The frightening experience of a Texas couple who discovered their toddler's baby monitor had been hacked by an apparently demented man showcases the serious security lapses in consumer electronics, experts say.
Researchers have repeatedly documented the security flaws in Internet-connected video cameras. But for Marc and Lauren Gilbert of Houston, academic findings became reality when they heard the creepy voice of a vulgar man calling their sleeping 2-year-old daughter Allyson an "effing moron" and telling her to "wake up you little slut," ABC News reported.
The intruder, who apparently had taken control of the Foscam-manufactured camera in the child's room, turned his attention to the Gilberts when they entered after hearing strange noises from the kitchen. The man shouted expletives and called Gilbert a stupid moron and his wife a b——, ABC said.
A known vulnerability
How the man broke into the device through the Internet is not known, but vulnerabilities in wireless IP cameras manufactured under the Foscam brand are well known.
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