A pet camera doesn't feel like a security-sensitive device the way a laptop or a bank login does, but functionally it's a small always-on computer with a camera, a microphone, sometimes a two-way speaker, and a live connection to your home network, set up once and then largely forgotten. That combination of "set and forget" plus "has a camera and a mic" is exactly why internet-connected cameras of all kinds have become a recurring target for opportunistic attackers, and why a handful of unglamorous habits matter more here than almost any other smart-home device you own.
Change the default password immediately
Many consumer cameras, pet cameras included, ship with a generic default username and password (things like "admin/admin" or a password printed on a sticker) meant to get you through initial setup. The problem is that default credentials for popular camera models are frequently documented publicly, in manuals, forum posts, and sometimes compiled lists that circulate specifically because they're default and predictable. If a camera lets you skip past changing that password during setup, do it anyway before you finish installing the app. This single step closes off one of the most mechanical, automatable attack paths that exists for IoT devices.
Use a unique, strong password, never a reused one
Separately from defaults, don't reuse a password you've used anywhere else. A large share of real-world account takeovers on connected cameras happen through credential stuffing: attackers take email/password combinations leaked from an unrelated breach (a retailer, a forum, an old email provider) and try them automatically against camera apps and other services, banking on the fact that people reuse passwords. A camera account with a password that's unique to that account is immune to this entire attack category regardless of what happens to your password on some other site. A password manager makes generating and remembering a unique password for every account genuinely painless, which is the main reason people don't already do this.
Turn on two-factor authentication if it's offered
Where the camera app supports two-factor authentication (a code from a text message or an authenticator app in addition to your password), turning it on adds a second barrier that a leaked or guessed password alone can't get past. Not every pet camera brand offers this, but among the ones that do, it's one of the highest-value security settings available and worth enabling as a matter of course rather than only after something goes wrong.
Keep firmware updated, and check the vendor's track record before buying
Camera manufacturers periodically release firmware updates that patch discovered security vulnerabilities, the same way your phone or laptop gets security patches. Enabling automatic updates in the app (where available) means those fixes land without you having to remember to check. The less obvious risk is longer-term: a camera brand that stops supporting a model, goes out of business, or simply loses interest in older hardware will also stop issuing security patches for it, leaving a known vulnerability permanently unpatched on a device still sitting on your network. It's worth factoring a brand's update track record and stated support commitment into the buying decision, not just at setup time.
Put it on a separate network from your main devices
Most home routers support a guest network or a dedicated IoT network, and putting cameras (along with other smart-home gadgets) on that separate network rather than the same one your laptop and phone use is a meaningfully effective habit. If a camera is ever compromised, network segmentation limits what an attacker connected through it can reach, they're contained to the guest segment rather than sitting on the same network as your personal computer, backups, or other devices. This is a one-time router setting, not an ongoing chore, which makes it good value for the effort.
What the well-known camera hacking incidents actually involved
The most widely reported cases of home security cameras being taken over by strangers, including incidents involving Ring cameras around 2019-2020 that drew significant news coverage and lawsuits, were traced back not to the camera manufacturer's own systems being breached, but to credential stuffing: attackers using email and password combinations leaked from completely unrelated data breaches to log into camera accounts where people had reused those same credentials. That's the practical, reassuring and unsettling part at once, the fix for the exact failure mode behind those headline cases is the same unglamorous advice above: a unique password and two-factor authentication would have stopped the vast majority of those specific takeovers before they started.
Turn it off when you genuinely don't need it
Finally, a camera that isn't recording can't be misused, so if there are stretches when you don't need pet monitoring, you're home all day, or you simply don't want an always-on lens active, use the app's mute/disable toggle or a physical lens cover if the camera has one. It's also worth periodically reviewing the list of devices or family members with access to the camera account in the app's settings and removing anyone (an old babysitter, a previous partner, a device you no longer own) who no longer needs it. None of these steps require technical expertise; they're closer to habits than skills, and together they address the overwhelming majority of how consumer cameras actually get compromised in practice.
