Can someone who has access to my wifi and Arlo hub, set up an account to see thru my cameras?

[Retired_Member]

I am noticing that when I am out, accasionally my cameras are turned off for upto 20 minutes at times when I know there is a 3rd party at my home. I have reason to believe since they have and need access to my wifi that they may be hacking my system. Can they set up their own email access to my hub?

[StephenB]

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@Retired_Member wrote:

I am noticing that when I am out, accasionally my cameras are turned off for upto 20 minutes at times when I know there is a 3rd party at my home. I have reason to believe since they have and need access to my wifi that they may be hacking my system. Can they set up their own email access to my hub?

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Are you seeing the cameras go off-line when this happens?  If not, how do you know that they are off?

If your PC doesn't require a password to log in, and the browser is set up to remember your Arlo account username/password, then they could use that PC to access your account (using your credentials).  Then control the cameras as they wish.

They could then set up friend access to get camera access from their own account if they wanted to.  But you would be able to check that by looking at your account settings.

Another simpler possibility is that they are just unplugging the hub for a while (or disconnecting the ethernet cable).  Unplugging your router would be another way to achieve the same result.

[Retired_Member]

Hi Stephen. So "yes" I am seeing my cameras go "offline" when this happens. No matter what I do, I cannot get them back online. Prior to what seems like recent access by a 3rd party, we would not be home for days at a time and "never" did my cameras do this. Also, my pc is always completely locked down as I am in healthcare and maintain top security on it. They would not have been able to set up the friend account option, but also I did check in my app for that, and there is no one authorized or invited.

[Retired_Member]

Stephen, the 3rd party could be shutting down the wifi but there is another person in the home NOT being impacted and using the wifi continuously. 

[Retired_Member]

So "no" not turning off the wifi. However, considering the base/hub, wouldn't I see them first by motion sensor? I am not getting a motion alert and seeing that. Also, the cameras have gone down when I was home and the 3rd party was out of sight and I could see the hub. Thank you for your feedback.

[TomMac · Accepted solution]

the base unit can go down for a number of reasons outside of your control...

just remember that if the base unit is armed AND internet goes down the base will still record to the mem card ( if you have one set up ( 4000 bases or newer) )... so if the third party is unplugging the base you would still have the backup mem to look at.

As always, I would just in case change out the pw used on the base to a strong one

[StephenB]

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@Retired_Member wrote:

Stephen, the 3rd party could be shutting down the wifi but there is another person in the home NOT being impacted and using the wifi continuously. 

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Again, the third party could simply pull the power or the ethernet cable from the base, and all cameras would go off-line.

Adding USB storage would result in continued recordings if the ethernet cable was pulled, but wouldn't help if someone simply unplugged the hub.  If you have a more secure (or less visible) place to put the hub, you sould try doing that.

You could change the password on the arlo account, and you could also enable 2-factor authentication for a while.  If the account has been compromised by the third party, those two measures should resolve it (and allow you to detect it if it happens again).

A more expensive path is to get a camera that connects directly over your home wifi, and use that to monitor your base.