At Least 50,000 Cameras Hacked and Footage Uploaded on Adult Sites

• A serious exposure incident has affected thousands of people, mainly from Asia, who had their home cams hacked.
• The actors recorded the users on their homes and uploaded samples of the footage to adult sites.
• The entire set of the stolen data is now sold for $150, while the hackers sell access to live feeds as well.

Another story that comes as a reminder of the security problems that plague home IoT devices has seen the light, and this one is particularly worrying. A group of hackers claims to have breached over 50,000 home cameras, recorded people in their private spaces, and even posted samples of the footage on adult websites. Most of the videos come from people in Singapore, but there are also entries from Thailand, South Korea, and even Canada.

Because of the random times of the recordings, the video clips mostly show people undressing, so not every piece of footage is overly compromising. Still, seeing yourself on porn sites like that can be disturbing without a doubt. The hackers are selling the entire set of 50,000 clips for a total of $150 claim to have given access to 70 users who paid the amount.

To convince people to pay them, the group is offering a free 700MB sample that includes 4,000 videos and images. More worryingly, they offer “VIP access,” which lets people pay an additional amount to get “live” feeds from the compromised cameras. This means that the hijacking is still valid in many cases or that the hackers continue to engage in breaching cameras.

There are no details about whether the actors targeted a specific camera model or maker or how they managed to hack into them, but we know that there are many ways to do that. From compromising IP cams that are still using “out-of-the-box” credentials to exploiting known and published security flaws on the devices’ firmware, there are many ways to do it. In June, the British consumer watchdog ‘Which?’ warned the public that at least 3.5 million cameras connected on the internet at that moment could be hacked with minimum effort.

If you own and use an IoT camera, make sure to change the default password to something strong and unique, update its firmware with the latest available version, revoke access tokens to users and devices that are no longer active, and set up multi-factor authentication steps if that’s an option.

If you consider buying an IoT camera for your home, make sure to do your research beforehand and pick one from a reputable vendor who cares about security and supports the product with regular updates.