Is Your Baby Monitor Susceptible to Hacking?

There’s no doubt that digital technology, in many of its forms, brings everyday tasks much closer-to-hand. From discovering breaking news, to online shopping, to keeping tabs on your home via security cameras—everything is within the touch of a button. Even so, with the growing reach of the Internet of Things (IoT), new and unsuspected threats are just around the corner—or are already here. 

One of the most alarming threats to emerge is the breach of privacy. In a number of high-profile cases, home surveillance cameras have been easily compromised and disturbing reports of hacked baby monitors are in the news.

For example, in early January of this year, a Western Australian mother voiced her worries when she discovered that the baby monitor she recently purchased was compromised. The monitor allowed her to log in with a QR code and a generic password in order to watch her child through a camera. Though she followed the instructions for installation, upon opening the monitoring website she was greatly alarmed to see a vision of a stranger’s bedroom, rather than her child’s.

This type of case isn’t isolated, as another report surfaced last year when a stranger allegedly hacked a baby monitor camera to watch a mother breastfeed. In yet another case, a Texas couple, whose devices were hacked, said they heard a man’s voice coming from their baby monitor threatening to kidnap their child. It doesn’t get much scarier than that.

Though you might not have prepared for it, it’s increasingly clear you need to take steps to protect yourself, your children, your privacy, and your new smart devices from these kinds of emerging privacy threats, as well as others. As a first precaution, you should always remember to change the default passwords on all your networked devices, starting with your router, creating strong new ones and securing them safely whenever possible with a password manager. You should then pick the best endpoint and network security solutions you can find to protect all the networked devices in your home.

Trend Micro Password Manager provides a password manager that lets you generate and sync strong passwords across your PCs, Macs, Android, and iOS devices.

In addition, Trend Micro Security provides the best endpoint security for PCs, Macs, Android and iOS—a key part of any home security strategy. Trend Micro Maximum Security includes Trend Micro Mobile Security as part of its subscription, so you can protect up to 10 devices.

Finally, Trend Micro Home Network Security is specifically designed to protect all your new “smart” connected devices in the home. It filters incoming and outgoing traffic to provide an extra layer of protection against intrusions or hacking of the home network. It protects your router and a wide range of smart devices, including security cameras, child monitoring devices, smart TVs, refrigerators, smart speakers, and even smart doorbells and thermostats, from emerging IoT threats—and the list goes on.

With our endpoint and network security solutions, we’ve got you covered! Click the links above for more details on our solutions.

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