MELBOURNE, Fla. – Do you have a Ring or Nest camera for your home?

What You Need To Know

  • Florida student discovers flaws in security cameras

  • The flaws were how the cameras protect privacy

  • Blake Janes reached out to Ring, Nest to alert them of flaws

​​A Florida Tech student's work uncovered vulnerabilities in security and doorbell cameras as the technology products continue to explode in the commercial marketplace.

"It was just poking at the device until it broke," senior computer science major Blake Janes said.

It sounds easy, but what Janes uncovered is hard to believe. The computer science major found a big flaw in the way modern security or doorbell cameras protect your privacy.

It has to do with two servers. One is a key server, which initially provides a "key," or password, to allow the user to access the video stream of the camera. But Blake says if you change your password, say, to prevent someone with the old password from using the camera, that exposed a big vulnerability.

"The key server won't give new keys, but if you already have access to that video server, you can maintain your access -- in some cases for 30 minutes, in some far, far longer," Janes said.

"What Blake discovered, when given that access, there are ways of manipulating that access can remain permanent," Florida Tech IT Chairman​​ Dr. T.J. O'Connor said.

O'Connor isn't surprised Blake made such a discovery but more that the problem was there in the first place.

"I think in some ways it's shocking the grandiosity of the mistake involved," he said.

In a relatively new technology field, he expects bugs, but when it involves people’s privacy, it's a higher level of concern.

Blake reached out to companies like Amazon Ring, Google Nest, and others about their product flaws. He was pleasantly surprised when they answered and put fixes in the works right away.

"Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get back in the lab to test them because of the coronavirus, but I will choose to believe them, and verify their claims later," Janes said.

Google Nest actually awarded Blake $3,000 for his work, which he plans to use toward grad school at Florida Tech.

Both Blake and O'Connor say it's very important to know what your cameras are showing, protect your passwords, and who has access to them.