Smart baby monitor hacked & used to wake up a sleeping child

A US hacker found his way into a webcam-based baby monitor in Ohio and started screaming violent obscenities at a 10-month old baby girl.

The parents of the child, Heather and Adam Schreck, told Fox News that they woke up to the noises of a man shouting, but were surprised to find the source was the baby monitor.

Developed by Chinese company Foscam, the device sells for around $200 (119) and enables worried parents to use their smartphone or internet-enabled device to remotely watch over their children.

This is not the first time that outsiders have managed to hack into online-accessible webcams. In 2013 a similar case occurred in Houston when a hacker verbally attacked a two-year old child through the family's webcam another Foscam device.

Changing the username and passwords of cameras - which often are set to easily accessible defaults like "admin" - is important, according to security expert Dave Hatter, as well as ensuring that all hardware is updated and patched to remove any vulnerability that hackers could exploit.

Security concerns have been the elephant in the room regarding the deployment of the Internet of Things.

"There is a real possibility that an individual's habits, location, interests and other personal information may be easily tracked," Kevin Curran, cyber security academic and member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), told IT Pro.

"There is sophisticated data mining software in use which can reveal uncannily accurate information [based] on previously anonymous' data."

Foscam has refused to comment on the hacking or on their line of cameras. It is believed that the camera used by the Schreck family had not been updated to the latest version.