There used to be a website with a map and you could see all these open unsecured cameras they'd found around the world. Mostly by searching Google for the page name they all had.
Some of them seemed intentional, like traffic cams, cameras on the roof looking out over the city, etc, but there were so many fat men sat around watching TV in their underpants, random families in the kitchen, and so on.
It would be fine if the footage was end-to-end encrypted, meaning you need to transfer the encryption/decryption keys from device (e.g. a phone) to camera, and then manually between all devices that should have access to the decrypted footage.
Camera would only ever send out encrypted footage, and thus it would be insufficient to have access to the cloud account if you want to view the footage - you would need both access to the account (to obtain the encrypted data) and the decryption key (to actually decrypt it). The decryption key must never reach any 3rd party servers and can only be manually transferred between devices that should have access.
There are still possible attack vectors, like malicious firmware updates, or the viewer client app updates, but those are very difficult to exploit, and pretty much exist in most "secure" software today (including from companies like Google, Apple, Meta, etc.). They could be mitigated by hardware design (do the encryption in hardware, camera's software never has access to decrypted footage) and open source viewer clients that the user controls, but I would consider a camera sufficiently secure (for non-sensitive locations) without those.
It is a bad idea.
On one hand, we have the mean to make them quite secure. There is no such thing as an unbreakable encryption, but with proper key management and using decent enough algorithms we can totally do something that puts your camera out of reach of most thing that are not nation-scale organisations.
On the other hand, it's mildly more inconvenient than "installing an app and entering your email", as it might require stuff like doing a tiny little bit of setting up.
I’d argue that it’s more convenient to have clouds connect for recording and storage purposes but so many cameras come with SD cards built in now that the cloud storage isn’t even really an advantage anymore either.
A security camera with only local storage has a pretty obvious flaw that the incriminating footage can be more easily stolen and/or destroyed by the perpetrator.
If you weren't getting rid of Wyze devices before the Wyzecam v1 fiasco where they lied, this is a great time to do so. Unplug your Wyze stuff and hit 'em right in the metrics
Using Lorex right now but I don't really know how it works. Some type of NVR setup but allows for remote viewing on their app. I think it's just sending video to lorex servers so we can stream on phone but don't know if they're saving the feed on their end or not. Haven't heard any bad things from this brand so I hope it's safe. Too lazy to do all the tailscale stuff.
I don't have any security cameras, but unless you have a whole bunch of computers at home, a LAN is what, 3 maybe 4 machines? In my case, it's a desktop machine, two notebooks and an iPad. Those could easily all be stolen by the person who breaks into the house with the cameras.
I don't know what the solution here is because I sure wouldn't trust the Internet as the solution.
These fucking cameras and all like them are the bane of my existence. I'm an ISP repair rep. People lose their fucking shit if they can't surveil their fucking house for 5 minutes. "The Internet is down! Reboot it!" "Are you at home too troubleshoot?" "No! But I can't see my fucking cat vomiting on my couch from work!!!" Jesus fucking Christ, your house will be there when you get home. Fuck
This is my father. We have about 10 ring cameras surrounding the house and I fucking hate it. Meanwhile, I'm also a distributor for security cameras and could easily replace all of them for free. He still insists no. He likes that he can easily prey on me when I go outside for 1-2 seconds to grab a drink or go outside for a smoke.
I already hate feeling watched but the need for audio is just ridiculous. Law enforcement can basically just intercept the feeds and listen/watch you anytime they want to. The FBI abused a spy tool 280,000 times this year, so I doubt they'll respect your rights, if you even have any at this point.
I wish I grew up during the days without cameras being on every single building.
Not to mention providers giving-in to subpoenas without even the slightest fight, and you would never know about it. Heck, some don't even require subpoenas, a simple law enforcement request might be enough.
Your Wyze webcam might have let other owners peek into your house
IF you happened to be logged into Wyze's horrible web viewer during the 30 min things got screwy. Didn't this happen to amazon a couple years ago? I remember briefly getting someone else's cart/purchase history.
As a child, I remember it was trivial to use Google to see through surveillance webcams that people from around the world had purchased and left unsecured and public on the internet. I hadn't thought much of it then, including how obviously invasive of their privacy it was, but I think it has left me with an awareness of just how little these systems should be trusted to protect that privacy. I have no trust in the system to protect my data from anyone.
Those are still around. They are the local services that people suggest instead of Nest or something, where “you control your own data”. Turns out nothing is foolproof.
It’ll let you find IoT devices and cameras connected to the internet if you know what to search for and an alarming amount of them are locked behind an admin/admin login.
I advise against nosying around because there’s a near 100% chance that it’s illegal to do so in your jurisdiction.
I prefer the call it a floppy hyphen. Though I'm not allowed to use the term in code reviews anymore.
Edit: Oh shit! An sdf.org account, first one I've seen in the wild. I haven't used mine since I don't want to goof off like I do and reflect poorly on them.
Some Wyze security camera owners reported Friday that they were unexpectedly able to see webcam feeds that weren’t theirs, meaning that they were unintentionally able to see inside of other people’s houses.
A Wyze customer support agent confirmed to The Verge that this was indeed happening.
“Went to check on my cameras and they are all gone be replaced with a new one... and this isn’t mine!” wrote one user.
Each thread has comments from other Reddit users reporting similar issues.
“While we work to get this resolved, Wyze Web View functionality may be limited or unavailable,” they told me.
Wyze’s PR team didn’t immediately reply to an emailed request for comment.
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They are cheap and work decent most of the time. I have a few and don't have many complaints. But I also treat them as if they were publicly accessible. I hope someone got to watch my cats out in their catio and it made their day better.
Lol exactly. We don't have ours pointing at anything that matters. Both on the patio, one to watch the local cats and the other to see who is at the door.