Hack From Neighbor

boysmore

How could I see if I was hacked by my neighbor? There are some issues going on in their personal life and they have said that our security cameras are "connected to their wifi" but that is NOT the case. They were connected to ours the entire time. Could they have hacked our system or our cameras? He is very tech savvy. Thanks

Crowgrandfather

Doubtful..

Check you network for unknown devices

MDC

Doubtful maybe, but not difficult. Very common for your own devices to show as unknown in a device scan.

Depends on how your cameras are set up on your Internet e.g. wireless or wired.

If wireless and on 2.4Ghz wifi band, then very easy to take your cameras offline. It can be done in several different ways eg jamming your wifi, but need to usually be within 20 metres to do this with the usual jammers available. Or can deauth your network at a much further range - cheap and easy to do. But both ways it would take all 2.4Ghz wifi devices offline, not solely cameras.

To view cameras footage (live or recorded), they would need to hack into your wifi network.

If your router password is safe, then your neighbour will need to know how to code. Google "packet sniffing" for an idea on how this is done. Even if they know how to write code, you can boot them off by doing the following straight away:

1) change your router password to something with at least 25 characters and a mixture of letters upper and lower case, numbers and special characters ie ##£% etc. Don't write it down.

2) Disable the WPS function on your router - just Google this, there are plenty of guides how to do it.

3) set up a VPN (virtual private network) easy to do, plenty of providers such as Express VPN and Nord VPN are amongst the best. This encrypts your data and bounces it off servers in different countries if you want it to. Even the top coders cannot see your data with this method.

4) change some settings on your Web browser eg DNS provider. Google Chrome gives you Cloudflare DNS free. Just Google how to enable it.

5) always "forget" the networks you have used on your devices because they continue to broadcast their ssid even when you are not connected to them. It's fairly straightforward to track your locations via WiFi tracking hacks otherwise: 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2020/10/24/apple-iphone-12-pro-ios-security-warning-about-wi-fi-update/?sh=3724b7923309

Hope this helps.

Crowgrandfather

> 3) set up a VPN (virtual private network) easy to do, plenty of providers such as Express VPN and Nord VPN are amongst the best. This encrypts your data and bounces it off servers in different countries if you want it to. Even the top coders cannot see your data with this method.

VPNs are pointless, especially in a situation like this. A VPN will do absolutely nothing to keep a neighbor from cracking a WiFi password.

Pixel

Hi @boysmore I suspect your neighbour is running a wifi scanner and is able to see your cameras and thinks, mistakenly, that as he can see them they are connected to his network. Your Wifi cameras are transmitting all of the time they are powered up so will be visible anyone running a scan.
As previous contributors mentioned, ensure you are protecting your network & devices with strong passwords and all should be fine. Your neighbour doesn’t appear to be as “tech savvy” as you think he is. 😉