How to Secure Your Security System

The safety of the CCTV cameras is extremely important. Nobody wants to have the cameras installed at their property be damaged due to any negligence. Moreover, having some perfectly working cameras stolen from the premises can be a nightmare for you if you have security cameras installed at your place. Although there are not many cases heard about someone actually physically stealing a security camera, but still, it is a possibility that might occur.

Security System Hacking

As technology progresses, another variation of hacking and stealing is the unauthorised access by a criminal to the security camera footage. Unfortunately, an proficient security camera hacker would be able to access your security system, and this would take him only a couple of minutes if you do not take the necessary steps to keep your system safe from hacking. So by default usually, until the CCTV cameras are not specifically manoeuvred by an individual, the surveillance is filmed without any discrimination. This means that the camera shall film anyone who is in front of the camera and will record their activities. It can be any unauthorised person, your employees, and even you. What if someone gets unauthorised access to your security camera films and starts to observe your activities, your patterns and your timings of doing different chores? And even keep an eye on you live with the intention of committing a crime against you?

Now this obviously means that the person trying to hack into your surveillance footage is extremely tech-savvy, but it does not mean that you also need to be as techy yourself too in order to save your cameras from being hacked. It’s all about being aware of the mischief that might be possible, and you can take steps to avoid such mishaps.

Secure your system with good passwords

One of the most important steps to secure your CCTV camera footage, computer devices, social media accounts, bank accounts, everything, is frequently rotating passwords. Every security system has a password, and this password is used by the authorised person to access the footage and data. If there are multiple authorised users of the system then changing the password regularly is even more important.

What is a strong password?

It is extremely essential to know the significance of having strong passwords. Underestimating the benefits of having a strong password is a common mistake. Another common mistake is overestimating the benefits and abilities of having a strong password. Confusing, isn’t it? Well, the key is to rotate passwords frequently. Having a strong password is of course very important, but it does not mean that having a strong password is alone enough for the security of your data. It will be very important that you change your password regularly and frequently as well.

What is a strong password? Well a password is strong if it has many characters, ideally more than six characters, and the characters in the password include alphabets, numbers and special characters. Moreover, it is even better to have upper case and lower case alphabets both in a password. A password that is very difficult to guess and remember is a strong password actually. For example, 5hsH@^kgha13 is a strong password.

Do not share security details

Maintain Care should also be taken to not give the credentials to any visitor or any unknown or unauthorised person. Secrecy has to be maintained so that the minimum number of people are aware of the current password of the security system. If there is any doubt that any authorised person might have given the password to any authorised person due to any reason, the password should be changed immediately. Of course, not having the password is the first hurdle that any criminal would face while trying to intrude into your security surveillance system.

Secure your internet connection

Besides the credentials of the security system, care should also be taken of the internet connection at the premises. The internet connection at the premises where the CCTV cameras are installed should also be protected with strong passwords. Just like the security system, it is also precautionary to not allow any unauthorised person to access your internet network. In order to minimise the chances of hacking, it would be best if you keep a close eye and only share the password of your internet connection with only your family members, employees and co-workers (if it is a workplace) and very close friends.

It is also necessary that you change and update your internet connection password regularly too, and if you have any doubt that anyone has the password of your internet network, who should not have it permanently, then change the password immediately. Sometimes you need to give the password of the internet connection to a visitor for some reasons, but remember to change the password as soon as they leave.

Don’t use public WiFi

Also keep in mind to use a dedicated network if you view the CCTV footage remotely. Do not use public WiFi. That can be the biggest blunder ever. Public WiFi can be soft prospects for hackers to intrude and hack someone’s important systems, like the security system.

Keep your software up to date

Keeping your software and hardware updated with the latest technology is also a very effective way of keeping your CCTV camera footage safe and secure. Whenever an update of the CCTV firmware is released by the manufacturers, you should have your system upgraded and updated with it. One of the benefits of upgrading any software or system frequently is that hackers do not get much time to explore it and devise hacking strategies. The older a software gets, the more vulnerable the software becomes to hacking and malicious attacks because criminals get more time to explore the system and find the loopholes in it to penetrate it and access the CCTV footage.

An older version of a system is more vulnerable as compared to an updated and newly released version of the same software. Moreover, usually a new update also keeps in the minds the loopholes in the older version pertaining to malicious attacks and hacking, so the manufacturers try to take care of it. So, keep in mind, whenever there’s a software or hardware update recommended by the manufacturers, go for it.

Use encrypted signals

Another factor that should be considered is to install the latest cameras that have the feature of encrypted signals. Due to increasing attempts of hacking, camera manufacturers have now initiated to build cameras that have unique security features like encrypted signals. These cameras can generate sophisticated encrypted signals that would be transmitted to multiple channels, but these can’t be easily jammed and decrypted easily by hackers.

These days, everybody is excited about cloud computing and cloud storage. Having your data in the “clouds”, as they say it, instead of physically having it with you in your computer and having easy access to it from anywhere in the world is highly convenient. It keeps your data safe, it saves your storage space, it allows you access your data from anywhere in the world, and it even saves your money by offering you the elasticity feature in which the servers upgrade and downgrade automatically depending upon the load on the servers. However, this convenience can sometimes cause problems as well.

Beware the cloud

Just like you could access your data and CCTV footage from anywhere in the world through the internet, someone else could also. Sometimes have the CCTV footage on the cloud can be more risky. Someone trying to access your data might be able to hack into your cloud storage space, moreover, a mass attack at the cloud service provider might also be a possibility that might breach the security of your surveillance system.

What could be the motive behind anyone trying to access your security system? Well, if we think, the basic reason behind installing a CCTV surveillance system at our home and workplace is to keep our families and friends safe from any criminal activities possible. Intruding the security system in order to intrude your home or workplace for executing any criminal activity would be the main motive behind hacking a surveillance system. Such criminals might have the intention to steal something, or physically harm anybody in the premises. Another criminal activity could be spying on you for any reason. The criminal might be watching your whereabouts, your timings, and your patterns of doing any particular task and then based on it, might try to do something illegal or inappropriate.

It is vital that you always keep an eye on all the people who have access to the security system and who frequently access it. Try to be aware of it in your presence and even in your absence. Keeping your security system secure is the most important step of safety.

If you would like more advice on how to get the most from your security system, contact us today.