HOUSTON – A website that peers into the everyday lives of Houstonians and people all across the world by tapping into their Internet-connected cameras was offline Monday and appears to have shut down.
Insecam.cc had broadcast video from more than 7,000 security cameras and baby monitors for the world to see. Visitors to the website could view the cameras by city. At one point, more than 400 Houston cameras appeared to be online.
The cameras caught a variety of activity, from twins sleeping to a women baking cookies to a doctor's office.
Although it was difficult to surmise exactly where the cameras were, sometimes addresses and other clues provided exact locations.
"It's kind of disgusting," said Mike Balzer, who runs a west side-gas station. "You don't want everyone in the world to know what's going on."
Local 2 Investigates was able to find Balzer's business by seeing a street address on a transom window, seen on one of six cameras being broadcast.
While incsecam.cc appeared to violate the privacy of the tens of thousands of people caught on camera, it was not clear exactly what laws, if any, the website was breaking by broadcasting the video. And what may be legal in one country may not be legal in another country.
Several countries last week began investigating the website.
Several outlets reported the website originated in Russia. A "who-is" profile Monday did not provide meaningful information about who owns the website.
"With these, you are playing whack-a-mole," said Chris Bronk, an expert in the field of computer security and assistant professor at the University of Houston. "More of them will probably pop up."
Bronk and others urged owners of Internet-connected cameras to enable passwords on the devices and make sure those passwords are not the factory defaults.
"This is actually a bit of a public service, because it is exposing a problem," Bronk said.
Security experts advocate password protecting every single device connected to the Internet.