Security Cameras: Anything But Secure

I recently installed a screen on the dashboard of my new pickup truck. The screen is configured to display video transmitted wirelessly from a camera installed on the truck’s bumper, a system designed to help avoid collisions while backing up. But the monitor picks up a lot more than intended. Driving through the suburbs outside Detroit, the screen first shows the feed from one home’s front-yard security camera. Next, surveillance footage from a party store appears. Then there’s the image of a crib transmitted by someone’s baby monitor.

Such accidental neighborhood spywork—which this reporter in no way intended—reveals a fact few people realize: Many of the wireless cameras used as baby monitors, home-security gear, and even business surveillance systems are startlingly susceptible to interception. “Wireless cameras are so easy to put in, that’s the selling feature,” says Christopher Charow, the lead investigator at Lakeside Investigations in Michigan, which also operates a security and spy-gear shop. “But if it’s security you want, you might be getting the exact opposite.”