The Importance of Strong Passwords in Home Security

IP cameras are the eyes of your home defense system, but if you protect them with an easy-to-guess password then criminals can gain easy access to your home. They could not only tune into the live feed and find out when the property is empty, but they could also shut down the recording or issue a temporary reboot while they sneak away. As a matter of fact, did you know that huge collections of live camera feeds can be found on the internet? It often includes the security footage of shops, factories and other facilities, which is a treasure trove for burglars. If you happen to see yours, contact the site support to permanently remove it.

Get rid of the default password

Rolling with the default factory setting password is the biggest mistake anyone can make. There are websites dedicated to listing the account name and password for certain camera models. And if they are visible to you, they are to any potential thief, too. If you wish to change it – which you absolutely should – visit the camera’s web interface and find the User Management section. Here it’ll be possible to add, change or remove user profiles, and from there you should select the admin, log in with the old password, then choose to replace it with a new one.

Protecting your Wi-Fi

It’s important to note that cameras aren’t the only things you should protect with a strong password. There were multiple news stories reporting on hackers that managed to crack a routers defense and took control of the family’s smart devices. One of them even had remote access to the baby speaker and used it to whisper dirty things to the child. And don’t even think about the dreadful consequences of someone getting hold of the personal data collected by Alexa. The sad thing is that Wi-Fi routers are extremely easy to hack, even a seven-year old can do it. On top of all that, password strength has very little influence on preventing a hacking attempt. To properly protect your Wi-Fi you need to use a VPN. Setting them up for a router isn’t complicated and there are even flashed VPN routers that come with a chosen VPN service pre-installed.