Have you installed one or more WiFi security cameras to protect your home and family from intruders?
If so, it’s extremely important to protect your camera(s) with a password that’s both strong and unique.
If you’ve been watching the news of late you know there have been several very disturbing reports of hackers using compromised passwords to access cameras made by Ring and other manufacturers.
The hackers are using those compromised cameras to spy on, terrify and even extort the owners and their family members in some extremely disturbing ways.
Here’s a short video from ABC News that shows a few examples:
Pretty scary stuff, right?
Well, the good news is these hacks aren’t taking place because of flawed software or hardware.
Truth be told, these breaches occur when users either choose weak passwords or use the same password to protect their cameras that they use for all of their other accounts.
Using weak passwords makes it easier for hackers to use malicious software to “guess” the password that’s protecting your camera(s).
And reusing the same password for multiple accounts makes it easy for hackers to break into ALL of your accounts if they manage to steal their common password.
Even worse, many cameras don’t have passwords on them at all because they have password protection disabled by default.
Luckily, it’s very easy to avoid these situations simply by enabling password protection on your camera(s) and choosing passwords that are unique and extremely secure.
This post explains how to choose a password that’s extremely secure, yet easy to remember.
Bottom line: When installing a WiFi security camera it’s very important to take the time to set it up correctly with strong security in mind.
And whatever you do, be sure to use a strong and unique password to prevent hackers from gaining access to it.