How to protect your privacy when using wireless IP camera

Network or Internet protocol (IP) cameras are growing in popularity as a security tool to protect businesses and homes around the world because of their low-cost capability to transmit images or video feeds in real-time. By using these cameras, users can access live audio and video footage from their home or business through a smartphone or office computer as long as they have an Internet connection.

However, a number of wireless IP camera models are vulnerable to hacking that can compromise your privacy at home or in the office. In this article, we will discuss actions aimed at improving the security of IP cameras and ways to increase their protection against hackers.

Things to Consider Before Buying a wireless IP Camera:

Ensuring the security of your IP cameras should start during the shopping process. When buying your cameras, you should focus your attention on their security features. Here are some things to consider when shopping for your cameras:

Dependable Wireless Transmission

When buying a camera, you should ask for a model that supports the latest wireless security protocols such as the Wi-Fi Protected Access version 2 (WPA2). This will help ensure that the video feeds from the cameras are secured while they are sent to your home wireless router.

Secure Internet Transmission

When you want to access the video feeds from your IP cameras remotely, they will be sent across the Internet. To help secure your connection, ask for cameras that have the capability to encrypt your data including password, username, as well as the live feeds. You can also check these capabilities by checking the product’s label, researching the product online, or directly contacting the manufacturer.

Multiple Levels of Access Feature

You should also look for cameras that can allow various levels of access. This will let you provide several users with access to your camera feeds with certain permissions or limitations. For example, some cameras have separate settings for administrators and users. Under this set-up, only an administrator can initiate remote changes to the camera settings or take such actions as creating new accounts, changing passwords or adjusting the camera’s position.

How Hackers can Attack a wireless IP Camera

There are various ways in which hackers can access or attack an IP camera. According to researchers from the security company Qualys, there are thousands of wireless IP cameras linked to the Internet that have major security vulnerabilities. Some camera vendors also provide tutorials on how to allow their devices to be accessible from the Internet, information that can be a tool for hackers.

Here are some techniques that hackers use to attack or access an IP camera:

Hackers can control a camera by utilizing the Shodan search engine to look for an HTTP header that is specific to a camera’s Web-based user interfaces. Cyber criminals can also identify and access a camera by looking at its vendor’s own dynamic domain name system (DNS) services.
Another method used by hackers is by exploiting a camera’s Web-interface weakness that allows them to get a snapshot of its memory. The memory dump usually contains such information as an administrator username and password, as well as Wi-Fi details.
Another attack strategy is by exploiting a cross-site request forgery (CSR) flaw in the camera’s interface. This can be done by deceiving the camera administrator into opening a specifically created link to add a secondary administrator account to the camera.
Another method is by implementing a brute-force assault to determine a camera’s password. Cameras without sufficient protection against this type of attack are vulnerable.

Steps One Should Take to Bolster a Camera’s Security

Here are some ways to boost the security of a wireless IP camera:

Regularly conducting software updates – Camera manufacturers regularly introduce updates to their products’ software to protect them against the latest vulnerabilities. You should register your camera or sign up with the manufacturer to automatically receive the latest updates.
Regularly monitoring your camera’s password settings – You should set up your IP camera in a way that it will require a password. You should read the camera’s user guide to learn how to do this and never keep the default password enabled.
Activating your camera’s security features – Check to see if your camera has a feature that allows encryption of data transmitted by Internet and turn this feature on. To ensure that your password and username will be encrypted, you should check that the login page for your camera has a URL that starts with “https”.
Create a strong password – You should always make sure to create your own password on your camera and avoid using the camera’s default username and password. Make sure that the password you make is very difficult to guess and includes both alpha and numeric characters.
Utilize a secure Wi-Fi connection – You should ensure that you are using a secure Wi-Fi network when using your mobile phone application (app). This is to guarantee that your password or video feeds are protected. You should also avoid using your mobile app from a public Wi-Fi hotspot which may compromise your camera’s security.
Also create a strong password on your phone or mobile device – To make sure that you have seamless protection while using your IP camera, you should also create a strong password on your phone or mobile device.

Conclusion:

Learning about the available security features and implementing the previous steps in order to protect your IP security cameras against hackers will help safeguard your privacy. By diligently observing these tips, you can avoid a situation where your camera is compromised and ensure the smooth operation of your security system.