Unsuspecting Canadians are live online thanks to surveillance cam security flaws

Webcam and surveillance camera security flaws are not new, but alarm bells go off when scores of unsuspecting people are streamed live online. A website registered in Russia called Insecam, is reportedly live streaming from security cameras all around Canada.

Motherboard reports that security cameras at various places in Canada, including kindergartens, day care-centres, churches and even living rooms have been tapped into to procure these feeds. The matter came to light when CBC reported that the Russian website has been broadcasting feeds of hundreds of school students from a Cape Breton school in Nova Scotia, Canada.

There may be other sites too streaming such videos, the report claims.

The location of these videos can be tracked down in some cases owing to clues like banners or sign boards. One of the malls whose webcam was tapped into confirmed using them for surveillance but said they were not aware it was live outside of their internally accessible site.

Unlike other digital devices, most security cameras are not password protected and can be spied on. Last year, a former NSA employee had detailed how the webcam and microphone of an Apple Macbook could be hacked.

Earlier this year it was reported that unknown hackers accessed 70% of Washington DC's surveillance cameras, preventing footage from being recorded for three days. The incident took place just eight days before President Donald Trump's inauguration ceremony.