A Russia-based website has hacked into thousands of webcams and baby monitors across the world, and displays their feeds to anyone who wants to watch.
Over 4,500 cameras in the United States have been hacked, and 10,000 worldwide.
A Washington Post reporter described watching “a New Jersey infant sleeping in a crib, the image of an Iowa high school hallway or an Illinois convenience store clerk.” An earlier report from Vice saw “a young man from Hong Kong relaxing on his laptop; an Israeli woman tidying the changing room in a clothes store; and an elderly woman in the UK watching TV.”
None of these people realized they were being watched.
The feeds come from 250 different countries. They come from webcams, security cameras, and baby monitors.
The hackers are able to access the cameras when owners don’t change their passwords from the original password the camera comes with, like “12345.”
The hackers claim to have good intentions, saying they do this to raise awareness of security failures with cameras like these. They told Vice, “Only [the website] can prove the scale of the problem. This problem was in darkness for many years.”
They also said they use an automated process to gather the feeds. If someone finds their own camera on the site and emails the hackers, they have said that they will remove it.
But for the thousands of victims whose private lives have been exposed to the world without their consent, good intentions are probably little comfort.
