how much should I be concerned about spyware
I bought a camera off Amazon and it won't work my IOS or Mac's (newer) browsers. After delving into Amazon's reviews one guy said it is because it only works with Adobe Flash and the Chinese manufacturers make constant connections back to their HQ. I can't use it on my Mac or Iphone because of this but SS grabs it no problem. So what gives? Is SS Adobe Flash compatible? Does routing the software through SS negate the alleged security risk? Is this a real concern? Thanks
Comments
-
Flash is a now-defunct technology to run multimedia applications in web browsers. It is not supported on any recent web browsers, so if the camera does indeed require flash for its web interface, then this is the reason why you are finding that it doesn't work. I must say I'm surprised that any new camera that you purchased would use flash, since it was deprecated in 2017!
In any case, SecuritySpy doesn't need/use flash, and the use of flash in the camera's web interface is not relevant as to whether the camera is a security/privacy risk. The other thing that the reviewer mentions - the camera making constant unexplained connections to the Internet - is unfortunately a common issue with Chinese-manufactured cameras, and many users are justifiably concerned about this, because no one (apart from the manufacturer) knows exactly what information is being transmitted.
The best way you can prevent the cameras from making these connections is to Segregate IP Cameras on their own LAN without Internet access.
-
Interestingly SS can access this camera without any credentials (ONVIF) being entered even though the camera itself has this requirement. As for Flash, I don't think (now) this camera uses it, it is only because, when accessing it on a Mac's web (any) browser, there is no live video, only the camera's web server. SS works opposite by accessing the camera's feed but not the server. Would it be to difficult to make SS able to access the camera's web server much like the Mac's web browser does? Thanks
-
It's unusual that a camera would allow access to a video feed without a username/password being required. Since it sounds like you can in fact access the camera's web interface, you might like to see whether you can add password protection to its ONVIF service to increase your security. Segregating the cameras on their own LAN will also increase your security by putting a barrier between the camera and the Internet.
SecuritySpy isn't a web browser, so I'm not sure what to make of your question about SecuritySpy being able to access the camera's web interface. SecuritySpy's job is to obtain and process the video feed, and this sounds like it is working correctly. It is quite common for cameras' web interfaces to fail to display the video video on Mac web browsers unfortunately - this is a limitation of the camera itself, and SecuritySpy cannot help you with this.
