Shodan: Web Cam Search Engine

January 26, 2016

When snowmageddon hit the DC area, I thought it would be amusing to check out some of the streets which once enchanted me. Alas. The webcams were not working particularly well.

I poked around and located a couple of functioning devices. Just as I figured. Quite a mess, but it is Washington, DC. A fine, well organized place.

Get ready for the next snowpocalype. Navigate to “Shodan Search Engine Provides Access to Hundreds of Unsecured Webcams.” The write up describes how the unsecured webcam search engine finds unsecured webcams. The system may prove interesting to those explore.

I learned:

The new feed consists of webcams that stream video, have an open port, and don’t require any authentication, which is how Shodan is able to snap screenshots in the first place. These webcams all employ the Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) on port 554, which is what makes them so easy to discover.

Shodan is at https://www.shodan.io/. I put tape over my computer’s video thingies. Just a thought for you to consider.

Stephen E Arnold, January 26, 2016

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under News, Rich media, Search

Comments

2 Responses to “Shodan: Web Cam Search Engine”

Mitchell Swilling on February 18th, 2016 7:53 am

NIce article. Its read very well
kurumsal web tasar?m on February 28th, 2016 11:34 am

Harika bir yaz? te?ekkür ederim

Search the site
Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive

Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.