Why is surveillance camera vulnerable to hacking?

Can hackers attack your home security camera system and how do they do it? What can you do to protect yourself?

In early 2019, an attack on the home security system in the US state of Illinois caused concern for the people of this country. The incident was discovered when Arjun Sud heard another man's voice in his son's room. This sound comes from a camera (Nest, a subsidiary of Google specializing in home security systems) installed in the room.

When the hacker discovered the owner of the house, he turned to harass and threaten Arjun. In a press release, Google denied that the Nest system was successfully attacked and that the incident stemmed from users because the password was too easy to guess.

Today, many households have turned to smart cameras to ensure the security of their homes, children and property when working or traveling. There are so many brands, many different smart cameras on the market, they are easy to install and have many features such as motion detection or real-time tracking via mobile applications . But like most devices other IoT devices, both smart cameras and smartphones can be attacked by hackers.

Like most IoT devices, both smart cameras and smartphones can be attacked by hackers.

The attacks on security systems not only take place in Vietnam, the US, or China but they have happened everywhere in the world. According to Vladislav Iliushin, Avast's IoT vulnerability researcher, "according to statistics, in India, up to one-third of families use smart home devices with online security camera connectivity. Security cameras are also the most vulnerable , accounting for 45.6% of all cyber attacks. "

In 2018, the number of attacks on camera systems accounted for 15.2% of the total number of attacks on IoT systems, this number was only 3.5% in 2017. A drastic change in just one year shows the level of insecurity of today's home security systems, said Ritesh Chopra, sales manager of Symantec.

According to Kaspersky , most smart cameras today allow access via the web and they can be controlled directly with all functions on the platform.

In other words, each camera will have its own website. The problem is that these websites and image links can be easily found through specialized search systems, such as Shodan or Censys.

"Once they have access to your camera system, cyber criminals will track your family's daily activities and use the information they have to plan to break into the house , " said Chopra. said.

Kaspersky says that the problem with surveillance cameras is that most users and manufacturers prioritize ease of use over security . That is why these systems can easily be attacked. The biggest challenge of surveillance cameras is that they lack both hardware and software to make security a top priority.

"There are very few, or so can say, virtually no common security standards for smart security devices like cameras. Instead, manufacturers focus on building setting your own standards and of course security is not a top priority , " said Iliushin.

Users can minimize the risk of being attacked by changing the access password frequently . Especially for systems installed by third parties, you must change your password and username after the system is installed. If you keep the same password and username provided by the installation company, your security system will be very easy to hack because these passwords and usernames are often very simple and are shared for all customers.

In addition, you need to update your device's firmware and security patches regularly . The variety of attack methods is increasing, so even a few months of firmware updates or security patches can create a hole in the home security system.

With the strong development of smart security devices and IoT devices today, cybercriminals will become more and more popular and active. For users, we also need to protect ourselves by setting strong passwords and setting up a private network only for home security devices instead of sharing Wi-Fi networks. .

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