Baby Monitor Hacked: Security Experts Advise Securing Home WiFi Network After Father Hears Disturbing Voice Emanating From Device
A baby monitor was hacked and the parents of a young child are trying to regain their sense of security after hearing someone spew expletives at their sleeping child.
The child's father Marc Gilbert was walking down the hallway in their Texas home when he heard voices coming from the room. When he entered he heard a disturbing voice.
"Wake up Allyson, you little [expletive]," Gilbert told KTRK.
Gilbert then rushed over to the baby monitor and disconnected it. The father added that his sense of security had been compromised while stating that he will forego the baby monitoring for now.
"It felt like somebody broke into our house … I don't think it ever will be connected again ... I think we are going to go without the baby monitor now," Gilbert told ABC News.
Hackers have been known to hack a person's webcam, but this is the first reported incident involving a baby monitor. Web security experts reveal that any wireless device can be compromised if there are not strong security protections in place.
"In this case, what it sounds like is that they set this camera up, and someone cracked into the wireless network," Chronister told CBSNews.com. Chronister is the managing partner of Parameter Security did not consult the Gilbert family, but is familiar similar personal wireless network security breaches.
Chronister suggested that parents should take the necessary steps to secure their home wireless networks by setting a strong password and using Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2) to set up a password because it has better encryption standards.
"The thing to understand is that not all hackers have pointed at you as a target. You just happened to have a device that they know how to hack, so they hack it," Chronister added. "Make sure you punch in a password and make sure it's long."
