Mother finds hacked live-stream of daughters' bedroom online
A mother has discovered that a webcam aimed at the bedroom of her two daughters had been hacked and was being live-streamed online for thousands of strangers to watch.
The mother, only known as Jennifer, described the situation as her "worst nightmare" and says she feels as though she has "failed".
"We have security cameras to protect them," Jennifer, from Houston, Texas, told ABC News.
"They're in my house. People are watching my kids in their home, dressing, sleeping, playing."
The private webcam, aimed at the beds of her two eight-year-old girls, was intended to keep a watchful eye over them but it had been hacked and the live footage was open for anyone to view.
Unbeknownst to her, the stream had been online since at least July 27 and had been liked 571 times.
"They had [571] likes," she said of the live stream, "so I know for a fact 571 people have been staring at my kids, probably more."
According to Jennifer, one of her eight-year-old daughters had been playing a computer game and wanted to play with friends.
A prompt requested the name of a server, her daughter searched for one online because she didn't know the family server's name.
The mother-of-three said her daughter was able to find an unprotected server online and used it.
Jennifer was unaware of the situation until another mother, Shelby Ivie, posted a picture of the girls' room on the Houston mothers' Facebook group in an effort to track down and warn the family.
A friend of Jennifer's, who was also part of the group, recognised the surroundings and immediately told her.
The mother said today her children were no longer allowed on the internet.
Jennifer reveal that security experts had told her hackers would have been able to find the family's IP address off her daughter's iPad, locate their monitor and computer system
From here she was told they were able to access their modem as well as their DVR system, which was linked to cameras throughout the house.
BE WARNED: Hackers are able to access webcams through malware - if you click a bad link or file and use code to turn on your webcam.
Once they have gained access, they are able to disable the camera's LED light, so you wouldn't know it's on.
This is one reason why experts such as Mark Zuckerberg put tape over their webcams.
