In recent years, wifi cameras have gradually become "fashionable" thanks to their reasonable price, ease of installation and many practical uses. However, this rapid popularity does not come with the necessary knowledge of users, especially on security issues.
At the end of 2020, the incident of revealing a private image from a famous person's security camera made many people startled and wonder if their home camera was "counterfeiting". In terms of the reasons why bad guys can penetrate these systems, experts say device errors are few, but largely due to user habits. It is a recognized fact: security risk precautions are often attached to the product by most vendors as well as direct instructions when installing, but users rarely remember them all, so it is difficult to fully compliant.
The most typical is changing the default password. Although this is the minimum security principle not only for the camera but also for most devices and online connection platforms in general, many Vietnamese users still use the "national" password carefree. … for convenience. Changing a one-time password is difficult, let alone changing passwords often. Not to mention, choosing a strong password is also "torture" for many people, and leads to another problem that is… forgetting the password. They did not expect that weak passwords or default passwords of companies can be searched very easily on the internet and as a result, hackers only take less than 1 minute to own all the family's photo archive.
The "laziness" does not stop at the password story, but also covers other necessary principles such as camera maintenance or software updates. Most of the current wifi cameras are used and managed through a software installed on smartphones or laptops. These applications are often updated regularly by the vendor to upgrade new features or patch security holes. However, the new version update notifications are almost "invisible" in the eyes of most users.
Many users have extremely subjective usage habits such as revealing their family's wifi password to friends, house guests, even neighbors, which are still considered very normal. Meanwhile, this is one of the loopholes that allows bad guys to connect to the family's internal network, thereby breaking into the security camera system by taking advantage of weak passwords or default passwords.
Sharing wifi passwords with neighbors, friends, acquaintances has many potential security risks
Another indirect risk comes from giving, giving away or reselling smartphones, laptops but forgetting to delete the software and camera management account. Thus, the user inadvertently gave his family's private pictures to this new owner.
What to do before "money lost disability"
Start with password-related habits. Not only changing the default password immediately after installing the device, the camera owner also needs to make sure to use a strong password (a combination of special characters, capital letters, numbers), change the password regularly, especially after each maintenance or any intervention from outsiders (ask someone to fix the camera, fix the management software...). The same principle applies to wifi systems, minimizing the sharing of passwords with outsiders.
The problem of forgetting passwords can be overcome by taking notes or using password saving software, depending on the user's habits.
Next, devices with installed camera management software such as smartphones, laptops, and tablets need to be adequately secured by using strong passwords, installing firewall and anti-virus applications. In case of selling, giving, or transferring to another person, it is necessary to delete all relevant data.
And finally, security risks can be limited by choosing a reputable brand. Compared with floating products, well-known vendors often have more powerful solutions to "make it difficult" for hackers.
In conclusion, the era of everything connected requires users to equip themselves with commensurate smart usage skills, in order to really be able to control the device instead of being "reversely controlled", or "reversely monitored". " in the case of security cameras.
