Community Chat

[Rockycoast]

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@Lipstickdiva wrote:

The point isn't that the childrens' parents put a camera in the bedroom.  That's not anyone's business.

And where does it say that they installed something incorrectly?  The article gives tips on how to prevent this from happening but it doesn't say this couple did anything wrong.

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You read an artticle. I saw it on a news segment. It did state that they did not follow security directions/reccomendations.  I camera in an 8 year olds bedroom is creepy to me.

[Mindy D]

These incidents are getting reported with greater frequency. There’s an incident in  which the hacker tries to extort money. There’s the little girl with the ‘Santa Clause.’ There’s the couple in  their bedroom There’s the hacker that made racist remarks to a couple There’s the couple that was was standing in the kitchen when the hacker starts speaking to them. There’s the user that was told her account was cancelled. There is even a podcast that invites listeners to listen while the podcasters hack into Ring and another brand of security camera. If you have these cameras, you might want to change your password and might want to remove the batteries until the companies find a solution. 

[pitdakota]

Basically, I think we can all thank Wikileaks and cyber espionage for the potential to hack smart phones, smart TVs, and personal security systems. 

Of course we know the CIA uses all types of methods to spy on various individuals/groups.  Turns out an engineer with the CIA leaked documents now commonly referred to as Vault 7 to Wikileaks.  Of course Wikileaks published all of those documents.  The result being that anyone and everyone that has the desire now has specific information as how to hack various devices & information systems that encrypt data and/or messages.

There was a news report on our news not long ago that many of the situations that are occurring with the Ring system and Alexa in fact are probably originating from people that have accessed those documents.  

I have posted before that the IT specialist I worked with, routinely went on the dark web to see what was being discussed  in order to determine priorities, patches, or other ways to prevent problems for the university where we worked.  He in fact verified that these documents are all over the dark web. He was particularly concerned about the information about how to "decrypt" because so much research data is encrypted in order to maintain confidentiality and anonymity.

If anyone is interested there is an article published on the information security newspaper website "Former CIA engineer leaked to Wikileaks the hacking tools used by the agency".  

So basically any IT geek can now easily obtain access to specific information as to how to hack smart phones, smart TVs, or security cameras to list just a few. 

[SilleeMee]

Update your wifi router firmware by unplugging the power cord from the wall. This will reset and update the firmware and clear unnecessary data which accumulates inside the router over time. This unnecessary data can be used by hackers to gain access into your network. Clear it out frequently to keep things safe. 

[Marp]

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@Rockycoast wrote:

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@Lipstickdiva wrote:

The point isn't that the childrens' parents put a camera in the bedroom.  That's not anyone's business.

And where does it say that they installed something incorrectly?  The article gives tips on how to prevent this from happening but it doesn't say this couple did anything wrong.

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You read an artticle. I saw it on a news segment. It did state that they did not follow security directions/reccomendations.  I camera in an 8 year olds bedroom is creepy to me.

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There were three children in the same bedroom; the 8-year-old is th eldest.  The camera had just been installed a few days before the breach so the mother could look in on the girls when she was at work.  If I remember correctly she works evenings or nights.

[Marp]

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@Mindy D wrote:

These incidents are getting reported with greater frequency. There’s an incident in  which the hacker tries to extort money. There’s the little girl with the ‘Santa Clause.’ There’s the couple in  their bedroom There’s the hacker that made racist remarks to a couple There’s the couple that was was standing in the kitchen when the hacker starts speaking to them. There’s the user that was told her account was cancelled. There is even a podcast that invites listeners to listen while the podcasters hack into Ring and another brand of security camera. If you have these cameras, you might want to change your password and might want to remove the batteries until the companies find a solution. 

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Changing the password is good but along with a secure password hiding the SSID so it can't be readily discovered and hacked.

[ROMARY]

Be careful re: baby monitors.

I believed I mentioned this a couple of years ago.........Each time I soaked in my bath tub, I heard heavy bre*thing over the speaker.

I used to listen to the TV downstairs via a baby monitor while taking a bath.

Don't do that anymore...............

[gardenman]

About 15-20 years ago I installed a Firewall program that included the option to let me know anytime anyone tried to access my computer remotely. You could then trace it back to the IP address the attempt came from. In the first week, there were over a thousand pings to my computer from all over the world. I couldn't use the computer more than a minute or two at a time without someone somewhere trying to break into it. I'd assumed that probes into my computer would be rare and infrequent, but there are people all over the world using multiple computers desperately trying to hack into any unprotected computer or device they can find. I ended up disabling the alerts because they were so numerous.

When it comes to webcams, there are websites that aggregate live feeds from security cameras all around the world and post them. Insecam (insecure camera) is reportedly the biggest of those sites.  A lot of people choose very simple passwords that are easy for them to remember but are also easy for hackers to access. If you want to, you can watch thousands of live cameras from all over the world. Some are professional security cameras in businesses, some are private security cameras in people's homes. 

If you're not careful in setting up your system and you stick with the stock, out of the box password (typically admin, or admin 12345, etc.) then your system will almost certainly get hacked. The sheer volume of people trying to access other's data is truly incredible.

[ROMARY]

Gardenman:

There are people out there that just don't believe it.  

And they 'seem' to be very computer-saavy, too.

Oh, well...........all we can do is warn folks...........