LITTLE ROCK – Home surveillance systems are designed to increase safety, but recent reports prove they may only be as secure as your passwords. Consumers often use the same passwords for multiple accounts, including these most popular and overused passwords you should never use. In recent years, credentials for more than 8 billion online accounts have been compromised, adding to the necessity of changing login information more frequently.
“Nothing is more important than your family’s safety,” said Attorney General Rutledge. “Hackers attacking your home security system could easily have eyes on our families, so just like changing the battery in a smoke alarm, we need to make changing our sensitive passwords a priority.”
Once a device such as a router or camera in your home is compromised, hackers can often connect to other systems. Since the security breach is through your own home system and not the security camera company, every camera or device connected to the internet is at risk.
Attorney General Rutledge offers these recommendations to help better secure your home from hackers:
- Create complex passwords for all accounts, including your cameras, WiFi and router
- Add two-factor authentication if available
- Upgrade to a cloud-based system
- Update devices regularly
- Choose a surveillance system from a reliable source with excellent customer service
If you receive a call, text or email with an unsolicited confirmation code request, consider changing your password immediately.
If your account is breached, contact your surveillance system provider and local law enforcement.
For more information about consumer-related issues, contact the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office at (800) 482-8982 or consumer@ArkansasAG.gov or visit ArkansasAG.gov or facebook.com/AGLeslieRutledge.
About Attorney General Leslie Rutledge
Leslie Carol Rutledge is the 56th Attorney General of Arkansas. Elected on November 4, 2014, and sworn in on January 13, 2015, she is the first woman and first Republican in Arkansas history to be elected as Attorney General. She was resoundingly re-elected on November 6, 2018. Since taking office, she has significantly increased the number of arrests and convictions against online predators who exploit children and con artists who steal taxpayer money through Social Security Disability and Medicaid fraud. Further, she has held Rutledge Roundtable meetings and Mobile Office hours in every county of the State each year, and launched a Military and Veterans Initiative. She has led efforts to roll back government regulations that hurt job creators, fight the opioid epidemic, teach internet safety, combat domestic violence and make the office the top law firm for Arkansans. Rutledge serves as Chairwoman of the National Association of Attorneys General Southern Region and re-established and co-chairs the National Association of Attorneys General Committee on Agriculture. As the former Chairwoman of the Republican Attorneys General Association, she remains active on the Executive Board.
A native of Batesville, she is a graduate of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law. Rutledge clerked for the Arkansas Court of Appeals, was Deputy Counsel for former Governor Mike Huckabee, served as a Deputy Prosecuting Attorney in Lonoke County and was an Attorney at the Department of Human Services before serving as Counsel at the Republican National Committee. Rutledge and her husband, Boyce, have one daughter. The family has a home in Pulaski County and a farm in Crittenden County.
