How can I reduce my chances of being hacked?”

January 7th, 2020

Recently there was a news story about a hacker taking over someone’s home security camera!

 

 

Today’s post is by Troy Lowe; Vice President of Development at SafeSourcing Inc.

Recently there was a news story about a hacker taking over someone’s home security camera and harassing them through the two-way talk functionality.   This is quite ironic considering we put cameras in place to help us feel a sense of security within our home or business. Although the odds of this happening to you are very slim, this type of hacking is something that can be done within minutes for an experienced hacker. There are numerous ways that a hacker can gain access to your camera. One of the most common ways hackers access the cameras is by connecting to the camera and trying the default username and password. When camera systems are shipped, they are commonly setup with a default username and password that should be changed during setup. A novice user setting up the camera system may not know the implications of not creating a new secure password for the default user, thereby leaving the system open to vulnerable attacks. Unfortunately it is very difficult to know if your system has been hacked, but one potential red flag could be sluggishness or degraded performance when using the system. If you are setting up a new camera system and want to protect the system from hacks, you can make it more difficult for a hacker by doing the following things:

  • Create strong password for all users – This can be done by making long passwords that        contain a mix of characters both upper and lowercase.
  • Secure your wireless network – This can be done by changing the default SSID, turning off guest networking and using encryption on the router.
  • Update the software – Software updates sometimes contain fixes and enhancements to help against vulnerabilities.
  • Close any unnecessary ports – The less ports available, the less vulnerable you are to attacks.
  • Test Your Security – You will want to test all of the setting changes and make sure that they have been saved correctly.

If you are looking to purchase new network devices and would like help researching available options, feel free to contact SafeSourcing.   We can gather all the necessary information for you and help you decide which one meets your needs.

If you would like more information on how SafeSourcing can help you, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service representative.  We have an entire team ready to assist you today and look forward to your comments.

 

 

 

 

 

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