Mom Finds Livestream of Young Twins' Bedroom Online
A mother of three’s worst nightmare occurred when she found out a surveillance camera in her [...]
A mother of three's worst nightmare occurred when she found out a surveillance camera in her daughters' bedroom was hacked and livestreamed on the internet.
The mother from Houston, Texas, installed the cameras around her house four years ago to keep her family safe. But now, the woman – identified by her first name, Jennifer – is issuing a warning to all parents after discovering strangers have been viewing footage from her 8-year-old twin daughters' bedroom.
"We have security cameras to protect them," Jennifer told ABC News. "I feel like I've failed. People are watching my kids in their home, dressing, sleeping, playing."
The footage had been viewed through a livestreaming app since July 27 with 571 likes.
Jennifer learned of this invasion of privacy from Shelby Ivie, a mother of two from Oregon. Ivie posted a photo of the girls' bedroom online to multiple Facebook groups in hopes she can find the parents and alert them of the situation.
Ivie told ABC News that she and her son were viewing satellite images of Earth online and they came across the Live Camera Viewer app. She started scrolling through the images and noticed the livestream of a child's bedroom with the home location at the top of the page.
Once Ivie saw this, she created a Facebook post and started sharing the information to mom groups and local news pages hoping to track down the parents.
Security experts told Jennifer that the hacking most likely occurred after the family's IP address was uncovered possibly when one of her children played on online video game. Once they hacked into the address, they took control of the cameras through the modem and DVR system.
Robert Siciliano, CEO of IDTheftSecurity, told Us Weekly that nanny cams are hacked for multiple reasons, one of which includes faulty manufacturing. "To protect yourself, change any default password to something more secure," he said. "Go to the manufacturers website and update any software or firmware to the latest version. And make sure your WiFi is password-protected and encrypted."
Photo Credit: Twitter / @drenfro56