One Houston mum has experienced a parent's worst nightmare when she discovered that strangers were watching her children in their bedroom over the internet.
The safety-conscious mum had installed a security camera in the bedroom of her 8-year-old twin daughters. However, she later discovered (thanks to the quick-thinking of another concerned mother) that the footage from the camera had been hacked and was being streamed online.
“People (were) watching my kids in their home, dressing, sleeping, playing,” the distressed mum told a local news station KTRK.
“I have cameras to protect my kids and I kind of feel like we failed them."
“We didn’t protect them. We actually put them in harm’s way.”
Jennifer, whose last name is being withheld to protect the family's privacy revealed that she only learned of the dire situation through a Facebook post written by a concerned mother, Shelby Ivie who lives over 2000 miles away in Oregan.
According to ABC News, Ivie posted to a Houston mother's Facebook group, trying to locate the family after she spotted the video footage on an app called Webcams Viewer.
The app seemingly enables users to watch more than 11,000 cameras worldwide. The app's description on iTunes is somewhat sinister:
“Watch almost every place on Earth," it proclaims.
“Enjoy viewing and remotely physically controlling thousands of live real time video streaming CCTV surveillance and security IP cams and webcams all over the world right from your iPhone and iPad."
A security company contacted by Jennifer believed that the hack originated from a game one of the girls had been playing.
Jennifer has taken serious measures to up her family's online security, sadly for Jennifer's family, her story serves as a reminder to us all of the importance of safety online.
For every parent, the task of protecting our children online is a challenge that grows in complexity every day as our children's age and computer-use increases.
