How Two Step Password Protection Keeps You Safe From Hackers

Recent news stories about less expensive cameras sold by Amazon being hacked should be a wake-up call to anyone trying to buy a hidden camera. A consumer watchdog group revealed that “certain cheap IP cameras found on Amazon can easily let hackers into users' homes.” Most of the less expensive cameras use single step password protection or no password protection at all.

The hidden camera buyer may not even understand the difference until a hacker has already watched them for several days via their security cameras. That hacker now knows their morning routine, when someone is at home or not, and possibly even the security code to a house alarm.

The difference between single step vs. two step password protection

Single step protection means that a snoop or a spy only has to guess one password, usually the one protecting your user account, to gain access to the camera. Two step protection means that the user account has a password - and the camera ALSO has a password. Once the user sets the password for the camera it is yours and yours alone. Not even tech support for most camera manufacturers can access your camera's password.

Some basic password tips

Don’t use any personal information, birthdays, anniversaries, children’s names or “your regular password”. Using a standard password for everything may seem easy but if it is found out, then every account that you used that password on is compromised. Also, popular but easy to guess are favorite sports teams, bands or college names. Strange combinations of swear words may seem to be safe but still are not as secure as you may think. The best passwords include a capitol letter and a lower case letter and at least 1 number and a character such as @,#,* etc.

Investing in a two step password protected camera

The SleuthGear line of cameras features the SG Home DVR; a memory card based hidden camera with Wi-Fi local and remote view, and the SG Home CVR; a cloud based hidden camera system that also offers live and remote view and recording via Wi-Fi using our SG Home app. Not only is the SG Home app use a U.S. based password protected server; the app and camera together require two passwords to be set. The process to set up this two-step password protection is simple and straightforward.