My own camera accidentally spotted another family’s baby, and the air conditioner was turned to 90 degrees. Why do home cameras frequently experience thunderstorms?

Written by Zhidixi (public account: zhidxcom) | Li Shuiqing

Introduction: The devil is listening! A child from another family was spotted on my own camera, and the camera suddenly made noises that frightened the little girl. Why do foreign home cameras frequently experience thunderstorms?

"A strange old man lying on an armchair, a baby sleeping on the bed, a sunny living room."

Recently, a Dutch guy used his Xiaomi camera to connect to Google Nest Hub At that time, I saw the video footage of someone else’s home. After the incident, Google immediately disabled Xiaomi camera integration on Google Assistant.

Coincidentally, another smart camera giant in the United States, Amazon, also experienced thunder at almost the same time.

In Mississippi, hackers compromised a home’s Amazon Ring camera. The other party claimed to be Santa Claus, which almost scared the little girl at home. A few days later, it was revealed that more than 4,000 Amazon Ring accounts were compromised, allowing hackers to remotely monitor and steal information.

In my country, just after New Year's Day, the Zhejiang police cracked a case of "illegal control of 100,000 cameras" and arrested 32 suspects across 20 provinces. These people sell camera cracking tools, accused camera account passwords, and even naked and pornographic candid videos in QQ groups for 10-20 yuan.

The global smart home camera market is rising year by year, and is expected to grow at a rate of 14% to reach US$13 billion in 2023. Home cameras have also gotten rid of the labels of "computer peripherals" and "bulky security equipment" and have become daily smart home devices for watching babies, sucking cats, and taking care of the elderly.

However, frequent camera lightning incidents have become a "barb" in the hearts of many users. Why do incidents such as hacker intrusions and private live broadcasts occur frequently? What is the solution to the problem? It's puzzling.

Since the beginning of 2019, Google Nest cameras have begun to experience similar "pitfalls" one after another.

An Illinois couple says hackers talked to their baby through the camera and turned the Nest thermostat to 90 degrees Fahrenheit; ABC reports a Nest user was verbally abused by the camera And demanding ransom...

On Amazon’s side, on December 28, a US citizen even took Amazon Ring to court, citing eight major examples, pointing out that Amazon’s Ring camera is vulnerable to hacker attacks. Later, Ring was found to have internal employees abusing their authority to access user video data.

Google and Amazon are the two major consumer camera giants in North America. Nest was acquired by Google due to the popularity of thermostats, and Ring was acquired by Amazon for $839 in 2018. Together with Arlo, a company born in routers, they occupy nearly 80% of the home camera market in North America.

In 2019, Amazon and Google’s smart speakers frequently experienced thunderstorms, which also added an uneasy background to their camera security issues.

In April 2019, it was revealed that Amazon hired people to monitor Alexa recordings without notifying users, transcribe and annotate the content, and then feed it back to the software; two months later, Google Assistant exceeded 1,000 recordings Information was leaked, including a large number of recordings when the speaker was not awakened, involving bedroom conversations, conversations between parents and children, and a large number of private information calls...

Compared to smart speaker privacy leaks The hazards of home cameras are even worse.

Some hackers hack into cameras just to play pranks and show off their "professionalism", while some are more evil. It is understood that some hackers live broadcast the content of invading other people's homes in a podcast called NulledCast, and even spawned black products such as "15 yuan live sex video", and some criminals also use cameras to extort money.

Home cameras are supposed to be assistants for taking care of children and the elderly, but they have become the "eyes" for the "devil" to sneak into the home.

"User passwords" have become a widely known weak link.

On the one hand, some users use the original password directly after installing the camera; on the other hand, some users use the same password on different platforms and accounts. These situations create opportunities for hackers to invade.

▲Camera machines using original passwords are easy to crack

Some companies and experts said that those who are intruded by hackers often use the same name and password on different platforms and websites. people. When a site is compromised, hackers can use the stolen names and passwords to try to break into other platform accounts.

For example, the previous incidents of "hackers pretending to be Santa Claus and scaring little girls" and "hackers raising the room temperature to 90 degrees Fahrenheit" are considered to be the reason.

A Ring spokesman said: "It is not uncommon for bad actors to collect account password data from data breaches of other companies to provide other bad actors with access to other services."

However, this does not explain everything. Simply attributing the problem to users not changing their passwords or having passwords that are too simple will easily lead to public relations rhetoric in which companies and relevant departments shirk responsibility.

The transmission of video streams is a long chain, from the camera to the cloud server, from the independent system to the integrated system, from the video cloud platform to the mobile phone, Pad and other devices, every node and transmission channel All may become weak links.

This time the image of Google Nest Hub-Xiaomi camera was mistakenly accessed is an example. According to Xiaomi’s official announcement, the network was bad at that time and the Mijia system was caching updates, so the integration between the system and Google Home Hub failed.

Also at the end of last month, the US camera manufacturer Wyze leaked and exposed the customer data of 2.4 million users. It is said that its employees mistakenly deleted the security protocol when using the database.

In March 2019, American camera giant Arlo was also revealed to have two major system bugs, including network configuration errors and insufficient UART protection mechanisms.

In a video streaming transmission chain that users cannot see, various links such as transmission networks, subsystems, integrated systems, and servers may become weak links, creating opportunities for hackers to invade.

However, the intrusion of hackers is certainly worrying, but the "peeping" of operators is even more unacceptable. Just after the New Year of 2020, Amazon announced a shocking news: Amazon fired four employees because four Ring employees abused their power to access user video data in the past four years.

If hacker intrusions can be prevented, then operators’ “snooping” cannot be prevented.

When users install an Amazon or Google camera, they hand over their privacy to Amazon and Google. Without protection, users' video data may be used to train AI models, build user portraits, and invest in targeted advertising. And once the door is opened for data abuse, the resulting illegal and criminal activities will be difficult to avoid.

In recent years, cameras have increasingly become residents’ daily smart home devices. Sucking cats, watching babies, catching thieves, taking care of the elderly, making smart cat eyes...many application scenarios can be solved with a camera and a mobile phone.

Strategy Analytics report points out that the global smart home camera market is rising year by year, and will reach a market size of US$8 billion in 2019, and will reach a market size of US$13 billion in 2023 at a growth rate of 14%.

The demand for cameras in households, tenants and shops around the world is growing, but security and privacy issues have become a thorn in the side, leaving users facing the dilemma of "choking to stop eating." Especially for my country's emerging home camera industry, this "thorn" is particularly annoying.

It is considered an effective path for users to manage their own passwords well. After buying back the camera, the user should change the original password and try not to use the same password on multiple platforms. The double verification of "password verification code" and "password fingerprint" is also considered to be a strong guarantee. In addition, you can also avoid some risks by not being greedy for cheap and buying a three-no camera.

▲The initial passwords for some cameras are very simple

But just asking users to defend themselves is not enough.

Manufacturers and operators grasp the many weak links in video streaming transmission. Upgrade the cloud server capabilities, optimize the transmission network, regularly fix system bugs, and update and upgrade the platform to achieve "rock solid" at the technical level.

A professional from Dahua Technology said that because our country has profound practices in the field of security and is a world leader in video encryption technology, the level of video encryption is getting stronger and stronger, so it is often the case just now. When exposed to an attack, the server can respond quickly and isolate the intrusion without the user being completely unaware.

In addition, adding physical shielding for cameras has become the most direct measure for major camera manufacturers to deal with security and privacy leaks. Users can turn the camera on and off on the App and only choose to turn on the camera when needed.

Giving up cloud services and doing local video storage and local AI has also become a way. However, the price of this kind of camera itself may be much more expensive, and it is difficult for manufacturers to gain ecosystem through iterative software upgrades. effect.

From a deeper level, in addition to the self-discipline of users and enterprises, legal supervision and constraints are particularly important for the camera industry.

On the one hand, where are the boundaries for companies to use user video data? With the AI-based home cameras and the connection between cameras and other smart home devices, the value of user video data in AI model training and user portrait drawing will become more obvious. How to keep data operators in a "cage" requires Rely on the regulations of relevant departments and laws and regulations.

On the other hand, where do the "peeping results" of criminals go? All "black products" surrounding the birth of home cameras will have clues of "selling" and "trading" to the surface. The management crackdown of law enforcement agencies has also greatly affected the fate of the smart camera industry.

In June 2019, police in Wenzhou, my country, discovered that a man was selling camera cracking tools, controlled home camera account passwords, and even naked and pornographic candid videos in a QQ group for 10-20 yuan.

Just recently, the case of "illegal control of 100,000 home cameras" came to light, and 32 suspects from more than 20 provinces across the country were arrested.

In Europe and the United States, although Amazon and Google have repeatedly emphasized that their video transmission confidentiality technology has no problems and will not abuse users' video data, major laws on data privacy have also been introduced one after another. However, frequent thunderstorms involving cameras have become a true portrayal of major manufacturers in 2019, which is worthy of vigilance for my country's home camera industry.

Home scenes involve the most private parts of people, and for smart home cameras that carry images of people’s lives, privacy security is of extremely special importance. No one will try out AI technology at the risk of having their nude photos broadcast live. Once a company stumbles on privacy and security, it may truly lose users forever.