Britain urges Russia to shut down webcam spying site

A Russian website offering thousands of live feeds peering into bedrooms and offices around the world by accessing poorly secured webcams should be taken down immediately, British officials said on Nov. 20.
      
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said the site was taking advantage of devices like CCTV cameras and remote-access baby monitors that lack security protection or have weak passwords.
      
"I want the Russians to take this down straight away," Christopher Graham, the information commissioner, told BBC radio.
      
Graham said the first reports about the website, which has a domain name in the Australian-administered Cocos Islands, came from Macau and Hong Kong, then Australia and Canada.
      
Britain is now planning "very prompt action" with the Federal Trade Commission, the US consumer protection agency, "to get this thing closed down", Graham said without giving further details.
      
But a spokesman for Roskomnadzor, the Russian communications watchdog, denied that his country was responsible and said questions should be asked of webcam manufacturers.
      
"Most likely Russia has nothing to do with this," Roskomnadzor spokesman Vadim Ampelonsky told AFP Thursday evening.
      
"The domain is registered in the United States."       

In Britain, the ICO said around 500 feeds had been targeted, including a gym in Manchester, a house in Birmingham, and an office in Leicester.
                      
"The website, which is based in Russia, accesses the information by using the default login credentials, which are freely available online, for thousands of cameras," said Simon Rice, ICO group manager for technology.
      
"The footage is being collected...