How to Find a Tamper-Resistant Baby Monitor
My wife and I are going to have a baby, which is great! But as most young parents quickly realize, modern babies seem to need a lot of accessories – a crib, a changing surface, diapers, a car seat, a stroller, and of course a baby monitor (among others).
Choosing the right baby monitor was particularly challenging for me: I remembered various recent headlines about baby monitors being easily hacked , their video streams compromised, and scary voices coming from two-way talk and screaming to babies. in the dark . As a supposedly science and technology journalist, I wanted to make sure I picked the safest baby monitor possible at our price point of about $ 200 or less.
After reading and searching the internet for various baby monitor product listings for a long time, here’s what I learned about the safety status of the baby monitor in 2017 and the model I ended up buying.
Not all wireless transmission technologies are created equal
There are several basic types of wireless technologies that are used in baby monitors to connect a camera monitoring your baby to a receiving device (or app) that you are watching and listening to.
Here I must mention that for the purposes of my hunting I have completely focused on video monitors. There are also audio-only baby monitors, but in general they rely on the same wireless technology as baby monitors, so the following may help you assess their safety. Below are the three main categories of video monitors available:
Analog baby monitors use one of the major radio frequencies available (typically 49 MHz or 900 MHz, according to Spruce ) to transmit audio and video from the camera to the receiver.
The advantage of this is that it is a very old technology, so it can often be more affordable than a digital signal baby monitor. But it’s not as secure as other technologies – anyone nearby and using the device on the same frequency as your analog monitor can start receiving your audio and video, or vice versa.
If you encounter noise on an analog monitor, it is usually possible to manually switch the frequency to another unused one. MomTricks suggests that analog monitors may be better for those who live in rural areas away from people and sources of potential interference, but since they are often unprotected, I can’t recommend them to anyone with a clear conscience.
Digital baby monitors use a digital signal that transmits and receives audio / video in the form of discrete numbers, rather than continuous form like analog radio waves (usually at 2.4 GHz ).
The advantage of this type of signal is that it is easier to encrypt, which means that even if someone else is using a device that operates on the same frequency as your baby monitor, that person cannot easily see or hear what a baby monitor is. … capture and transfer.
Some digital baby monitors do this by automatically switching signals to avoid eavesdropping , usually using a technique known as frequency hopping spread spectrum (FHSS). You can search Google or baby monitor using that term or abbreviation – FHSS – and you should come across several options.
This technology works by quickly changing the channel your camera and receiver use to communicate in a seemingly random fashion, making it difficult for anyone else to accidentally detect your baby monitor’s signal and listen / watch the signal. However, the researchers found that a specialized attacker can still find and track your signal when they “jump” channels – if the attacker was physically close enough to you (the range varies for a baby monitor, but we are mainly talking about neighboring apartments) and had a suitable listening equipment.
Unfortunately, digital baby monitors may still experience interference from other devices using the same frequency ( especially those using the 2.4 GHz frequency used by many modern devices such as wireless routers and bluetooth headsets). This interference can manifest itself in the form of temporary disconnects on your monitor or other nearby devices – a source of frustration, yes, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy for other devices to listen to or view your monitor’s video stream.
Another disadvantage of digital baby monitors, such as analog monitors, is that they are localized, which means that you have to keep the camera and receiver physically close to each other in order to maintain a connection – for example, you cannot monitor your baby from a distance. 3000 miles. …
Some digital baby monitors use Digital Enhanced Wireless Communications (DECC) , a type of wireless technology that offers less interference (operates on the less-used 1.9 GHz frequency) and may also have encryption. But then again, researchers have proven that dedicated hackers can get around this .
These days baby monitors are also available with Wi-Fi and an Internet connection, which provide maximum integration with smartphones, computers and other consumer gadgets. It’s cool if you want to receive a push notification on your phone every time your child does something interesting.
These monitors also have unlimited range, in the sense that as long as your camera and receiving device / phone are connected to the Internet, you can check your child from anywhere on earth.
However, like almost any IoT device, wireless baby monitors are vulnerable to hackers if you leave them unsecured or if hackers somehow gain access to or bypass your passwords. These things also come with their own firmware, which can be buggy and cannot be updated automatically, which means that if a hacker learns how to hack one particular model, he could potentially gain access to all devices in that model line around the world.
Most of the baby monitor jailbreak messages I’ve seen in recent years seem to be centered around WiFi-enabled baby monitors, so I would personally avoid this category of devices entirely.
If you want to use a baby monitor with Wi-Fi or internet connection, try to find one that allows you to change the password on it and is automatically updated with new firmware releases. If you are using a WiFi / internet baby monitor, you will also need to update your home wireless network password and make sure that only people you trust know it.
My choice
After much research, I ordered the Infant Optics DXR-8 baby monitor with interchangeable optical lens, which uses FHSS wireless data transmission at 2.4 GHz. On Amazon, it ‘s $ 164.26 and it’s “Amazon’s choice,” but a little more expensive.
The Infant Optics DXR-5 portable baby monitor could be an even better deal for as little as $ 82.99 on Amazon . It also uses the 2.4GHz FHSS wireless standard, although with fewer features , it lacks the two-way audio and temperature control of the DXR-8.
I’d think about baby monitors: any that offer built-in 2.4GHz FHSS or DECC should be pretty good if you’re worried about basic security.
Baby monitors, which should be avoided: all models of WiFi and analog models, especially those that were related to the security problems in the past, including a digital baby monitor D-Link Day / Night Cloud Camera, and wireless network camera of N , WiFiBaby (WFB2015), withing (WBP01 ) and the following seven models : iBaby M6, iBaby M3S, Philips In.Sight B120 / 37, Summer Baby Zoom WiFi Monitor and Web Viewer, Lens Peek-a-View, Gynoii and TRENDnet WiFi Baby Cam TV-IP743SIC.