A baby is seen sleeping in a crib in Orange, California. A woman is
watched as she sits at her kitchen table reading the newspaper in
Burlington, New Jersey. An office in Plano, Texas, is shown just as the
work day begins.
They're all scenes from the 4,591 webcams in the United States that are
being broadcast on a Russian website. The cameras haven't been hacked.
They're simply unsecured, making them easy targets for the Moscow-based
website, which ABC News has visited but will not name out of concern for
users' privacy.
Footage from more than 100 countries, showing living rooms, home
exteriors and closed circuit cameras in businesses, among other
locations, is easily viewable. The website even takes it further by
providing the exact coordinates of each web cam.
A message on the website's homepage said it "has been designed in order to show the importance of the security settings."
"To remove your public camera from this site and make it private the
only thing you need to do is to change your camera default password,"
the message reads.
While it was not immediately clear what could be done to shut down the
website, it has caught the attention of watchdogs in the United Kingdom
who said they were joining agencies in the United States, Australia and
Canada, among others, to issue a warning to consumers.
Robert Siciliano, a McAfee identity theft expert, told ABC News users with webcams need to be vigilant about changing the username and password once they're installed.
"The users of these devices often use the default user name and password
that comes with the device," Siciliano said. "Criminals know this and
scan the web for these networks and cameras and then they get full
access to it."
Aside from choosing a secure password, Siciliano said he encourages
people to make sure their software is always up to date so hackers can
not exploit any potential flaws and making sure their home and office
Wi-Fi is encrypted.