One of the most important considerations when purchasing a home security camera is the privacy of your home and the security risk of the events recorded.
Your security concerns like: “Can my camera be hacked?” or “Where are the servers located?” – are genuine, healthy concerns as a security-aware customer.
Eufy is a reputable, reliable Chinese Company and is a subbrand of Anker Innovations, more background information about Eufy you can be read up in this Eufy background article.
In this article, I go over the reliability and security of eufy cameras in specific.
I cover everything you need to know about eufy camera security protocols, including whether or not they can be hacked.
Are eufy Cameras Hackable?
Eufycams are very secure, and they are unlikely to get hacked. However, the truth is that no camera or any internet-connected device is completely 100% secure.
On the other hand, some of the devices have high-level protection and security protocols that make them nearly impossible to hack, and Eufy is certainly one of them.
Eufy is already nearly hack-proof thanks to its military-grade encryption and non-cloud-based storage system, so data is locally stored: which can be accessed via SD cards or the HomeBase station, which acts as a local hard drive, a 16GB eMMC harddrive actually.
Why is it so difficult to hack eufy cameras?
To protect your data, eufy utilizes AES -256 bit encrypted chips. The NSA (National Security Agency) uses these same chips to protect information.
The key features eufycam uses to accomplish this are:
1. Eufy uses local storage for your videos. Local, as in: at home.
Eufy promotes this with “Home is where your data belongs.”, When you use secure local storage, your sensitive information never leaves your own home (it is not sent and stored somewhere in the cloud) and is only accessible by you.
2. Eufy uses end-to-end Encryption featuring AES -256 bit encrypted chips.
Each piece of recorded footage is encrypted on the Eufy device and transferred directly to your phone when you access it, with the key to decrypt and see the footage being held by only you.
So this means that during transmission, your data is protected via encryption.
3. Eufy is one of the few brands that use AI chips on the devices themselves. Every eufy device is equipped with a cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence (AI) processor.
So each camera can analyze your recorded footage without the need to submit it to a cloud server.
Hence, the eufycameras (and video doorbells) are “smart themselves” (unlike other security providers, where things get processed after sending them through the cloud), which protects your personal information.
4. Anti-Theft Data Protection. Even if the SD Card or HomeBase are stolen, the data onboard cannot be retrieved via unrecognized mediums.
How to Keep Your Eufy Camera Safe From Hackers
The common Best Practices for your home security also apply to your security cameras.
Most notable will be to use a good, strong, and unique password for your Eufy security app and eufy account.
If you are unsure, use the website: https://haveibeenpwned.com/ to double-check your email address.
And last but certainly not least, do activate Two-Step Verification or Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) on your eufy account.
That way, not only will a password be required, but also an extra code will be sent to your mobile device/phone to log in and view your video footage.
Another advantage of 2FA is that you’ll also be alerted if someone even tries to log in with your password.
Has eufy ever been hacked?
No, eufycams have never been “hacked” by any hacker or hacking group.
There was, however, an incident in March 2021 when a eufy user reported in a Reddit thread that he had noticed that some of the videos were not from his own camera.
eufy quickly responded to the issue and apologized to its customers to resolve the software incident.
The official statement from eufy said that an error occurred while installing an update, and a limited number of users in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, New Zealand, Australia, and Argentina were affected.
Users in Europe and other regions were not affected. The issue was quickly resolved for 712 affected users of this update. eufy recommended that affected people disconnect and reconnect the eufy Security Home Base.
Closing words
Eufy security is a reliable company and has not been hacked. Nor is it likely to be easily hackable in the near future.
If anything, it’s your own security password, your own wi-fi router password, firewalls, antivirus software, doing software updates, and setting up two-factor authentication that could be vulnerable and you should take care of yourself.
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