Residents’ alarm at CCTV hack in homes
Police say footage is streamed on foreign websites
DUBAI // Residents who have surveillance cameras expressed their alarm that the devices they use to ensure their safety could be breaching their privacy.
Dubai Police revealed that they had closed down several foreign websites that were streaming CCTV footage from inside people’s homes and offices, invading privacy and potentially leaving victims open to blackmail. Despite Abu Dhabi and Dubai consistently being ranked among the safest cities on the planet, many residents said they had cameras in their homes to watch over housemaids and even to keep an eye on pets when they are not home. But the police revelation left people incredulous.
“I can’t believe this. There is no security whatsoever. I installed security cameras to keep an eye on the maids and make sure my children are treated right,” said Nour Mohammed, a 33-year-old mother of five from Lebanon, who lives in Mirdif. “I work for long hours and I need to make sure that my kids are fine.
“[ Now] I will remove the cameras from bedrooms and check with a technician to renew the cameras’ passwords.”
Tala Yousef, 21, an Emirati from Khawaneej, said her family has had surveillance cameras for a long time.
“My mother will freak out when she hears about this,” she said. “She bought the cameras and had a technician instal them. She said it would be safer and that she could keep an eye on the maids.”
Poor- quality cameras and unqualified installation technicians are to blame for footage being accessible via the internet, police said.
“Dubai Police noticed websites outside the country broadcasting live footage taken by surveillance cameras in houses and companies in Dubai,” said Maj Gen Khalil Al Mansouri, at Dubai Police.
“A team of officers from the cybercrime department at Dubai Police have managed to identify families whose privacy was breached through surveillance cameras. “We have contacted these families and technicians who installed surveillance cameras inside their homes. It turned out that the technicians who installed the cameras did not have the knowledge to instal, test and secure the cameras with a password.”
He said hackers were able to remotely connect to people’s cameras without their knowledge, streaming live footage of victims at home or at work to viewers on the internet and social networking sites all over the world, possibly with a view to use footage as blackmail.
Suhail Sukkary, a cyber security specialist at Abu Dhabi Education Council, said: “Hackers can hijack connections to the device’s public IP address, putting a lot of people, their properties and data at risk.
“It not an easy task to hack security cameras but with programming and electronic de- velopments, no one is totally risk-free.
“Many camera systems, even those provided by trusted home security companies, are configured with simple passwords such as 1234 or similar. “Many people never change these passwords, which helps hackers take control of their security cameras.”
“It’s absolutely shocking,” said housewife Shireen Khamis. “We are using these cameras to ensure our safety; I got these cameras to guarantee that the maids treat my children well.” Mrs Khamis said companies that sell surveillance cameras should alert customers to the dangers of not changing passwords regularly.
“This is scary. We buy these cameras for our safety and we don’t know whether someone in another part of the world is spying on us,” she said. Lt Col Salem bin Salmeen, deputy director of the cybercrime department, said it was vital that people understood that anything connected to the internet can be hacked and he urged anyone with surveillance cameras to have passwords and to change them regularly.