Terrifying IoT Search Engine Lets You Spy On Strangers' Webcams
Terrifying IoT Search Engine Lets You Spy On Strangers'
Webcams
It's called Shodan and it just got much easier to use
By Jennings Brown and Adi Cohen on Jan 25, 2016 at 12:27
PM
Think of the millions of devices with video feeds—maybe
the baby monitor perched over your kid’s crib or a security camera looking out
over your back porch. A new feature on the most popular search engine for the
Internet of Things just made it a lot easier to find such feeds. And it’s even
creepier than you can imagine.
Shodan is a website that scans the internet for publicly
accessible devices and captures their IP addresses—creating a searchable index
that includes everything from in-home surveillance cameras to traffic lights to
fetal heart monitors to power switches for hospitals. Essentially any of the
so-called Internet of Things that doesn’t have a password is up for grabs, and
that’s more devices than you’d think.
Programmer John Matherly developed the site in 2009 when
he was a teenager, and he originally thought his pet project would help large
tech companies see who was using their devices. But now the site is mostly used
by hackers and researchers. Until recently, Shodan was used almost exclusively
within the cybersecurity community, because searches require a general
understanding of technical language. But a new feature has made it easier for
anyone to peek people’s home surveillance devices. The new channel includes
screen grabs of security camera feeds along with their location.
As Ars Technica reports, these webcams show feeds from
sensitive locations like schools, banks, marijuana plantations, labs and
babies’ rooms. Shodan members who pay the $49 monthly fee can search the full
feed at images.shodan.io. A Vocativ search of some of the most recently added
images shows offices, school, porches and the interior of people’s homes.
Accompanying each of these grabs is a pinned map that shows the location of the
device capturing that footage.
The site also offers free memberships that allow anyone
to search through thousands of webcams. Most of these devices require a
password to view the feed (Shodan users have written a few articles about the
most-used passwords so that others can easily hack feeds), but unfortunately
many people don’t set up password authentication on their devices. Such cameras
are easily accessed through Shodan, and many of them can even be controlled by
Shodan users.
Moments after setting up a free account, we were able to
access and maneuver several security cameras, moving them from left to right
and up to down within homes, businesses and a room holding adorable Pomeranian
puppies. Shodan also provided the general location where each of these live
feeds were coming from, which means it would not be difficult to track down
those puppies and figure out when their owner is away.
So, if you value your puppies or personal privacy, set up
a password on all your connected devices.
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