Programmer behind webcam-snooping website replaces site with a job ad

(File photo (REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/Files))

The person behind a website that pulled together live streams from thousands of webcams inside homes around the world has replaced the site’s questionable content with a job ad.

“Programmer is looking for a good remote job,” the ad reads, before listing various programming skills and an email address.

No doubt the request for work will receive a decent number of views, though most will be from people hitting the site with the intention of peering into people’s homes rather than employers searching for a skilled programmer for their business.

The Russian-hosted site landed in the news last week when authorities in the U.K. threw the spotlight on it by calling for its immediate closure. Up until the start of this week it featured webcam feeds from more than 100 countries, with around 4,000 located in the U.S.

Related: Website streams thousands of private webcam feeds

Many of the cameras are used for security purposes, to keep an eye on a house while the owner is away, though some were used as baby monitors and showed infants asleep in their crib.

The person behind the site said they hadn’t hacked the camera feeds but had simply accessed them as owners had failed to change the default password that ships with each device. The individual added that the purpose of the website was to show how easy it is to gain access to the online feeds of such cameras.

The site not only allowed users to select streams by country, but also by device manufacturer, with Panasonic and Linksys among those listed.

In a further development, a German researcher claims to have identified the individual behind the webcam site. Writing on his blog over the weekend, the researcher said he’d passed on his findings to the relevant authorities, though the post revealing the name of the man has since been password protected.

“[The] authorities were informed to investigate the issue….[the site does not] currently stream private webcams anymore, and so my ‘work’ for the moment seems to be done,” the researcher said in a follow-up post.