Two key reasons customers purchase video security is for live monitoring and gathering evidence after an event has taken place. These systems are put into place to keep people safe and to secure our property as well. What we must also be careful of is ensuring the video itself is secure too. Although an analog signal can be intercepted fairly easily, network signals have far greater threats of being intercepted.

Shortly after the inception of the webcam, designers were inspired to take this new technology and apply it to security cameras. Just like webcams, people started streaming security video out over the internet. Most people are unaware that a Google search using the right string of text will return links to hundreds of IP security cameras that are visible over the internet. Security streaming for schools, stores and traffic cams are commonly found online. Although some of these feeds are deliberate, many of these video streams are unintentionally made available on the internet.

With any IP network camera configuration, one crucial step to remember is to change the default administrator password. Often this step is ignored and results in open access to your system. Hackers can then view the security feeds with ease, especially if they?re somewhat familiar with your specific camera manufacturer. Another important thing to remember is that there are applications which enable hackers to potentially observe all the packets of data streaming across a network. These programs are called packet sniffers. A packet sniffer captures each packet of data that flows past it and displays the content of that packet. The information you get is generally things like source and destination IP addresses, different protocols that generated the packet, and in most cases, the content which the packet is carrying. While a single packet will not include an entire image, each one will only have a small piece. But if you can capture all the data from that stream, a hacker is certainly able to reconstruct it elsewhere.

Encryption is the best way to protect your system from hackers. Because all network data can be encrypted, online activities such as banking and shopping are possible without the worry of making private information public. The same type of technology used for those kinds of websites can also be used for network video surveillance. RSA is a highly recognized technology encryption company which is commonly used for this type of application.

Watermarking is another technology used to protect video streaming. A watermark is code added to a digital video file, which is invisible to the eye, and can be used to determine if the video file has been tampered with. If the video file has been altered in any way, that video file will be flagged as altered.

While security technology has certainly advanced, so has security for security technology. There will always be the threat of hackers with any new and existing technology, but with the proper configuration and know how, the internet can be a safe place to transmit your security feeds.

Author Bio: James is a security camera enthusiast who works with both the Web Development and Marketing Departments at ApexCCTV. ApexCCTV is a leading provider in security cameras, DVRs, and surveillance accessories.

Category: Computers and Technology
Keywords: ApexCCTV, Network, Safety, Security, Cameras, Wireless, IP, Systems, Networking, CCTV, Encryption