Wyze Cam home security cameras are usually cheaper than rival devices, but sometimes you have to ask yourself the true price of saving a few quid on an inexpensive gadget.
Today the Chinese smart home company emailed account holders to inform them of a security snafu that placed videos from other people’s cameras into consumers’ Wyze app accounts, last week.
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The incident occurred after the company’s engineers rushed to get cameras back online after an AWS server outage took them offline on Friday morning.
“As we worked to bring cameras back online, we experienced a security issue. Some users reported seeing the wrong thumbnails and Event Videos in their Events tab. We immediately removed access to the Events tab and started an investigation,” the company said in the email to customers on Monday and received by Trusted Reviews.
The company said that in most cases the affected users saw a thumbnail of a camera feed that didn’t belong to their camera, which expanded when tapped. In other cases, tapping the thumbnail brought up an Event Video.
13,0000 people were affected by the issue displaying the wrong home’s thumbnail, while 1,504 people tapped on that thumbnail, Wyze says. The company added that 99.75% of all accounts were not affected, but it is notifying those who were.
Quite frankly, without editorialising too much, most of us would agree that just one person’s smart home camera footage being visible in a stranger’s app is too many and enough to warrant taking that Wyze Cam, ripping it from the wall and heaving it from the window.
The company said to prevent this happening in the future it is adding an extra layer of verification for users are connected to Event Videos (those recorded because motion was detected, etc.).
“We know this is very disappointing news. It does not reflect our commitment to protect customers or mirror the other investments and actions we have taken in recent years to make security a top priority at Wyze,” the company said in the email. “We must do more and be better, and we will. We are so sorry for this incident and are dedicated to rebuilding your trust.”
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
