Somebody may be snooping on your baby s video monitor or other web-cam feeds, British authorities are warning, after discovering a Russian website hosting live broadcasts from thousands of such devices.
BBC News, which reported the problem Thursday, declined to identify the Russian site. But it said the site lists live-video streams from more than 250 counties, including feeds from 4,591 cameras in the US, 2,059 in France and 1,576 in the Netherlands.
The BBC quoted UK Information Commissioner Christopher Graham saying he wanted to sound a general alert , warning there are people out there who are snooping.
The Russian site was able to access the video feeds through the webcam s default passwords, which users of the devices had failed to change, the BBC said.
It s not the first time that such gadgets have been found vulnerable.
Last year, the FTC said it had discovered that Torrance-based Trendnet s video cameras had faulty software that enabled hackers to secretly view the devices live feeds, including infants sleeping in their cribs.
Illustration by KRT archives
