Scary Tech Makes Every Missouri Home Vulnerable to Peeping Toms

Somebody is watching you. That's true now even if you're in your own home and all the doors and windows are closed with curtains drawn. Scary new technology now makes every single Missouri home vulnerable to peeping toms and there's almost nothing you can do about it.

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Most people that know me know that I have been a radio guy for more than 40 years. What most do not know is that I'm also a certified computer tech and keep a close eye on what's happening with technology. That's one reason I was extremely disturbed when I saw a report by Tech Radar Pro about a new way that virtually anyone can peer into your most private places no matter where you call home in Missouri.

There are lots of technical things to explain, but the bottom line is this: wherever there is a camera, there is the possibility that someone can access it using equipment that is relatively inexpensive.

Have a doorbell or security camera? Someone can watch you through it. Have a camera on your phone or laptop? They can access that, too.

This scary tech was featured in a paper shared by NDSS entitled "Characterizing Electromagnetic Side-channel Eavesdropping on Embedded Cameras".

What this study found is "a vulnerability in the digital image data transmission interface that allows adversaries to reconstruct high-quality image streams from the cameras’ unintentional electromagnetic emissions, even from over 2 meters away". They did this using rather inexpensive off-the-shelf tools saying that more expensive gear could be even more intrusive.

It gets worse. The researchers were even able to access video information THROUGH WALLS.

No matter how secure you believe your Missouri home is, there's almost no way to completely eliminate the ability of someone to access the cameras that are in almost all devices from anywhere.

What is the solution?

There is some potential good news, but it won't help today. The conclusion of the study says this:

We have identified the cause of this vulnerability to be the unprotected deterministic digital image data transmissions between the image sensor and downstream image processing components

The manufacturers of the devices need to find a way to encrypt that digital image transmission before it reaches the image processing components and/or find a way to protect it from outside access. Until that happens, every single home in Missouri is vulnerable including yours.