09 Jul When “Secure” Cameras Become Peep Shows: 1M+ Baby Monitors Left Families Exposed
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This week in cybersecurity from the editors at Cybercrime Magazine
Sausalito, Calif. – Jul. 9, 2026
Strangers were watching your children sleep. For months, anyone with basic technical knowledge could access 1.1 million baby monitors and security cameras worldwide—no hacking required, just clicking a link.
Yahoo Tech! reports French cybersecurity researcher Sammy Azdoufal discovered the vulnerability affecting devices you likely trusted to protect your family, cameras sold under familiar Amazon brands like Arenti, Boifun, and ieGeek.
A single extracted key unlocked feeds across 118 countries, revealing the dark side of cheap cloud-connected devices.
“I can retrieve the picture without any passwords, no cracking, no hacking. I just click on the URL, and this image is showing,” Azdoufal explained to The Verge. The researcher accessed intimate scenes—children’s bedrooms with Hello Kitty decorations, toddlers looking directly into cameras, family moments that should never have been public.
This all happened because Meari Technology, the Chinese manufacturer behind these white-label cameras, built their system like a house with every door unlocked. Azdoufal recently joined host Heather Engel on the Cybercrime Magazine Podcast for a deep dive into his research, regulations in the consumer IoT industry, and more.
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