Family Discovers Wireless Security Cameras and Baby Monitors Are Not Secure

Some parents in Cincinnati, Ohio, just learned that they should change the default passwords or to setup passwords for guest access on their wireless security cameras. The family woke up around midnight and heard a male voice screaming at their 10-month-old daughter through their Foscam wireless IP camera when they checked on their daughter with the cameras smartphone App. The voice was telling their daughter to “Wake up baby. Wake up baby” and then cussed the father out when he went into the room to unplug it.

It turns out that the family didn’t fully setup the wireless security options on the devices firmware and that allowed guests to access the camera by using the default username and password. Foscam suggests changing the default username and/or password as soon as you setup your camera. They also suggest creating a password that is at least 8 10 characters or longer. You should also use a combination of lower-case and upper-case letters as well as numbers and special characters. You’ll also want to update the firmware of your camera. This isn’t the first time that we have seen Foscam in the hot seat when it comes to security issues as PCWorld pointed out security concerns their wireless IP cameras earlier this year.

You can check out a local TV channels coverage of the exploit here.