A “grey hat” website hosted in Russia is making a strong statement about a security flaw that is often “exploited” due to a very common user error. This site has been widely reported by several news media outlets in the last few days, including online news daily Costa Rica Hoy, which published screenshots of surveillance video at a known shopping center in Ezcazu, a factory in Paquera, and a section of the Centro Colon in San Jose.

The Costa Rica Star has looked at the website in question and found dozens of video feeds from Costa Rica. In the interest of privacy, we have chosen not to publish the name of the Russian website or any screenshots therein. As recently reported by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in the United Kingdom:

The danger of using weak passwords has been exposed again this month after a new website was launched that allows people to watch live footage from some of the insecure cameras across the world. The website, which is based in Russia, accesses the information by using the default login credentials, which are freely available online, for thousands of cameras.

The footage is being collected from security cameras used by businesses and members of the public, ranging from CCTV networks used to keep large premises secure, down to built-in cameras on baby monitors.

There is an inherent security issue that allows this Russian website as well as dozens others to spy on unsuspecting users. The problem is that the 100 or so users from Costa Rica whose homes and businesses are now being spied on did not bother to change the default configuration of the IP cam they purchased to keep them safe. As reported by the ICO:

When you begin using your camera you may be given a simple default password that you’ll need to enter to get the device working. This might be blank or something as simple as ‘password’ or ‘12345’ but, even if it isn’t, the default passwords many manufacturers use are freely available online so make sure you get it changed. If the device doesn’t have a password, then, as a bare minimum, you should set one up.

In addition to the dozens of Costa Rica cams currently being spied on from Russia, there are thousands from the United States, Canada and many other countries where such devices tend to be more popular.