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Baby Monitor Hacked

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  • Baby Monitor Hacked

    From Yahoo (link below):

    A Houston couple is still shaken after hearing the voice of a strange man cursing and making lewd comments in the bedroom of their 2-year-old daughter.
    When Marc Gilbert and his wife Laura entered the room, the voice cursed them as well.
    The eerie voice - which had a British or European accent - was coming from the family's baby monitor that was also equipped with a camera. A hacker had taken over the monitor.
    The creepy and scary incident occurred on Aug. 10 as Marc Gilbert was doing the dishes after his birthday dinner and he heard strange noises coming from his daughter Alison's room while she was sleeping.
    "Right away I knew something was wrong," he told ABC News.
    As he and his wife got closer to the room, they heard the voice calling his daughter an "effing moron," and telling her,"'wake up you little slut."
    The hacker then began shouting expletives at her parents and calling Gilbert a stupid moron and his wife a b****.
    "At that point I ran over and disconnected it and tried to figure out what happened," said Gilbert. "[I] Couldn't see the guy. All you could do was hear his voice and [that] he was controlling the camera."
    Baby monitors can also be used by potential burglars
    Alison is deaf, said Gilbert, so she did not wake up. "It's somewhat of a blessing," said Gilbert of his daughters' hearing impairment. "If she had heard it it would have been a big problem."
    Their son Ethan, 3, did not hear anything either and only woke up after he heard his parents that night.
    Gilbert wonders whether there were similar previous incidents that he wasn't aware of.
    "It's quite possible that this had been going on more than one day," he said. "Security vulnerabilities exist."
    Gilbert did not report the incident to the police, but said he is still shaken up and wary about publicizing the story for fear of endangering his children. He was also reluctant to provide photographs of his children.
    He did call his internet service provider, who told him to check his passwords on the device. Gilbert said he is leaving the device permanently unplugged.
    "I don't think it ever will be connected again," he said. "I think we are going to go without the baby monitor now."
    But he wants other parents to be aware of the potential dangers of the monitors being hacked.

    http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs...4527.html?vp=1

  • #2
    Gah, that's so scary and messed up!

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    • #3
      I saw this today--it creeps me out. Ours is connected to the internet, but we still haven't set it up so we can view it on our iphones, so it is kind of a waste. I'm not sure what I want to do with it now.
      Married to a newly minted Pediatric Rad, momma to a sweet girl and a bunch of (mostly) cute boy monsters.



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      • #4
        "The router was password protected and the firewall was enabled," Gilbert wrote. "The IP camera was also password protected."
        Crap. That is really scary. I'm disconnecting it until I can call the company and have them walk me through setting it up as securely as possible. This really has me freaked it.

        I'm also wondering if I should rethink the iMac directly facing our bed...
        Married to a newly minted Pediatric Rad, momma to a sweet girl and a bunch of (mostly) cute boy monsters.



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        • #5
          Originally posted by SoonerTexan View Post

          I'm also wondering if I should rethink the iMac directly facing our bed...
          I actually keep electrical tape over the cameras on my computers for this reason...it's creepy and can be hacked while you're on it without showing up on your screen.

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          • #6
            that's the problem with tech-- it's design to be easy to used (install) and therefore hack. it would be nice if they design indicators to show there's activity on the camera..

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            • #7
              If we don't have internet capabilities are we okay? I think someone with the right technology in the vicinity could pick up the feed but I think that's the case with all monitors.

              Wife to PGY4
              Loving wife of neurosurgeon

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              • #8
                Actually the one we have (foscam...I think the one used in the article) is actually a security camera that can be pretty secure, but setting that up isn't easy. Hence why I turned it off until I call the company and have them walk me through it all. We can do ourselves a favor by not leaving it on constantly too.

                MarissaNicole you are right. I'd make sure you have some sort of security on it anyway since you live in a town home. The downside of those is you can't do as much to protect them, but at least the whole wide web can't connect. They all have their downsides.

                I don't know why this freaked me out so much. I knew this was entirely possible and have had setting it up properly on my list for a very long time. I used to have tape over the camera on my old laptop. False sense of security I guess.
                Married to a newly minted Pediatric Rad, momma to a sweet girl and a bunch of (mostly) cute boy monsters.



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                • #9
                  I'm freaked out and we don't even have kids. So creepy.

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                  • #10
                    I'm actually not worried about anyone trying to intercept our frequency because we essentially live in a retirement community and no one would either know there are kids or a monitor and my neighbors that are close and know we have a child probably don't even have the internet yet alone the knowledge that such technology exists. Maybe I'm being naive?

                    Wife to PGY4
                    Loving wife of neurosurgeon

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                    • #11
                      I'd just put a password on it (that isn't your house number or phone number) to be safe.
                      Married to a newly minted Pediatric Rad, momma to a sweet girl and a bunch of (mostly) cute boy monsters.



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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Mrs. MD, Esq. View Post
                        I actually keep electrical tape over the cameras on my computers for this reason...it's creepy and can be hacked while you're on it without showing up on your screen.
                        And here you all think I'm paranoid for keeping my kids off of skype. We just don't like the idea of cameras in our home.
                        Wife and #1 Fan of Attending Adult & Geriatric Psychiatrist.

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                        • #13
                          Originally posted by SoonerTexan View Post
                          I'd just put a password on it (that isn't your house number or phone number) to be safe.
                          You can do this for the frequency? Or are you talking about online cameras?

                          Wife to PGY4
                          Loving wife of neurosurgeon

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                          • #14
                            Can you put a password on video monitors that aren't connected to the Internet? This freaks me out because we have a lot of young-ish people living near us, and I don't even know how you go about protecting our monitor. (We do have passwords on our wifi, etc.)

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                            • #15
                              I'm not sure. I would think that would be an option...but maybe not? That's pretty creepy if not.
                              Married to a newly minted Pediatric Rad, momma to a sweet girl and a bunch of (mostly) cute boy monsters.



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