A mother in Houston, Texas discovered security cameras in her 8-year-old twin daughters’ bedroom had been hacked and shared online in a livestream.
“I have cameras to protect my kids and I kind of feel like we failed them,” Jennifer, who only revealed her first name, told Click2Houston. “We didn’t protect them. We actually put them in harm’s way.”
A friend notified her after seeing a picture of the children’s room uploaded onto Facebook by Shelby Ivie, an Oregon mother.
Ivie stumbled upon a free app called Live Camera Viewer, which allows users to access public security cameras. Homeowners are also able to stream footage from their home cameras. In addition, viewers can rewind footage by up to 24 hours, according to the Daily Mail.
When she spotted a livestream of the girls’ bedroom on the app, she felt “horror,” according to Mashable.
“I was in tears, thinking of the violation [Jennifer] must feel,” the mother of two told ABC News.
Afterwards, she immediately made a post on a Houston Facebook page to get in touch with the family.
“I basically spent my entire Sunday at home sharing it to every Houston page I could think of,” Ivie told KTRK.
Jennifer’s friend alerted her via text.
“They’re in my house. People are watching my kids in their home, dressing, sleeping, playing,” she said to KTRK.
Jennifer turned off the camera system right away and then consulted a security company. They believe the hacker got into the system when her children were playing Minecraft on or before July 27, according to ABC News.
“Never did I dream that they would be getting into our camera system, into our Internet,” Jennifer said to Click2Houston.
However, University of Houston IT expert Mary Dickerson said such situations occur frequently, according to the publication.
“If you don’t change the default password settings, they’re the same for everyone who bought one of those devices,” Dickerson told the Daily Mail. “That means there are thousands of people around the world who know what your user ID and password is.”
Thus, she advised security camera owners to have a secure password unbeknownst to outsiders. In addition, it’s best to cover the cameras up when they’re not in use.
On another note, Ivie and Jennifer are now friends.
“She pretty much has kind of saved our lives, kind of silly as that sounds,” Jennifer said to ABC News. “She’s protected us.”
