Videoconferencing vulnerable, security expert says.

• Position: INFO TECHNOLOGY - HD Moore

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

A Security expert says videoconferencing systems in conference rooms around the world are vulnerable to hackers.

HD Moore, a chief security officer at Boston-based computer security company Rapid7, demonstrated the vulnerability of companies that use videoconferencing equipment by hacking into a dozen companies' conference rooms around the globe. He said he easily could have eavesdropped on privileged conversations or read a report lying on the table, using their videoconferencing equipment.

According to an article in The New York Times, Moore wrote a computer program that scans the Internet for videoconference systems that are outside firewalls and configured to automatically answer calls. In less than two hours, he had scanned 3% of the Internet and discovered 5,000 wide-open conference rooms at law firms, medical companies, oil refineries, and universities. According to the article, even some videoconferencing equipment vendors came up in Moore's scan, including Polycom, Cisco, LifeSize, and Sony.

With this information, Moore was able to hack into a lawyer-inmate meeting room at a prison, an operating room...