Wyze breach prompts widespread unauthorized security cam footage access

Nearly 13,000 users of Wyze security cameras were able to briefly peek at other users' properties due to a breach that occurred as it moved to recover from an outage caused by issues at its web hosting provider Amazon Web Services in the wee hours of Feb. 16, reports The Verge.

More than 1,500 of such users were able to enlarge the thumbnails from which other homes could be viewed, according to Wyze, which noted that the issue has been caused by a newly integrated "third-party caching client system." "This client library received unprecedented load conditions caused by devices coming back online all at once. As a result of increased demand, it mixed up device ID and user ID mapping and connected some data to incorrect accounts," said Wyze. While more than 99% of its users were not affected by the incident, Wyze expressed its commitment to further bolster its security defenses.