Electronic Peeping Toms are always a concern, and putting a piece of electrical tape is one way of drawing the curtains on your laptop’s camera lens. A better way is to make sure you have a strong firewall activated, strong password protection for your network and the latest anti-virus and anti-malware software running. Here’s your checklist.

1. Make sure your firewall is activated and that all the software for it is up to date.
2. Make sure you change the default password on your Wi-Fi network. If we set up your network, we gave you a unique password – one that’s long.
3. If you are not sure about the security of your network or firewall, you can power down your computer, but the downside to that is that you’ll miss the legitimate updates (which typically include security patches) that come in overnight.
4. If you install a camera system in your house to monitor selected rooms, change the password for the system, too. This should be a no-brainer, but it’s something a lot of people forget to do. Even the most incompetent hacker can get the default password for any system, so just change it and make it a strong one.

In most cases, networks are infiltrated because people don’t have them secured, and to be honest, having a Peeping Tom see you in your underwear might be the least of your problems. If somebody can hack into your computer’s camera or into your room-monitoring cameras, they likely have gotten into your computer and all the sensitive information you have stored there.

On the flip side, having internal and external cameras – and a system such as Ring to monitor your doors when someone rings your bell – can be a strong deterrent to crime. With all of the secure ways to use the Internet and mobile devices, you can monitor everything about your home from wherever you can connect to the Internet.

We think using firewalls and other technology to secure your cameras works a lot better than a roll of electrical tape. We can help you configure all of the software on your in-home systems and mobile devices to make sure you keep out prying eyes. Contact us by phone – 973-433-6676 – or email to make sure your cameras are secure.