TrendNet Security Camera
How would you feel if you installed a security camera video system in your home for protection only to find out your private activities are being viewed live on the internet?
Video feeds from some home user’s Internet security cameras — including children’s rooms and bathroom scenes — are being seen by others around the world because of a coding error that is part of the camera’s software.
I would not want to be the programmer that has to explain this problem.
TrendNet security camera’s flaw was discovered after word of some shared footage spread on various message boards and blogs in the past month.
The BBC reported that messages about the flaw included the following:
“Someone caught a guy in Denmark (traced to ip) getting naked in the bathroom.” Another said: “I think this guy is doing sit-ups.”
One user wrote, “baby spotted,” causing another to comment, “I feel like a pedophile watching this.”
California-based TrendNet told the BBC that it’s in the process of releasing software updates to fix the problem, which it learned about on Jan. 12.
The company is also emailing those owners who registered their cameras. It’s not clear how many are affected. A company spokesman said it could be fewer than 1,000 consumers in the United Kingdom and globally “most likely less than 50,000.”
That’s a lot depending on how many people decide to file lawsuits. With The U.S. being such a litigious society, you can just see the lawsuits mounting now – depending on how many U.S. customers were affected.
Tech website The Verge wrote an extensive report about the exploit last Friday.
The vulnerability was first noted on a Jan. 10th blog said the BBC:
- The author discovered that after setting up one of the cameras with a password, its video stream became accessible to anyone who typed in the correct net address.
- In each case, this consisted of the user’s IP address followed by an identical sequence of 15 characters.
- The writer then showed how the Shodan search engine (which specializes in finding online devices) could be used to discover cameras vulnerable to the flaw.
TrendNet plans to have revised firmware available this week. The company posted the following warning on its website on Monday informing users of the specific camera models and versions that have the flaw:
It is TrendNet’s understanding that video from select TrendNet IP cameras may be accessed online in real time. Upon awareness of the issue, TrendNet initiated immediate actions to correct and publish updated firmware which resolves the vulnerability.
“We are scrambling to discover how the code was introduced and at this point it seems like a coding oversight,” a company spokesman told the BBC.
Read story@ msnbc
Tags: cameras, invasion of privacy, Online Security, privacy, spying, Video Security, voyeur
