Greater than 120,000 video cameras in homes and businesses have been hacked in South Korea, with the footage used to make sexually exploitative materials for an overseas website.
4 people were arrested and police said they exploited the Web Protocol (IP) cameras’ vulnerabilities, resembling easy passwords.
Often marketed as a budget-friendly substitute for CCTV, IP cameras link on to a house’s web network and are widely used for security or maintaining a tally of children and pets.
The locations of hacked cameras reportedly include private homes, karaoke rooms, a pilates studio and a gynaecologist’s clinic.
4 suspects allegedly operated independently of each other and didn’t conspire together, based on an announcement released by South Korea’s National Police Agency.
One among the suspects is accused of hacking 63,000 cameras and producing 545 sexually exploitative videos.
He then allegedly sold these videos for 35 million won (£9,250) price of virtual assets.
One other allegedly hacked 70,000 cameras and sold 648 videos for 18 million won price of assets.
The 2 suspects were reportedly accountable for 62% of videos prior to now 12 months on an internet site that illegally distributed IP camera hacking footage.
Police are cooperating with foreign agencies to research the web site’s operator and to shut it down.
Three other people who find themselves suspected of getting bought and viewed the fabric through the web site have been arrested.
Park Woo-hyun, a cyber investigation chief on the National Police Agency, said: ‘IP camera hacking and illegal filming inflict immense suffering on victims and are subsequently serious offences.
‘We’ll eradicate them through vigorous investigations.
‘Viewing and possessing illegally filmed videos are also serious crimes, so we are going to actively investigate them.’
Victims at 58 locations have been personally visited or notified by authorities, where they were informed of the incident and given guidance on changing passwords.
Authorities are also helping victims delete and block content, and dealing to discover others who might need been affected.
The National Police Agency said in an announcement: ‘Above all, it’s crucial and effective for individual users who’ve installed IP cameras in homes or business premises to stay vigilant and immediately and frequently change their access passwords.’
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