Cheap, unfamiliar camera brands carry greater hacking risk, expert says

The Wall Street Journal published a guide Sunday for owners of a device category it describes as increasingly popular and under constant attack: home security cameras.

Hackers are constantly trying to get into the cameras — sometimes, according to a Wall Street Journal visual investigation, to aid warfighters — and the guide compiles steps for keeping outsiders out of a home camera feed, from choosing a camera to managing passwords.

On camera choice, the guide quotes Paul Marrapese, a California cybersecurity specialist who has researched hacked webcams. Marrapese said people buying a first camera, or replacing one, should stay away from cheap or unfamiliar brands. Devices from established manufacturers are generally safer, according to Marrapese, because bigger companies with reputations to protect give priority to security and roll out updates when problems arise. With smaller, often cheaper internet sellers, he said, the risk is greater that flaws don’t get fixed or that cameras are easily exposed on the web.

Residential security camera systems often come with default passwords or security codes that are easily found online, the guide says. It instructs owners to use a complex, unique password that isn’t reused anywhere else, and to use a password manager. Ideally, each person with access to a system should have their own login credentials, the guide says, which means each access to the system links to a specific person.

Multifactor authentication adds an additional layer of security to the login process, the guide says. Even if someone steals or guesses a password, they cannot access the camera without an extra code sent to the user’s phone or email, or supplied by an authentication app.

Most home camera systems connect to a household’s Wi-Fi, and the Journal warns that a home’s protection is only as strong as its weakest link. Taking advantage of a camera’s built-in security features — and maintaining them — can often be done by toggling a few settings, and devices that offer those features give owners a head start on securing their feed, the guide says.