Stranger Hacks Into Baby Monitor and Screams at Child

Parents in Cincinnati, Ohio, heard a male voice screaming at their baby through their baby monitor, which appears to have been hacked, FOX19 reports.

According to Heather Schreck, the stranger was yelling at her 10-month-old daughter Emma, “‘Wake up baby. Wake up baby.’ Then just screaming at her trying to wake her up.” Then Adam Schreck, the baby’s father, said when he ran into the room, the camera turned and started shouting at him.

It is the latest IP camera manufactured by Foscam and used as a baby monitor that has gone viral because of a security breach. In August 2013, NewsFeed reported via ABC13 that in Houston, a stranger saw a two-year-old girl’s name written on her bedroom wall via the Internet-connected cam and started making abusive comments like “‘‘Wake up you little sl#t.’” Forbes has reported that the company had a “firmware vulnerability” caused by outdated software that could cause hackers to easily tap in, but software updates were supposed to make the network more secure. That said, earlier this year, PCWorld noticed that similar concerns about the security of the Foscam wireless IP cameras have been raised in company’s technical support forums.

Solutions expert Dave Hatter recommended to FOX19 that passwords should be changed on the WiFi network and the camera software, but admitted, “Any kind of Internet-connected device essentially could be subjected to this.”