38 The QUEE NS Courier • health • FEBRUARY 4, 2016 for breaking news visit www.qns.com ▶health Some baby monitors may be susceptible to hackers: DCA Parents should take steps to make sure their Internet-connected baby monitors aren’t vulnerable to hackers, city Consumer Affairs Commissioner Julie Menin warned last week. “Video monitors are intended to give parents peace of mind when they are away from their children but the reality is quite terrifying — if they aren’t secure, they can provide easy access for predators to watch and even speak to our children,” Menin said. “There have been numerous reports by consumers, including those here in New York City, that these video monitors have subjected them to unwanted intrusions into the most private of spaces: their own homes. Internetconnected devices like video monitors provide convenience but without proper safeguards, they pose serious privacy risks. We encourage parents to take steps to make sure their devices are secure and call on manufacturers to make security a top priority.” The Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) recommends parents take these key steps to ensure their Internet-connected baby monitors are safe: • Buy a secure device. Before buying an Internet-connected video monitor, research if it or its applications have any known security vulnerabilities. • Use a strong password and change it regularly. Never use the default camera name and password; select a strong password with a combination of letters, numbers and characters that is difficult for others to guess and only share it with people you trust. Don’t use the same password you use for other accounts so that if one account is compromised, they are not all compromised. Also, when naming your WiFi network, avoid using personal information. If you name it Smith4A, it’s easy for attackers to figure out the network belongs to the Smiths in Apartment 4A. • Register your product and update software, firmware and applications. Register your product so you will be notified of security updates by the manufacturer and install all security updates. • Turn devices off. If you are not using the device, turn it off. Hackers can access devices more easily if they are always on. The consumer warning comes as the DCA issues subpoenas to several major manufacturers of video monitors that market their devices as secure. The DCA is investigating whether the companies have corrected known security vulnerabilities with their devices and whether their security claims violate NYC’s Consumer Protection Law, which prohibits deceptive and misleading advertising. The DCA’s actions follow the disclosure by cybersecurity researchers that many of the top-selling Internetconnected baby monitors, which are often marketed as secure, are easily exploited by hackers. Some of those hackers have created websites that stream footage from unsecure Internet-connected video monitors. The agency encourages residents who have had their monitor hacked to file a complaint online at nyc.gov/ consumers or by calling 311. Include in your complaint the New York City business where you purchased the monitor. MUSINGS AND AGING Over the past year and a half, I have been submitting articles on aging to this publication. For more than 50 years, I’ve cared for countless sick, elderly and disabled individuals in my capacity as a registered professional nurse. For me, successful aging means staying true to a lifestyle that revolves around a healthy diet, a structured exercise program and avoidance of emotional stress, with the conviction that this approach will get me through to those centenarian years. I am not there yet but still believe this may be the path to follow. I have also begun accepting the notion that living a healthy lifestyle doesn’t necessarily mean a longer life, since unanticipated illnesses and unforeseen incidents can arise. I have many friends, relatives and professional colleagues in my age who were staunch runners, iron man enthusiasts and body builders who have, in their later years, begun experiencing physically disabling problems that have been wrongfully associated so often with the aging process. Was all of their healthy living for naught? Should they have taken up less strenuous and demanding sports? And should I now begin questioning the value and justification of ingesting vitamins, avoiding sugary beverages, and exhausting my body with daily exercise as the chosen path to a long and fruitful life? I would also question the validity of aging being equated with perpetual and/or unrelieved illnesses. There is a series of questions I constantly ask myself about growing old, about sickness and mental wandering. After reading each one, try, with an open mind, to visualize what your answers might be. Can I control some of the illnesses alluded to? What’s stopping me from reaching that long and happy life I am always striving for? Can I do certain things about what may happen to my body as I age? Must I resign myself to what gerontologists call “physical impoverishment” with perpetual visits to one medical specialist after another, seeking that elusive cure? What must I do to continue fending off disabilities and disease? How can I respond to an emergency before it can incapacitate me? If I live a long life, can I count on a sound mind in a reasonably sound body? Is poor health synonymous with growing old? Have any of these questions ever crossed your mind and if so, how did you answer them? Time after time, we falsely associate being ill with being old. There are undoubtedly physical impairments we must deal with, especially the unanticipated physical illnesses among individuals in their 80s and 90s. And there are also certain conditions that are more common to the aged individual, such as arthritis. However, it would be only too easy to conclude, but inaccurately, that old age by itself is a kind of generalized illness. We don’t necessarily become vulnerable to every type of affliction as we grow old. The Sheldon Ornstein Ed.D, RN Dr. Sheldon Ornstein is a registered professional nurse with a doctoral degree in nursing organization. He has specialized in the care of older adults and has published many articles on the subject. He has done post-graduate work in gerontology and has taught at several universities. In 2013, he was inducted into the Nursing Hall of Fame at Teachers College, Columbia University. fact that certain diseases and disabilities respond well to efficient medical treatment should shed doubt on the many glib assumptions that growing old and illness are the same thing. They are not! Rabbi Rachel Cowan, in her inspiring and informative book “Wise Aging, Living with Joy, Resilience and Spirit” states, “How can aging be a good thing? Aging all too often feels like drift, downhill to a place we don’t want to go. But each year new doors open with opportunities, even while others close with loss. Will we turn toward the opportunities, and find new joy and meaning in life?” In this new year of 2016, I ask everyone to open that new door to “exciting new opportunities.”
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