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Undoubtedly, the so-called Internet-of-things carries lots of benefits to everyday users: today you are able to pay your bills, unlock a garage door and find your car keys from your smartphone. However, it also carries a downside: your online banking can be hacked and you can lose all money from your bank account, and your car can be hacked as well and drive away from you.
Now there is one more reason to keep your world unconnected from the Internet: there is a search engine Shodan out there that allows anyone to find live video of anything from webcams without proper security precautions, including videos of sleeping babies whose parents use webcams as a monitoring device.
The engine advertises itself as the search engine for webcams. It was launched 7 years ago to scan every Internet-connected device looking for vulnerabilities and insecurities. In other words, it reveals weaknesses that are already out there. However, that hasn’t stopped it facing criticism, as it is being accused of providing tips on how to exploit any object, including critical infrastructures. Now the site has launched a new paid feed for $49, which shows how to find, scrape and deliver footage from unsecured web cameras.
It looks like Shodan’s feed is aimed at highlighting the drawback of Internet of things and the poor level of online security. It turns out that there are lots of webcams with predictable default passwords or even no passwords at all. For example, a few months ago, a France-based director at a major international company specializing in cyber security announced that they used the service and found “all of the nuclear plants in France that are connected to the Internet”.
Now there is one more reason to keep your world unconnected from the Internet: there is a search engine Shodan out there that allows anyone to find live video of anything from webcams without proper security precautions, including videos of sleeping babies whose parents use webcams as a monitoring device.
The engine advertises itself as the search engine for webcams. It was launched 7 years ago to scan every Internet-connected device looking for vulnerabilities and insecurities. In other words, it reveals weaknesses that are already out there. However, that hasn’t stopped it facing criticism, as it is being accused of providing tips on how to exploit any object, including critical infrastructures. Now the site has launched a new paid feed for $49, which shows how to find, scrape and deliver footage from unsecured web cameras.
It looks like Shodan’s feed is aimed at highlighting the drawback of Internet of things and the poor level of online security. It turns out that there are lots of webcams with predictable default passwords or even no passwords at all. For example, a few months ago, a France-based director at a major international company specializing in cyber security announced that they used the service and found “all of the nuclear plants in France that are connected to the Internet”.