When considering an electronic addition to your home, especially those intended for security, you want to make sure it’s safe for you and your family. After all, that’s the entire point of security cameras in the first place! While they’re growing in popularity, are smart security cameras actually safe for your home?
Smart security cameras are just as safe as any device connected to the Internet, meaning they’re still susceptible to hacking. However, if you position your cameras to eliminate blind spots and set up your digital security with strong settings, these systems are a huge benefit to home security.
If you’re interested in the nitty-gritty details of whether smart security cameras are safe, stay tuned.
This article will be taking a deep dive into how smart security cameras work, whether they’re safe, and additional security precautions to consider implementing alongside cameras.
How Do Smart Security Cameras Work?
People with bad intentions will never go away, so how can you safeguard your home, belongings, and family from those who would do you harm? Well, smart security cameras are quickly becoming a popular choice.
Like regular cameras, smart security cameras record chosen areas of and around your home.
Still, the difference is that smart cameras are connected to WiFi networks and can stream to smartphones and other Internet-capable devices.
Setup is usually simple. Once the cameras have been installed, you’ll also download a specialized app for smartphones that lets you check your cameras from home and otherwise manage your security footage.
Different models have different capabilities, but some storage is necessary, whether it’s an SD memory card or cloud storage.
Varying models of cameras have many different features we’ll be getting into later, such as manual control, face tagging, motion detection, and communication features. Your mileage with individual features will differ based on the cameras you choose to buy.
Are Smart Security Cameras Safe?
A common concern of anyone installing security is whether they can trust it, and for a good reason – you’ll be spending money and entrusting your home’s safety to whatever security measures you buy and install in and around your home. On this front, there’s some good news and some bad news.
The Bad News
The bad news is that anything connected to the Internet can theoretically be hacked and turned against you.
This would mean some malicious hacker spying on you, best case or worst case, using your security cameras against you in a coordinated robbery.
Any camera that can be viewed on a smartphone or other device isn’t absolutely safe. Still, that degree of safety varies greatly depending on what measures you take to protect your cameras’ integrity.
Even cloud-based storage solutions for smart cameras are at risk of being hacked.
If a hacker infiltrates the cloud storage, they’ll gain access to all the footage stored on that server, including yours. This is a very real risk to keep in mind, but not enough on its own to decide against a smart camera system.
The Good News
The good news is that the likelihood of being targeted by a hacker is very low and easily prevented.
Even better are wired cameras that link to local storage because these are effectively unhackable since they don’t connect to the Internet.
So regardless of your needs as a homeowner, you can rest assured you’ll be able to find security cameras that fit your needs.
How To Keep Your Smart Security Cameras Safe
While we touched on wired cameras using local storage already, this section operates under the assumption that you’re specifically interested in smart security cameras that use WiFi to connect to other devices and possibly store footage.
The distinction is important because the former require little to no special actions on your part, while the latter benefit greatly from simple steps.
Here’s how you can keep your smart security cameras safe:
Make Sure Your Home Is Covered
Before worrying about the techno parts of security, you have to make sure you have adequate coverage.
This means positioning your cameras where you don’t leave blind spots that robbers can take advantage of to slip between the cracks of your system.
After placing cameras in a room of your home or outside, watch them. What you want to look for are areas where the cameras can’t reach.
Specific areas to look for are corners, behind furniture or walls, and any buildings or objects outside of your home. The goal here is to leave nowhere for robbers to hide and evade your cameras. With proper placement, security cameras will be a much bigger deterrent to thieves who quickly realize they don’t have a prayer in breaching your home unseen.
Use the Strongest Security Settings
Your home’s WiFi connection is the door to your smart cameras, so you need to secure it. Thankfully, this is relatively easy to do and will result in stronger security and peace of mind.
Here’s hwo you can use the strongest security settings to protect your home:
- Log in to your router settings – this varies by manufacturer.
- Choose WPA or WPA2 security encryption and set a strong password that casual observers can’t easily guess.
- Turn on the firewall included with your smart camera system – the truly dependable systems will have this feature included with instructions.
- Use a different password for your smart camera system than your WiFi password for an extra layer of security cushion.
- Update your camera system’s firmware as necessary to keep up to date with security improvements and features.
- Set up 2-factor authentication, where you require a special code generated by a unique program or app along with your main password to log in to your security system.
Following these steps will dramatically lower the chances that hackers and thieves will digitally penetrate your home’s new smart security camera system.
Benefits of Smart Security Cameras
Properly used, smart security systems are an incredible way to boost home security.
Alarm systems are great, but they don’t allow you to see your home at a moment’s notice or even interact with people at your door as smart camera systems do.
Depending on the exact model and brand of your system, your system may come with different features.
- Motion detection is a very popular feature included in many models of smart security cameras. Specifically, this means the camera will detect motion in its field of view and may even be designed to swivel toward motion.
- Some cameras use GPS technology to recognize you carrying your linked smart device and automatically disarm when you go in or out of your home. Realistically, this is mostly a quality of life feature that doesn’t really impact security.
- Audio communication is becoming a popular feature on smart security cameras. You may have seen doorbell cameras that allow you to communicate with workers delivering packages or other people approaching your door. This handy feature lets you tell the postman to leave the package on the step or even scare off potential intruders coming to check out your system.
- Real-time viewing is one of the biggest benefits of a smart camera system. This lets you tap into your home’s cameras from a special linked app and/or program from your smartphone or computer and watch the feeds in real-time. Some models even let you actively swivel the cameras.
Final Thoughts
Smart security systems have notable disadvantages, including their potential to be hacked.
Pragmatically, if you set up your smart security camera system with strong settings, including a strong password and 2-factor authentication, you should never fear being hacked.
Even with its risks, the advantages of a system that lets you actively monitor your home and even have some degree of communication and control are simply unbeatable.