Hacker Breaks into Prison Cameras and Live-Streams on YouTube
Jan. 1, 2020A YouTube channel named “BigBrother’s Gaze” reportedly live-streamed surveillance footage of Thailand prison. The incident took place earlier this week right before Christmas and was spotted by a reporter who then alerted the government officials.
Thelive-stream showed the activities of prisoners from different security cameras. Authorities at Thailand’s Department of Corrections confirmed that the security cameras at Lang Suan Prison in the southern province of Chumphon were compromised by someone whose location was outside Thailand.
The report states that Corrections Department Director-General Police Col. Narat Sawettanan took immediate actions and ordered the prison to turn off the camera and investigate the incident.
According to the report, the video was incorrectly described as Bangkok prison, while it actually took place in Lang Suan. The video no longer exists on the channel. Apparently, the channel owner must have taken it down fearing legal actions.
This is not the first time a security camera break-in has happened. Several surveillance cameras get compromised and go undetected until the hacker decides to interact. In a recent incident, aRing camera was compromisedputting the privacy of an 8-year old girl to risk.
As theFBI recommends, changing the default password and using a strong password could help prevent such incidents from happening to an extent.
Subin writes about consumer tech, software, and security. He secretly misses the headphone jack while pretending he’s better off with the wireless freedom.
