
So Why The Hell Should They Hack My Web Cam?
Some people do it for fun. They don't have any intention for doing all these things except for fun. And some people do it intentionally. They are often described as BlackHat Hackers. They are also known as Cyber Criminals. They do this for obtaining personal or corporate information or photos of the victim. Some people also use this for peeping purposes.
97 People Arrested For Hacking Into Webcams Remotely And Spying On People
After nude photos of Miss Teen USA were captured last year by 20-year-old hacker Jared James Abrahams, a global investigation has been looking into the use of personal webcams to spy on individuals. According to The Telegraph, 97 people have been arrested so far in connection to the spying software.
The software, Blackshades Remote Access Tool, lets someone hack into your computer and access documents, record keystrokes, and activate the webcam. The software is activated when someone clicks on a malicious link, often from social networking sites. This then initiates a download of the software.
Users of Blackshades RAT have been known to obtain inappropriate photos or videos and then ask for a ransom in exchange for keeping the content private.
Jared James Abrahams, who was arrested for capturing the nude photos of Miss Teen USA through her webcam, was sentenced to 18 months in prison, but the search continued for anyone who was involved in creating, selling, and using Blackshades RAT. Abrahams had sent Cassidy Wolf, the pageant winner, an anonymous email threatening to post the photos he had obtained unless she gave him more nude images.
According to European law enforcement agency Europol, thousands of individuals own the software, which is commercially sold for less than $170.
After a two-day operation this week, in which international police forces conducted 359 house searches, the European Union's Eurojust says that 97 people have been taken into custody. Of the 17 that were arrested in the UK, all are male.
Ohio Man Gets 25 Years For Hacking Into Webcams, Recording Minors
A U.S. Attorney calls the Dayton man, who also distributed some of the recordings, a 'high-tech video voyeur.'
Mark Wayne Miller, 47, of Dayton, had pled guilty in January 2006 to one count of computer intrusion, as well as to one count of sexual exploitation of children relating to his successful efforts to persuade under-age girls to engage in sexually explicit conduct for him in front of their Webcams. At the time of his arrest, Miller was on probation with the state of Ohio and was a registered sex offender.
The FBI reported that Miller confirmed in court that he developed sexual relationships with minor-aged girls over the Internet, usually in online chat rooms. Tricking the girls with a fictitious name and a photo of an unknown young male, Miller said he used the "chats" to persuade the girls to engage in sexually explicit conduct in front of active Webcams.
In other cases, he hacked into the girls' computers to secretly intercept, watch, and record live Webcam footage of them. He distributed some of the recorded Webcam footage to others.
"Miller was a high-tech video voyeur," said U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio Gregory G. Lockhart in a statement. "He would 'phish' for the minors' passwords to a popular Internet portal, then secretly gain access to the minors' Webcam sessions."
The FBI reported that Miller's scheme was exposed when one of the girls sent a love letter to the fictitious boy Miller had made up, but she sent it to Miller's former workplace. His former employer read the letter and then found "additional evidence relating to child pornography while cleaning out Miller's work area." The employer then contacted some of the minors, and then contacted local law enforcement. After that, the FBI was called into the case.
"All of us, especially parents, must make sure we communicate with our children and let them know of the dangers that exist in the virtual world, as well as teaching them how to be safe on the Internet," Lockhart said.
Piper, Dropcam, Simplicam and Manything Record Everything, but Cry Wolf Too Often
The new Simplicam do-it-yourself security camera claims it can only send alerts when it sees a human face. Personal Tech columnist Geoffrey A. Fowler puts it to the test with a cat.
Webcams used to be just for checking weather at the beach and Skyping with your in-laws. Now Internet cameras can easily record everything that happens around the house—they're your domestic all-seeing eyes.
For several weeks, I've had an arsenal of the newest home surveillance cameras pointed at my front door: a $199 all-in-one security system called Piper, the $199 Dropcam Pro, a new $150 model called Simplicam, and an old iPhone running the free app Manything. They're all wireless, aside from power cords, and they alert the phone in your pocket when they spot activity.
The smartest of them, Simplicam, pulls off one important trick: recognizing a human face. That matters when you want a camera to alert you to a cat burglar, and not just a cat.
I thankfully didn't have any break-ins, but a different problem emerged: The cameras' alerts struggled to differentiate between my family's daily routines and anything more sinister, instead annoying me with a constant string of non-alarms. I'm ready to take them down.
For about $150 in equipment and $30 a month, a company like ADT sells security as a service, with motion detectors and a live human monitor to call 911 if anything isn't right. But it also comes with an aggressive sales pitch and sometimes dated technology. Many people would probably settle for the ADT sign in front of the house.
The latest webcams promise an alternative—they might be useful for targeted purposes, like watching the register at a corner store, or watching your children play in the den. But anyone who wants to invest in one should be clear about what they can and can't do.
The latest webcams promise an alternative—they might be useful for targeted purposes, like watching the register at a corner store, or watching your children play in the den. But anyone who wants to invest in one should be clear about what they can and can't do.
All four cameras I tested let you peer into your house via an app or the Web. They also record everything, allowing you to rewind the day or skip to a moment when there was activity. It's like a DVR for your life, but all the footage is stored in the cloud, so you can access it anywhere. (All of this potentially intimate video is locked behind one password, so be sure to choose a strong one!)
Dropcam and Simplicam both charge a monthly fee, depending on how long you want to keep your video archive. Manything plans to charge eventually but is free. Piper doesn't charge any monthly fees; instead, it stores up to 1,000 35-second clips of moments with activity.
What to do with all that video? To track down criminals, some people have handed it over to police, or even just posted clips directly to the Internet, vigilante-style. It might also help in the event you catch it live: a San Francisco police spokesman told me that people who observe a burglary in progress receive a higher priority than calls after the fact.
The webcams use Wi-Fi to connect to your home's broadband, but they will consume a lot of your outgoing bandwidth—up to 1 megabit per second for the Simplicam. You may not be able to support multiple cameras.
All are remarkably easy to set up with just a phone. None are designed to work outside. I set up Manything with a decommissioned iPhone 4 on a tiny tripod. While it is the budget webcam solution, it actually has advantages like a touch screen and battery backup.
All are remarkably easy to set up with just a phone. None are designed to work outside. I set up Manything with a decommissioned iPhone 4 on a tiny tripod. While it is the budget webcam solution, it actually has advantages like a touch screen and battery backup.
Piper steps closer to being a total security system by stuffing an alarm and additional sensors inside its box, including temperature, humidity and motion. It can also serve as a brain for certain other smart home devices such as door sensors and lights. These are great ideas, but Piper also had the only camera I tested that was sluggish to show its live feed and would occasionally drop its connection. The company says it is coming out with an update soon that should fix some of those problems.
All of the cameras took video of passable quality. Dropcam stands out from the pack for its range of tone, particularly in darker situations, and an Enhance feature that lets you zoom in and improve a live image in one particular area. It was good enough for me to see which magazines had come through my mail slot.
Good image quality is helpful if you're using the camera to document the life of your cat or watch your baby play. (Be warned: hacking may soon start posting this kind of surveillance footage on Facebook. ) You could just use the cameras in this peek-only mode.
Good image quality is helpful if you're using the camera to document the life of your cat or watch your baby play. (Be warned: hacking may soon start posting this kind of surveillance footage on Facebook. ) You could just use the cameras in this peek-only mode.
But as a security device, identifying the bad stuff and alerting you to it is what matters.
The first challenge is that pointing webcams anywhere inside your home can be uncomfortable for family members and guests. I got lots of awkward questions and some requests to take the cameras down. Ideally, they'd only record when needed—like when no one is at home, or late at night. But how's the camera supposed to know that?
The first challenge is that pointing webcams anywhere inside your home can be uncomfortable for family members and guests. I got lots of awkward questions and some requests to take the cameras down. Ideally, they'd only record when needed—like when no one is at home, or late at night. But how's the camera supposed to know that?
(Buy/Rent/Layaway)
The bigger problem is false alarms. When they're active, the cameras dutifully ping your phone every time they detect motion. But you end up getting lots of alerts when nothing is wrong: a ping if a tree moves in a heavy wind, a ping if the mail arrives, a ping if Fluffy launches on a midday sprint around the house. An actual break-in could easily get lost in all the pings.
Some of the cameras offer piecemeal solutions to the problem, like tuning motion-sensitivity levels. Dropcam and the Manything app let you identify hot zones where you want alerts, but they were of little help in the layout of my house.
The webcam I heard from the least was Simplicam, which is why I think it is the smartest. Simplicam and its Closeli software are made by ArcSoft, an image technology company that's spent years figuring out how to quickly identify faces in photos and video. You can tell its camera to only ping you when it sees a face—a much better sign that you have a break-in.
(Buy/Rent/Layaway)
The company says it can even tell the difference between an animal face and a human one. It worked largely as promised with a cat in my tests, though it did once misidentify him as human.
(Buy/Rent/Layaway)
In the interest of science, I also tried pulling a stocking over my face, and, yes, putting on a cat mask. Simplicam wasn't fooled. A mask that covered all facial features would trick it, though.
ArcSoft's success with face detection only made me realize the need for more recognition, such as identifying family faces vs. those of intruders. (The company says it is coming—but didn't say when.)
ArcSoft's success with face detection only made me realize the need for more recognition, such as identifying family faces vs. those of intruders. (The company says it is coming—but didn't say when.)
(Buy/Rent/Layaway)
Webcams exemplify our awkward moment in personal tech: It's now possible to put the Internet in all kinds of things around the house that used to be expensive or difficult to automate—the thermostat, the light switches, even the Crock-Pot. But how these improve our lives remains a work in progress. When in doubt always consult with a security expert!
Monty Henry, Owner
Additional Resources:
* The Creature From Jekyll Island: This Blog And Video Playlist Explains Why The U.S. Financial System is Corrupt and How It Came To Be That Way
* Dropping Off The Grid: A Growing Movement In America: Part I
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* White Balance: Auto Tracking
• Video is Recorded Locally To An Installed SD Card (2GB SD Card included)
• Email Notifications (Motion Alerts, Camera Failure, IP Address Change, SD Card Full)
• Live Monitoring, Recording And Event Playback Via Internet
• Back-up SD Storage Up To 32GB (SD Not Included)
• Digital Wireless Transmission (No Camera Interference)
• View LIVE On Your SmartPhone!
Includes:
* Nanny Cameras w/ Remote View
* Wireless IP Receiver
* Remote Control
* A/C Adaptor
* 2GB SD Card
* USB Receiver
FACT SHEET: HIDDEN NANNY-SPY (VIEW VIA THE INTERNET) CAMERAS
Specifications:
Receiver Specs:
* Transmission Range of 500 ft Line Of Sight
* Uses 53 Channels Resulting In No Interference
* 12V Power Consumption
* RCA Output
* Supports up to 32gig SD
Camera Specs:
* 640x480 / 320x240 up to 30fps
* Image Sensor: 1/4" Micron Sensor
* Resolution: 720x480 Pixels
* S/N Ratio: 45 db
* Sensitivity: 11.5V/lux-s @ 550nm
* Video System: NTSC
* White Balance: Auto Tracking
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