IP cameras are rarely the most secure connected objects, as a Reflets.infos survey has just proven again.
Several journalists from the news site, who were investigating the security of connected cameras installed in Ukraine, managed to identify several cameras used by the local police.
A flaw quickly corrected
These devices were installed in several police patrol cars and broadcast live images and sound from the car on the internet. Particularly sensitive information for a country at war, since the analysis of these video streams makes it possible to understand many strategic elements for the attacker: the position of roadblocks and checkpoints within the city, conversations of police services , etc
The information is therefore sensitive. Reflets has chosen to contact the embassy to notify the Ukrainian authorities of the security breach in order to quickly correct the problem.
The message got through: the Ukrainian Embassy in Paris quickly passed the information on to the Kyiv police force, who took corrective action. According to Reflets, less than four hours after the report, the cameras were secured – either by being removed from the internet or by changing the default password, which allowed access to the images from outside.
Prime targets
As Reflets indicates, the cameras in question were configured with the default password and username, which allowed anyone to connect to them and follow the information.
Security cameras are frequently delivered with default username/password pairs, which users do not necessarily change. This is what makes these devices a target of choice for cybercriminals: connected object botnets, such as those of the Mirai family, have a module allowing automated testing of a list of default identifiers on devices. presentations online.
In addition to user configuration errors, these devices have computer flaws and these are not always corrected by the manufacturers, and even less by the users. In addition, tools like Shodan make it easy to identify connected objects and devices exposed online, and to easily identify devices vulnerable to certain security vulnerabilities.
So many characteristics that make connected objects and webcams prime targets for a computer attack.