Imagine standing in your infant’s bedroom, going on with your regular routine of changing diapers and playing. What a lovely thought, right? Yes, but not if you heard an unfamiliar voice come across the baby monitor say, “That’s a really poopy diaper.” Unfortunately, this is a true story.

Ashley Stanley, nanny to one-year-old Samantha, actually witnessed this. At first, Stanley thought it was Samantha’s mom and dad playing a joke on her, but she quickly realized someone had hacked into the camera.

“He said something else like ‘you should probably password protect your camera,'" said Stanley.

As you’ve probably already figured out, the Samantha’s parents weren’t tricking the nanny. The baby monitor with WiFi access, allowing parent to check in on their children from an iPhone or iPad, also has two-way audio. So, parents can see and “ewww” and “goooo” to their babies no matter when they are. Very cool feature for parents; not such a cool feature for hackers.

The problem is that these types of cameras are easy to hack as they don’t take much skill. This coupled with the fact that there are websites dedicated to posting video and audio from open cameras creates a scary situation for parents and their children.

Parents and caretakers, learn from this situation and employ the following strategies to keep you and your children safe from the prying eyes and ears of hackers:

• As soon as you get your camera up and running, change the default password, replacing it with a strong, personalized password.
• Make sure you have the most up-to-date firmware installed on the monitor.
• Consider where to actually place the monitor and what the camera is pointing toward because this is what a hacker will be able to see…and hear.