Hacking Webcams With Google

A researcher has released a YouTube video that shows how personal Webcams can be hacked with just a Google search.

Dan Morrill, security project manager with VMC Consulting, demonstrates how Googling for specific types of Webcams turns up results and links to actual (and unsecured) personal or office Webcams. While the majority appear to be feeds of people's driveways or offices, you can also reach smaller personal Webcams, he says. "People leave an amazing number of web cameras out there wide open for anyone to latch onto," Morrill writes in his blog.

Morrill searches for various types of Webcams, including WebcamXP, WebEye, Brimsoft, Supervisor, NetSnap, EvoCam, and Toshiba. In some cases, he says you can remotely point the hacked camera and control its volume. He also found a Webcam service that was set to the default username and password, which automatically got him access to the Webcam. But many of the hacks he accomplished yielded only the Webcam feeds.

Meanwhile, there's also more information on Webcams that can be Google-hacked on renowned researcher Johnny Long's Google Hacking Database, Morrill notes. Webcam hacking using Google "is way too easy," he says.

— Kelly Jackson Higgins, Senior Editor, Dark Reading