PETALING JAYA, Nov 16 — Insecam.com, the website that has drawn flak for airing live surveillance footage of homes and business premises worldwide, insisted it was looking for a compromise to make the site legal.
In an email to Malay Mail, its administrator claimed it now only featured feeds from Internet-Protocal (IP)-based security systems without passwords.
“I am looking for (a) compromise to make this site legal. Now there are only cameras without passwords available. I’ve removed password protected cameras with public known passwords to make the site fully legal,” said the website administrator.
When asked if it had attempted to inform the owners or obtain their permission, the administrator replied: “I have no idea how to contact that many users. Only the mass media can help. The cameras are viewed by third parties and the owners did not know about it.”
The administrator credited the media, adding the panic created over “this old problem” now saw a database of 160,000 cameras with unchanged default passwords reduced to 63,000.
“This is a correct response from camera owners.”
From the over 800 locations which were on public domain on Friday, only footage from 36 locations in Malaysia — namely Kuala Lumpur (28 locations), Muar (three), Sungai Petani (two) and one location each in George Town, Penang and Ampang and Kajang in Selangor — were screened on the website as of 5pm yesterday.
CyberSecurity Malaysia had yet to receive any instruction from the authorities to take action against Insecam.com despite the public outcry on invasion of privacy.
Its chief executive officer Dr Amiruddin Abdul Wahab said the body cannot act unless it received directives from police or the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).
“In some ways, this is a good lesson. Right now, we need to create more awareness on the importance of using complex usernames and passwords,” he said.
“Right after Malay Mail alerted us, we set up a team to monitor the footage that were being streamed on the website. We are identifying the exact locations of the surveillance cameras. We will inform the necessary parties once the locations are determined.”
Amiruddin said it was up to the discretion of MCMC to block the website and for the police to determine if it was a cyber crime.
Malay Mail, had since Thursday, revealed how Insecam.com managed to penetrate into IP-based surveillance systems in various locations nationwide.
The website insisted the exercise was to educate the masses on the importance of using complex usernames and passwords when operating IP-based systems. However, users and the authorities cried foul, insisting it was a violation of privacy, leaving them vulnerable to potential criminal threats.
