Recently, Guangzhou police detected a case of using Trojan horse program to remotely control the camera. Criminals taught themselves to crack the technology and randomly invaded the home camera with simple password settings. According to the police, the man invaded more than 500 sets of surveillance cameras, involving private places such as bridal shops, supermarkets’ dressing rooms and family bedrooms, and some surveillance videos were even sold. "Home cameras are far less secure than imagined?" "Why is there a camera in Shangchao dressing room?" Cameras born for "guarding security" have become a dangerous "eye of the storm". How should citizens’ privacy and personal information be protected? In order to find the answer to the question, the reporter made many visits.
Text, map/Guangzhou Daily All-Media Reporter Chen Xin, Tan Weiting
Home cameras have become "live devices"?
Technical experts: the market is mixed, look for reliable manufacturers.
Ms. Zhou, a citizen, told reporters that due to busy work, it is "just needed" to remotely monitor the dynamics of babies and nannies at home. She said that she was very worried about some cases of child abuse by nannies, and her lover was also involved in business. Fortunately, there was camera supervision to ensure the quality of babysitting for nannies. There are not a few citizens who have the same needs as Ms. Zhou. The reporter interviewed a number of consumers randomly and found that the purpose of the public to buy home cameras is to look after children, the elderly and pets remotely and pay attention to family situation. Through offline stores and e-commerce platforms, the reporter learned that there are many kinds of home cameras currently on the market, such as 360-degree panoramic smart cameras, 2K high-definition cameras, 5G dual-frequency cameras, etc., to meet the multi-dimensional needs of consumers as much as possible.
Ms. Wu, a citizen who has two cats at home, said that it is very convenient to look after her cat remotely on her mobile phone. At the same time, she also has some vigilance: "Because the camera is installed in the bedroom, for privacy reasons, I will immediately remove it as soon as I get home, so as not to photograph myself." Ms. Wu’s vigilance is not unreasonable. Even in the private space where the guard should be put down, people’s every move may become a "commodity" with a clear price tag and flow into the unknown black industrial chain.
The reporter learned that since the birth of smart cameras, some lawless elements have sold cracking tools and tutorials on the Internet platform, and they can crack IP addresses and account passwords by paying only a few hundred yuan, turning cameras used to guard privacy into "live broadcast devices".
Mr. Liu, a technical expert who works for a well-known monitoring solution service provider, told reporters that "camera attacks do occur from time to time, and most of them are civilian cameras. Because of the low market entry threshold, the shanzhai manufacturers have not guaranteed the technology accumulation of video security. Secondly, the safety awareness of users in the civilian market is not enough, and the router password and camera password are not changed regularly, and the camera firmware is not upgraded regularly. " Some users think that the problem lies in the camera APP. Mr. Liu pointed out that in the case of a Trojan horse in the mobile phone, the camera APP does have the risk of being stolen, but the main reason for video leakage is the camera side.
Fortunately, thanks to the improvement of camera safety technology and industry norms, the frequency of similar cases has been greatly reduced compared with previous years. Mr. Liu said: "Big manufacturers have done a good job in this respect. For example, if they use it for the first time, they will be forced to change their passwords and require the use of passwords with high complexity. Users can also encrypt videos, even if hackers obtain videos, they can’t crack them. In addition, the firewall function of the intelligent router can also scan the cameras in the network, which virtually adds a barrier. At the same time, media reports and police strikes have enhanced public safety awareness and also played a deterrent role. "
The reporter noted that the legal issues involved in home cameras can not be ignored. It is understood that some citizens did not inform the nanny of the fact that a camera was installed at home in order to "assess the real working level of the nanny". Is this a move suspected of infringing on the nanny’s privacy? The reporter consulted the director of the Network and E-commerce Law Research Association of Guangdong Law Society and the lawyer of Guangdong Zhuoxin Law Firm. Training advice: "It is best to inform and avoid misunderstanding. Citizens have the right to install cameras in their own homes, but it is inappropriate to install them in private spaces such as the nanny’s bedroom or bathroom. It is reasonable and legitimate to install them in nanny workplaces such as living rooms and kitchens, and it will not infringe on the nanny’s privacy. "
Public space cameras "everywhere"?
Guangzhou local supermarket: the privacy of people entering and leaving has been protected to the maximum extent.
Lin Cong, an Internet practitioner, has always been worried and resistant to electronic products such as surveillance cameras. He said: "Once the loopholes in electronic products are exploited by hackers, the consequences are quite terrible, especially in private places such as hotels, dressing rooms and toilets." At the same time, he asked: "Why do merchants install cameras in private places in public spaces?" Previously, a well-known clothing brand was exploded to install a camera above the fitting room, which has triggered public vigilance and industry reflection.
Has the camera been abused in public places? To this end, the reporter visited the local business circle. In a senior commercial building in Zhujiang New Town, a technician told the reporter: "The cameras we installed in indoor public areas are not connected to the internet, and the security is still very high compared with the home networked surveillance cameras." He pointed out that the general monitored materials are only deleted after 7-15 days, and Shangchao will not set up cameras in private spaces. The staff of an office building in Tianhe Business Circle also told the reporter, "The camera we set up at the entrance and exit of the restroom in the public area of the venue only faces the entrance and exit seats, and will not directly capture the people entering and leaving." He said that on the basis of ensuring fire safety, the privacy of people entering and leaving has been protected to the maximum extent.
In addition, whether it is a private buyer’s shop or an independent clothing store in a shopping mall, they are more cautious about protecting consumers’ privacy. The person in charge of a chain clothing store located in Tianhe business district said that there is no face recognition camera installed in the store, and there is no camera control near the fitting room. "Our camera angle will only face the entrance and exit of the fitting area." Miss Zhang, the manager of an independent fashion shop, told the reporter: "Although our fitting room is curtain-drawn, it is highly direct to the ceiling without leaving gaps, and it is very safe." She introduced that there are only two cameras in the store, and the control angle is diagonal, one from the door to the innermost, and the other from the innermost to the door.
Mr. Liu, a technical expert, said: "At present, public security video surveillance has a complete set of information security specifications." However, it is difficult for industry norms to avoid unscrupulous criminals. Previously, a pinhole camera incident in a fitting room in Shenzhen caused concern. After investigation by the police, the camera was not installed in the store, but a man bought pinhole camera equipment online for "seeking excitement" and installed it in the fitting room. The reporter learned that on some internet platforms, there are even many unscrupulous people who use keywords such as "hotel", "fitting room" and "sneak shot" as marketing gimmicks to sell equipment.
Baidu, 360 and other companies have launched an "anti-pinhole camera" APP, claiming to help users find cameras that are not easy to detect. In this regard, Mr. Liu said that although the "pinhole camera" APP can play a role, most of them have limitations. This kind of APP can be divided into two types. One is to use a mobile phone camera to find pinhole cameras. "Only cameras with infrared fill light can be found, but cameras without infrared fill light can’t be photographed clearly in a dim environment." The other is to use the mobile phone APP to scan the cameras in the WLAN network. "But some pinhole cameras are not connected to the network or send out hot signals themselves, or they are not connected to the WLAN network where the mobile phone is located. At this time, the APP does not work."
Support:
This will not be "live" … …
1. Try to buy products from big manufacturers. At present, the safety precautions of large manufacturers are in place, and most of them have participated in the construction of safe cities, and their cameras meet the safety requirements of the Ministry of Public Security.
2. Don’t use the default password for the camera, and don’t use the password with strong regularity and low complexity like "12345". Modify the password regularly, upgrade the firmware issued by the manufacturer, and regularly kill viruses by reliable means. It is best to encrypt the video to improve the difficulty of being cracked. Once the camera is found to be abnormal, please turn off the monitoring equipment and call the police in time.
3. Don’t use a simple password for router WIFI, because the intrusion of the router will also make the camera more vulnerable to intrusion. It’s best to buy an intelligent router with a firewall to prevent hacker attacks and virus invasion and have a safer network environment.
4. When installing a home camera, pay attention to avoid areas that are easy to expose privacy, such as bedrooms and bathrooms, and record the angle of initial installation. Once the actual shooting angle of the camera changes, check the account security immediately and take protective measures.
5. Pay more attention in hotels, fitting rooms, bathrooms, escalators, buses, subways and other places. At present, the anti-pinhole camera APP sold in the market can’t completely protect privacy. It is best to pay attention to the articles published by the police from time to time, understand the various forms that pinhole can disguise, and be vigilant.
Statement:
If it has been "live" … …
In the face of invincible cameras, how can we protect our own rights and interests? In this regard, Lian Qing lawyer said that the case detected by Guangzhou police this time is very typical. In recent years, similar cases have appeared in many cities. For example, in 2017, Beijing police successfully detected the first criminal chain in China that spread home camera cracking software online and arrested 24 people involved.
She analyzed that this is a criminal case, which is suspected of illegally obtaining computer information system data and illegally controlling computer information systems, and belongs to a type of hacking crime. In addition to computer information security, the behavior involved also violated another object, that is, citizens’ personal information, so this behavior is also suspected of constituting a crime of infringing citizens’ personal information. In addition, because the suspect broke the camera involved in the fitting room and family bedroom and sold the video for profit, it may also constitute the crime of making, copying, publishing, selling and spreading obscene articles for profit.
Lian Qing pointed out that this kind of crime is relatively secret, and ordinary people often don’t even know that they are victims. They mainly rely on the power of public power to investigate and severely punish them.
She suggested that from a civil point of view, if a citizen’s right to privacy is violated, the perpetrator can be required to stop the infringement, eliminate the obstruction and compensate for the losses according to relevant laws and regulations. "But the difficulty of such cases lies in how to find and locate these infringers or suspects. If citizens find their private videos or photos spread on the Internet, in addition to reporting the case to the police, they should immediately contact and inform the online platform to remove their private videos or photos, and look for the infringers who upload and spread these private videos or photos. If the platform refuses to be removed, the platform and the infringer can be sued together. " Practice emotional expression.
