Four people have been arrested in South Korea for hacking more than 120,000 video cameras in homes and businesses and using the footage to create sexual exploitation material for a foreign website.
Announcing the arrest on Sunday, police said the accused took advantage of vulnerabilities in Internet Protocol (IP) cameras such as simple passwords.
A cheaper alternative to CCTV, IP cameras – also known as home cameras – connect to home internet networks and are often installed for security or to monitor the safety of children and pets.
The locations of the cameras reportedly hacked include private homes, karaoke rooms, a Pilates studio and a gynecologist’s clinic.
A statement released by South Korea’s National Police Agency revealed that the four suspects acted independently of each other, and did not conspire together.
One of the suspects is accused of hacking 63,000 cameras and making 545 sexually exploitative videos, which he sold for 35 million won ($12,235; £9,250) worth of virtual assets.
Another allegedly hacked 70,000 cameras and sold 648 videos for property worth 18 million won.
The two suspects were responsible for about 62% of the videos posted last year on a website that illegally distributed IP camera hacking footage.
The police are now moving towards blocking and shutting down that website, and are cooperating with foreign agencies to investigate its operator. They have also arrested three people who are suspected of purchasing and viewing content through the site.
Park Woo-hyun, cyber investigation chief of the National Police Agency, said, “IP camera hacking and illegal filming cause extreme suffering to victims and are therefore serious crimes. We will eliminate them through vigorous investigation.”
“Viewing and possessing illegally filmed videos is also a serious crime, so we will actively investigate them.”
Officials personally visited or informed victims at 58 locations, informing them of the incident and providing guidance on changing passwords.
They are also helping victims remove and block content, and working to identify others who may have been affected.
“Above all, it is important and effective for individual users who have installed IP cameras in homes or business premises to remain vigilant and immediately and regularly change their access passwords,” the national police agency said in its statement.
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