You might be aware that last week, there was a call from the Australian PM that his country is under a massive cyberattack and that he fears some state-backed actors are targeting them. His clear indication was that Chinese hackers which are sponsored by the state might be targeting their businesses. Now, we have the first report of a consequence of this hacking incident. It is known that the hackers who targetted Australia were targeting businesses as well as households and now we can say that there were hacks of CCTVs as well.
Because it has been found out that Australia’s CCTVs were being streamed on a Russian website. In a CCTV footage that was found on the Russia-based website, it is seen that a women was captured on her front door not aware that her CCTV has been hacked and that live footage is being seen by hundreds of people. It is believed that the CCTV footage is from a household in Melbourne and it was good that it is from outside of backyard which is unlikely to be a place where people do some private things.
However, it is still a massive intrusion of privacy since their identity is now known to millions around the world. According to a report from Australia’s ABC, this hack of CCTV footage involved everything “From backyard swimming pools in Perth to someone’s outdoor dining area in their Melbourne courtyard, to warehouses in Sydney and restaurants in Queensland — all manner of security cameras have been live-streamed, allowing people to watch properties and know when residents are at home or not”.
One security expert also says that “If you can remotely control your device and zoom in, zoom out … remotely unlock your door, so can a hacker,” referring to the Insecam CCTVs that can be controlled from anywhere.
