Russian Site Exposes Thousands of Private Videocam Streams

Russian website has been posting live video streams from unprotected webcams in homes and businesses around the globe, Britain's Information Commissioner's Office warned on Thursday.

The website has gained access to the webcams using the cameras' default login credentials, which are freely available online but often don't get changed by their owners during the set-up process.

Baby monitors and CCTV networks are among the systems that have been compromised, explained Simon Rice, the ICO's group manager for technology.

The Russian site, insecam.cc, appeared to be down on Thursday afternoon.

Reportedly listed on the offending site, according to the BBC, were streams from more than 250 countries and other territories, including 4,591 cameras in the United States, 2,059 in France, 1,576 in the Netherlands and 500 in the UK.

Foscam is the most commonly listed camera brand, followed by Linksys and then Panasonic, the BBC reported. Foscam also is the brand of baby monitor that reportedly was compromised last year in a Texas family's home.