PETALING JAYA, Nov 15 — Up till 7pm yesterday, 16 surveillance cameras at several locations in Putrajaya were susceptible to global viewing through Insecam.com.

Since Wednesday, Malay Mail had been monitoring the goings-on at the administrative capital through the website which showed footage of offices and car parks.

Putrajaya Corporation (PPj), when alerted by Malay Mail yesterday, confirmed the closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras featured on the website were not under their purview, but were from ministries instead.

“I cannot disclose the locations for security purposes but the cameras are from government buildings. They could be using CCTV cameras installed by private companies.

“I can assure these footages are not ours as we have ensured our username and password is secured against any breach or hacking,” PPj deputy director Datuk Zailani Hashim said after Malay Mail had provided him with the link.

He described this as a “very serious matter” as the CCTVs were installed to enhance security in Putrajaya.

The feed from Putrajaya, however, was no longer seen as the number of surveillance locations dropped from 897 locations earlier in the day to 27 at 7pm yesterday. The number of locations increased slightly to 54 an hour later.

Experts say the sudden drop of locations could be due to the involvement of the authorities.

“The drastic change in number would  mean that the authorities are beefing up the security at the server level of the website,” said an expert who requested anonymity.

“It could also be that a firewall has been installed, thus the sudden change in numbers.”

Another expert echoed similar sentiments.

“They would have come up with a mechanism to filter Internet Protocol (IP) addresses from Malaysia, thus the sudden reduction of locations from almost 900 to fewer than 100 just hours apart,” he said.

“Or it could just be Insecam filtering the feeds from IP-based systems without passwords.”

Malay Mail had sent an email to Insecam on Wednesday, requesting comment over claims of security breach and possible legal implications following their actions.

Insecam, had on its website yesterday, claimed: “This site now contains access only to cameras without a password and it is fully legal. Such online cameras are available for all internet users. To browse cameras, just select the country or camera type.”

Malay Mail, in its front pages on Thursday and yesterday, revealed how homes and business premises were left vulnerable after footage of their IP-based surveillance cameras were made available on Insecam.com.

Insecam claimed its site was designed “to show the importance of the security settings”.