An unknown hacker apparently gained access to a 2-year-old girl 's baby monitor , calling her by name and harassing her , and her parents , with insults and profanity . A couple in suburban Houston , Texas , told CNN affiliate KTRK that , over the weekend , they heard a strange voice in the bedroom shared by their two toddlers . When they got there , Marc Gilbert said they realized the voice was coming from the Web camera they use to keep tabs on the children . What they heard next was ugly . `` He said , 'Wake up Allyson , you little slut , ' `` Gilbert said . He said the hacker , who had a British or European accent , may have read her name on a wall in the bedroom . When he and his wife Lauren arrived , Gilbert said , the camera swiveled to face them . The hacker proceeded to call him a `` stupid moron '' and his wife a bitch , Gilbert said , before he unplugged the camera . The only positive about the situation , he said , is that Allyson never woke up . She was born deaf and has cochlear implants to help her hear , which she was not wearing while sleeping . `` I felt like somebody broke into your house , '' Gilbert said . `` As a father , I 'm supposed to protect her against people like this . So it 's a little embarrassing to say the least , but it 's not going to happen again . '' Baby monitors , particularly those with video capabilities , have been shown in the past to be vulnerable . Video monitors can broadcast to TVs and hand-held receivers , or over Wi-Fi to computers , smartphones and tablets . In 2009 , an Illinois family sued the manufacturer of its monitor after they discovered that they and their neighbors could monitor each other 's feeds . Some newer models have technology that jumps from frequency to frequency , making them more secure , while older monitors do not . Security experts warn parents to make sure to enable passwords for baby monitors and Web cameras . Most new models are equipped with that ability , they say . Experts like Lisa Vaas of the Sophos Security blog also say to make sure home Wi-Fi and routers are password-protected . `` Those who ca n't figure this out should ask for help from somebody with security expertise -- somebody they trust with the safety of extremely precious things , '' Vaas said . In comments on the KTRK article about the hack , Marc Gilbert said he did take basic security precautions : `` The router was password protected and the firewall was enabled . The IP camera was also password protected , '' he said . `` Of course , devices may well be protected by passwords , but default passwords that have n't been changed are like having no password at all , as other commenters pointed out , '' wrote Vaas on the Sophos Security blog . Multiple security experts have identified the camera model shown in the Houston news report as a Foscam FI9821P . A FAQ page on the manufacturer 's site lists the default user name and password -- both `` admin '' -- for the camera , as well as the default port used to connect it to the Web . Altering those default settings `` with a non-trivial password would make the device far more difficult to access , and probably too much trouble to bother with , '' wrote technology and security analyst Larry Seltzer for tech blog ZDNet . `` If you want to go even further and make it really hard for attackers , you can change the default port . '' Seltzer said that anyone on the Internet could build a scanner that would find cameras still hooked up to their default port . They could then check those cameras to see if they still open using the default password . `` This is almost certainly what happened , '' he wrote . Earlier this year , researchers at security firm Qualys used the Foscam in a demonstration of how Web-enabled cameras can be exploited . Foscam did not immediately respond Wednesday to a message seeking comment for this story .
Hacker curses at 2-year-old through baby monitor in her room . Houston father says web camera turned to face parents when they arrived . The girl , who is hearing-impaired , never woke up . Experts say to make sure monitors are password-protected .