Aussie mum's 'scary' camera discovery as baby slept in cot
Eden Thomson has vowed to never use the baby monitor again believing someone was watching her young son sleep.
Parents have been warned to be "wary" of their baby monitor after a mum spotted the device "moving" while the camera recorded her young son sleeping.
Gold Coast mum Eden Thomson had not long soothed her son to sleep before going into the other room when she heard a "noise" which distracted her from the work she was doing. Checking he was indeed asleep, she continued with the baby monitor on her desk before something caught her eye.
"I literally looked at the monitor and it was moving, panning the room," she said online. "The scariest part about this is we literally just did shower time and got him dressed in his room and stuff, and the monitor was on at that point as well."
She quickly grabbed her phone to record the movements and realised the device had been hacked by an unknown person.
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Mum vows to never use the baby monitor again after 'weird' incident
Thomson immediately turned the baby monitor off and confirmed she would be "chucking this out" as she held the monitor up to the camera in her video.
"I'm not ever putting that on again... that was so weird," she said.
The mum shared she had recently become aware of another parent who had a similar experience as her, discovering a stranger was speaking to their child in the middle of the night via their baby monitor.
Do you have a cyber crime story? Contact reporter Sophie Coghill at sophie.coghill@yahooinc.com
Increased use of technology could leave children 'vulnerable' to attacks
Thomson's experience is not an isolated one and more parents are sounding the alarm on baby monitors being hacked. With an increased use of technology to aid parents caring for their children, some say it is inevitable more families will be exposed to the threat of hackers.
"As more of us use integrated smart devices in our everyday lives, which are connected to the internet, threats are always just around the corner," Managing Director at cyber security firm Trend Micro, Tim Falinski, told Yahoo News Australia previously. "This leaves us vulnerable to attacks."
Falinski advises parents to follow these steps to help safeguard their children:
Ensure all devices connected to a home internet network are accounted for and are updated with the latest security software.
Install extra security software to ensure protection of devices connected to the internet.
Protect devices using passwords and make them as strong as possible.
Use the device instruction manual to set up the baby monitor in accordance with its best use.
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