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Daily Record
Daily Record
National
John Jeffay & Rory Cassidy

Scots mum fears hacker took over baby monitor camera to watch her and newborn

A breastfeeding mum fears a hacker took control of her Wi-Fi baby monitor - and watched her and the child.

Shocked Amie Broom says she's convinced a stranger was controlling the device at her home in Kirkwall, Orkney.

She said: "I noticed my daughter's camera kept 'realigning,' and thought nothing of it.

"In the morning, my partner said it happened again, so in the afternoon I watched closely and it was moving like mad when she started to wake up.

"I turned the camera off by my phone, and ran upstairs to get her, flicked it back on, and stood out of view. It moved up and down her cot and slightly side to side.

"I said — 'if you're watching please stop it's not your camera' — and it moved to look at me!"

Mum-of-three Amie checked and double-checked her baby monitor to make sure it wasn't just a motion-sensing device.

And she is now convinced that a complete stranger had hacked into the device, and had been watching her and her children via the internet.

Amie, who says she changes her Wi-Fi password regularly, said: "I have a second camera in my room where me and my son sleep.

"I breastfeed, and to think someone could be looking in on that without me knowing makes me sick.

"If you have Wi-Fi baby monitors please reconsider, get rid — or better still burn it."

Her Facebook warning about the incident has since been shared almost 4,000 times.

She said: "The incident made me so scared, I actually screamed before I shouted for my partner — and I'm really not easily scared.

"I think it is so important that other parents know about this and that it can happen.

"I actually bought these cameras knowing that incidents like this had happened, thinking it will never happen to me.

"I've since learned that there are actually websites of live streams of hacked cameras like these for anyone to access.

"I do also now know that there are some baby monitors that are WiFi that have some really amazing safety technology behind them."

She has since bought a more old-fashioned form of monitor, binning the Wi-Fi variety for good.

And she remains concerned that some of these app-based models do not have necessary safeguards in place to protect users and their little ones.

She said: "I have a friend who works in IT who I spoke with after the incident, and he said that these companies have no regulations or rules to follow regarding security and safety of these types of cameras.

"For sure, parents need to be more aware I think, because we are adults — we focus more on internet safety for children, and don’t actually realise we can be just as vulnerable."

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