IP: Nanny-Cam May Leave a Home Exposed

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/14/technology/14SPY.html?ex=1019744700&ei=1&e
n=cfeb1e93a276b9ee


Nanny-Cam May Leave a Home Exposed

April 14, 2002 

By JOHN SCHWARTZ


 

Thousands of people who have installed a popular wireless
video camera, intending to increase the security of their
homes and offices, have instead unknowingly opened a window
on their activities to anyone equipped with a cheap
receiver. 

The wireless video camera, which is heavily advertised on
the Internet, is intended to send its video signal to a
nearby base station, allowing it to be viewed on a computer
or a television. But its signal can be intercepted from
more than a quarter-mile away by off-the-shelf electronic
equipment costing less than $250.

A recent drive around the New Jersey suburbs with two
security experts underscored the ease with which a digital
eavesdropper can peek into homes where the cameras are put
to use as video baby monitors and inexpensive security
cameras. 

The rangy young driver pulled his truck around a corner in
the well-to-do suburban town of Chatham and stopped in
front of an unpretentious house. A window on his laptop's
screen that had been flickering suddenly showed a crisp
black-and-white video image: a living room, seen from
somewhere near the floor. Baby toys were strewn across the
floor, and a woman sat on a couch.

After showing the nanny-cam images, the man, a privacy
advocate who asked that his name not be used, drove on,
scanning other houses and finding a view from above a back
door and of an empty crib.

------ End of Forwarded Message

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