However, that a device is exposed is not illegal. Shodan indexes publicly accessible services. If your webcam is on port 8080 with no password, it is technically public.
Recently, security researchers and ethical hackers have noted a in exposed devices running WebcamXP 5 , a popular Windows-based application that turns a standard USB or IP camera into a web-accessible streaming server. Using the powerful IoT search engine Shodan , anyone can now discover thousands of these devices with a single, specific search query. webcamxp 5 shodan search new
Unlike Google, which crawls web pages, Shodan crawls the entire internet’s IP address space, indexing banners from services like HTTP, FTP, SSH, Telnet, and SNMP. A simple query can reveal industrial control systems, unpatched routers, and yes—live webcam feeds. However, that a device is exposed is not illegal