IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 14

opinion

Katherine
Albrecht

secure crib and a
baby monitor are
on the "must-have"
safety checklist for
many new parents.
But when you tuck Junior in for the
night, you never imagine waking to
a scene straight out of The Twilight
Zone: a foul-mouthed baby camera
with a life of its own.
This is exactly what happened
to Adam and Heather Schreck last
spring when they awoke in the middle of the night to screams of "Wake
up, baby!" streaming from their
daughter's bedroom. The couple
rushed to their 10-month-old's crib
and realized the voice was coming
from the IP camera they had trained
on their baby to ensure her safety.
Then things got even creepier.
The camera rotated to face
Adam, and a voice started screaming obscenities. Adam realized the
camera was controlled by a hacker and pulled the plug [1]. (Note:
cutting power to the camera was
the wrong move because it erased
forensic data.)
Unfortunately, the Schreck family's experience wasn't isolated.
In August 2013, a Houston family
using a similar IP camera awoke to
find their two-year-old being ver-

A

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MTS.2015.2476830
Date of publication: 16 September 2015

14

Liz Mcintyre

Privacy Nightmare:
When Baby
Monitors Go Bad
bally assaulted by someone yelling
obscenities [2].
These incidents occurred because
parents were using IP cameras.
What is an IP camera? The "IP"
stands for Internet Protocol, as in
an IP address. Cameras, computers
and other devices on the Internet
transmit an IP address so other Internet-connected devices know where
to deliver content. An IP camera
enables a legitimate user, like a parent who wants to monitor a sleeping
baby, to stream audio and video to
another device, like a smartphone.
But this same remote accessibility
can be exploited by a hacker.
Baby monitoring systems and
home security cameras aren't the
only types hackers target. IP cameras
in offices and public places can also
be compromised if they aren't properly secured. The Daily Mail recently
found they could access numerous
camera feeds not only of children,

IEEE Technology and Society Magazine

but also the elderly and sensitive
assets, like cash registers [3].
If you own an IP camera, take
the following precautions to reduce
the chances of getting hacked:
1) Change the default password.
Many cameras come with a simple
and standard password to make it
easy for the new owner to stream
audio and video to a computer or
other remote device with minimal
set up. Hackers know this and
exploit the vulnerability.
2) Set unique, strong passwords for
all your home devices. Computer guru Kim Komando has
some great tips [4].
3) Update your camera's firmware.
Camera manufacturers often provide updates when they find an
exploitable weakness. Visit the
camera's website occasionally to
see if they have any updates.
(continued on page 19)

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september 2015
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015
