Credit: Photo via Creative Commons
Hackers took control of a local printing shop owner’s internet protocol (IP) security camera in Lorain County earlier this month. For five days the owner, who identified himself only as Joe to News 5 Cleveland, noticed the camera moving on its own.

One of the employees started to hear voices coming from the camera on the fifth day and went to notify Joe. The voices on the other end started shouting profanities and threatening Joe and his employees.

“They said they were going to rape the children, they said they were going to make me watch and they said when they were finished they were going to kill me,” Joe told News 5 Cleveland.

The hackers harassing Joe and his employees knew their names and the name of the store they all worked in. One of the employees contacted authorities and when dialing 911, a voice from the camera said, “Go ahead, call the police. They don’t scare us.”

In addition to calling the police, Joe contacted federal instigators who told him how to change his IP address and are reviewing the video Joe recorded of the hacked camera.

Joe told News 5 Cleveland that he wanted to speak out about his incident to let others, who also rely on IP cameras, “to be aware of just how vulnerable their system can be.”

“You never know who’s watching,” he said.

This article appears in Jun 14-20, 2017.

3 replies on “Hackers Took Control of a Lorain Co. Printing Shop’s Camera For Five Days”

  3. As soon voices started coming from the camera and the voices on the other end started shouting profanities and threatening to rape the children, said they were going to make me watch,and said that they were then going to kill me, I would have pointed a shotgun at the camera, told them they’d get a faceful of its contents if they showed up, and then blown that fucking camera into pieces so small that you’d need an atomic microscope to see them.

    Then I’d have sat in my store and waited for them to show up, either with armed employees or alone. And if they even approached the store, they’d have died.

    Years ago, on a cable network’s website, I encountered an asshole using multiple names who began harassing me and making the exact same kind of threats. The network would not do jackshit without a court order, lawyers, the whole megillah.

    The asshole even did the same “Go ahead, call the police. They don’t scare us.” routine. But he had my name wrong and the address he thought was mine was off by dozens of miles and in the wrong county.

    Still, had anyone showed up at my door and called me by my screen name, they’d have never gotten off my porch alive. Sometimes, you just gotta do whatchoo gotta do.

    Chuckles the Clown

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