How to protect your ip cameras from hacking?

[Tomcat]

The IP video surveillance camera industry has grown tremendously over the past few years. The technology of installing video surveillance based on IP cameras is becoming simpler and easier, and more and more people choose to do it on their own.

Camera firmware update

Most modern IP cameras are equipped with upgradeable firmware. If a security vulnerability is found, the IP camera manufacturer fixes the vulnerability by posting a firmware update on the website. As a rule, the camera firmware update is carried out using the administration panel using a web browser.

Search for vulnerabilities in IP cameras

You should check the official website of the IP camera manufacturer frequently for new firmware releases. But this does not guarantee that your IP camera is protected, since many manufacturers literally forget about updates and fixes to the vulnerabilities of their devices. Therefore, you need to look for new vulnerabilities of your camera yourself.

Search engines can be used to find vulnerabilities in an IP camera. Enter the model of your CCTV camera and add the word "vulnerability" or just "vuln".

You can also use special services to search for vulnerabilities, such as cvedetails.com.

Keep your cameras on your local network

If security is your top priority, then you need to keep CCTV cameras on your local network and assign them non-routable internal IP addresses (like 192.168.0.5 or something similar).

But even with non-routable IP addresses, your cameras can still be discovered by camera software that sets up port forwarding or uses UPNP to bring your cameras to the Internet.

I recommend going to the official website of your IP camera manufacturer to learn how to set up cameras without going online.

Password Protecting IP Cameras

Many IP cameras do not have password protection by default. After initial setup, most CCTV cameras offer basic authentication. This is far from ideal in terms of safety, but still better than nothing. Protect your cameras with a username and strong password, and change it periodically.

Default password and login

The default login and password set by the manufacturer are available to everyone, they can be easily found on the network. If you have not changed the administrator name and password, then even a child using the default password can hack your IP cameras, not to mention a professional hacker.

By the way, in the article "Passwords for default routers" we talked about how to find out the factory login and password of a router.

Turn on WPA2 encryption

If you use a wireless network to connect to the camera, then I recommend using connections using WPA2 encryption, this will improve the security of the IP camera and can prevent unauthorized access.

Installing the IP Camera

Even if you think that you have provided all the camera protection measures in all the ways described in this article, keep in mind that there is always a chance that your IP camera will be hacked, so if you do not want to be a reality TV star, do not install a security camera in places where it should not be. be, for example, in the bathroom or in the bedroom.

That's all. Hope this article helps you protect your CCTV camera. Know: protecting your IP camera is not your will, it is your responsibility!