Surveillance cameras are an essential resource not only for their obvious role in security, but also for observing nature and developing other similar projects. However, there are times when the feed from these cameras is left completely exposed to the internet. In many cases this is intentional, while in others it is the product of a misconfiguration or a bug. Several online portals compile and share links to live surveillance cameras, and today we will introduce three of them.
Electronic Eyes on the Web
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then the feed from a live camera is worth the whole dictionary. In a couple of clicks we can travel to the other side of the globe and observe everything from the unusual (say, a snowstorm or a massive protest) to the everyday (a truck being unloaded, or children playing in a square). Many of the transmitted signals have a public profile, and people are expected to access them through the web, but others are exposed by accident, lack of security knowledge, or vulnerabilities that the manufacturer never fixed. One way or another, all those live surveillance cameras are waiting for us to visit them, but how do we find them in the first place? The answer appears on many online sites that do the heavy lifting by indexing and classifying cameras around the world. Today we are going to share three of those sites, which work very well and do not limit the user experience.
The Best Live Surveillance Cameras
Opentopia
The Opentopia portal averages 470 cameras at the time of writing. All of them are located automatically, and there is no hacking of any kind involved. Some of the cameras only deliver "snapshots", still images separated by several seconds, but there is a very significant number with the live feed enabled. The live surveillance cameras include their location, the device brand, and the local time.
Insecam
Insecam's database is much broader, with thousands of feeds registered. However, its operators offer different mechanisms to remove a camera from the list, either because it broadcasts something sensitive, or because you are the owner and do not want it there. On the other hand, sharing your own public camera is a matter of filling in a small form with the data and waiting for approval. Each camera comes with a map showing its approximate location (the info may be wrong, since it depends on the provider's IP).
Skyline Webcams
The cameras on the Skyline Webcams portal have been classified by continent, but we can also take advantage of its secondary categories. Some of its signals are quite unusual, transmitted by surveillance cameras in very remote parks, or even underwater. Other feeds focus on iconic landmarks such as the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, the Trevi Fountain in Rome, or St. Mark's Square in Venice.
Bonus track: SHODAN
In reality, SHODAN does not allow us to access live surveillance cameras directly, but it does let us search for them... and in general terms, that is enough. The vast majority are protected with a username and password, but there is always the careless person who keeps admin/admin or admin/1234 as credentials. If you want to know more, we have a full article dedicated to SHODAN.
In Summary
The live surveillance cameras are waiting for us. Beyond an interrupted feed or a change in its security profile, accessing them is not difficult, and the sites we have mentioned here do an excellent job of keeping their links up to date. We hope you find something interesting, and good luck!
