Google Exposes Web Surveillance Cams 453
An anonymous reader writes "Blogs and message forums buzzed this week with the discovery that a pair of simple Google searches permits access to well over 1,000 unprotected surveillance cameras around the world - apparently without their owners' knowledge." Apparently many of the cams are even aimable. Oops!
Run your own surveillance (Score:2, Interesting)
I am sure someone will post with OSS software solutions.
Aside from that, how many people really need web-enabled surveillance? Just record it to HD or have it monitored live in closed-circuit fashion.
Brushfireb
search keyword - find the most interesting place! (Score:3, Interesting)
I have clicked some of them, and indded some provide pictures of various random places, like shopping center, bureau, or parking lot. But I've noticed that some of them are asking for a password, or simply refuse to connect. Does it mean that admins had fast response to this issue?
And btw - slashdotting thousands of cameras around the world is really funny. Karma prize for a person that finds the most interesting places!
Daycares with cams (Score:3, Interesting)
Perhaps some places have policies where the camera is on only for certain periods of time that vary weekly and IT departments that verify access logs, but I saw no such plans when I checked.
ooh (Score:2, Interesting)
Welcome to last October (Score:5, Interesting)
Here is the list of searches for network aware stuff: Google Cached since main site is down [64.233.187.104]
Some search phrases for cameras are: "camera linksys inurl:main.cgi" and
"powered by webcamXP" "Pro|Broadcast"
Don't forget that google can limit results to region by using "site:.jp" or similar.
Slashdot effect on webcams? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:search keyword - find the most interesting plac (Score:4, Interesting)
http://63.243.46.98:8081/axis-cgi/mjpg/video.cgi [63.243.46.98]
why public IP? (Score:1, Interesting)
I know that some maybe public for a reason (news, weather stations, etc...), but I bet the majority don't need to be opened to the public.
Come on people...get with the program.
robots.txt not obvious (Score:4, Interesting)
If you don't want your webserver to be 'found' then either
A. don't put it online. (Right)
B. security through obscurity: don't link to it, don't save a record of it. No links = no crawling/spidering.
C. Put it behind a server-wise password
Because in the end, Google may respect robots.txt but I, for one, don't when creating a local cache of a site using HTTrack
And I'd imagine there's search engines which ignore it just as well.
Re:search keyword - find the most interesting plac (Score:3, Interesting)
http://webcam.magic.iac.es/axis-cgi/mjpg/video.cg
Speaking of IP cam, why isn't there higher res.... (Score:3, Interesting)
With all of those sub 100 cameras that are going up to 3mpix these days, how come there aren't "HD"webcams or anything similar in the cheap end of the spectrum? it would be good enough for low-level consumer home security, and I'm sure it would sell like crazy. I know the image quality wouldn't be equal to the top webcam using CCD out there, but some application would require more resolution before perfect color reproduction.
Anyways just a thought... If anyone could point me to something that already exists, it would be nice, as I am sure a lot of people here would jump on this...
They still wont know (Score:2, Interesting)
These have been known for a while. It's hardly breaking news. I visit the site soetimes. There is a lot more than cameras. There are links for usernames, passwords, databases, etc.
Interesting places (Score:3, Interesting)
Not entirely sure what this is [miemasu.net]
Japanese fish store [miemasu.net]
Re:Guess the Location... (Score:1, Interesting)
Airport Security at its finest! (Score:2, Interesting)
most interesting - Casino anyone? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Daycares with cams (Score:1, Interesting)
But there is another reason to avoid daycares with cameras: the teachers will end up acting for the camera instead of doing what's best for the kids. They will only do things that will not offend any of the parents, their behavior will become bland and predictable, and your kids will grow up in an environment lacking any creativity.
On the other hand, in a daycare with cameras, your kids will get used to being monitored 24/7, and that'll prepare them for the real world outside.
Re:The best ones so far (Score:2, Interesting)
http://130.102.102.252/ViewerFrame?Mode=Motion&
Re:The best ones so far (Score:5, Interesting)
http://lobbycamera4.abia.org/axis-cgi/mjpg/vide
Re:Daycares with cams (Score:3, Interesting)
You're joking, right? Daycare jobs pay below the poverty level. Their workers are a big percentage of the 'working poor'. You think they have enough money to pay 'IT Departments'... what planet are you from
Good reason to make security cams public.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Lets say your local friendly 'protection' dude wanders in to your shop one day asking for money 'or else'.. you can either..
a) inform him that his every move is being watched by a million slashdotters..
b) pull your gun out from under the counter and blow his brains out - then tell the police there's plenty of witnesses to interview.. ;)
Google stopped me (Score:5, Interesting)
Google Error We're sorry... ... but we can't process your request right now. A computer virus or spyware application is sending us automated requests, and it appears that your computer or network has been infected.
We'll restore your access as quickly as possible, so try again soon. In the meantime, you might want to run a virus checker or spyware remover to make sure that your computer is free of viruses and other spurious software.
We apologize for the inconvenience, and hope we'll see you again on Google.
Re:But why were they crawled? (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:But why were they crawled? (Score:3, Interesting)
Publically-accessible referrer page logs.
Let's say A.com/index.html links to B.com/index.html, and to A.com/referrerlog.html. B.com has three pages -- B.com/index.html, B.com/webcam.html, and B.com/referrerlog.html -- but B.com/index.html doesn't link to either of them. However, B.com/webcam.html has a link to B.com/index.html
How does Google wind up with a link chain to B.com/webcam.html?
Well, OwnerB checked B.com/webcam.html, and then hits the link on that page to B.com/index.html. This creates a referrer entry in B.com/referrerlog.html to the webcam page, since it logs referrers to B.com pages.
Later on, OwnerB chacks his referrer page, and sees he's been getting hits from A.com/index.html. Interested in what the link is saying about him, he clicks on the address. As he arrives at A.com/index.html, a referrer entry appears in A.com/referrerlog.html pointing to B.com/referrerlog.html.
Now Google's spider reaches A.com/index.html, and follows the link to A.com/referrerlog.html. There, it finds a link to B.com/referrerlog.html, and follows it. Now, at B.com/referrerlog.html, it finds a link to B.com/webcam.html . . . and indexes it.
Now, despite OwnerB never having (intentionally) linked to either his referrer log or his webcam site, both have been found and indexed by Google. Oops.