How Home Security Cameras Get Hacked?

Hacking has been an alarming threat to the world for a long time. In this era, when all of your precious data is on the internet your priority is always about securing your data from falling into the wrong hands. That is the reason, cybersecurity is our most important need.

People usually install security cameras to secure their homes, shops, and businesses. This usually makes them feel like they did what they can to secure their property and that it is safer now, but is it? what if the camera gets hacked?

You might be sitting in your lounge sipping tea, enjoying reading a newspaper with your kids playing in the backyard. All this information could be very useful for a person trying to attack you or harm your family. How about shopping online in front of your home security camera and filling your bank account details? What if this information gets leaked?

Ways your security camera gets hacked:

Installing a CCTV camera is a very good way of securing your home to some extent but your security could be breached and this advantage could change into a very big disadvantage if you are not careful. A little carelessness could bring your and your family’s life into grave danger. There are many hackers out there who can hack into your surveillance cameras with little or more effort.

1. Default Passwords:

The easiest way of all from which hackers can break into your home security cameras is using the default passwords.

When people have their cctv camera installation done they usually do not change their passwords and IDs from the default settings. What hackers do is use the defualt IDs and passwords of the camera and if you have not changed the password then your home security camera system that you are so proud of can be hacked. This type of hacking can even be done by a novice hacker with no experience.

A password should be very strong and tricky that shouldn’t come to anyone’s mind and can not be guessed.

2. Outdated Software

Companies usually release updates to improve the security if your camera system or patch vulnerabilities. People sometimes ignore these updates makes your security surveillance cameras more welcoming to hackers.

3. Backdoors

Users are not the only ones that make mistakes, companies also make mistakes which are then realized and solved. Some companies usually make backdoors that could grant admin-level access. This can be used by Hackers to hack into the surveillance cameras.

Like in the case of Hikvision, developers made a backdoor in the testing phase but forgot to remove it the release, the backdoor was removed with an updated version later on but the issue has still not been resolved because the majority of people didn’t know about the issue and ignored the update.

4. Camera from a shady source or company

Buying a security camera from an untrusted source or buying a used one can put you at risk too as it can come with all sorts of backdoors, weaknesses or bad configrations. You can address this by updating its firmware, manually checking all the settings and using strong passwords.

5. Using remote monitoring

Remote monitoring is a big advantage. It allows you to monitor your home from your security camera using a website or an app. But as advantageous this feature is, it also has risks of hacking to it.

The camera is being accessed by the website or app which has access to your security camera as well. So, if the website is not trusted it could leak your cctv password to someone or can even do malicious activities itself.

Conclusion:

These are the main methods hackers use to hack security cameras. So to secure your camera system from the above attacks you just need to make sure you buy your camera from a trusted source, keep it up to date, disable remote monitoring and make sure you use a secure and strong password.