The British government plans to initiate prompt action against a Russian webcam spying website with a domain name in Cocos Island.

The UK is planning to file a case with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to shutter the site which takes live feeds from closed circuit television cameras and baby monitors accessed remotely due to lack of security protection or use easy-to-guess passwords.

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Some of the cameras are installed in homes and offices and the residents or employees are possibly unaware that the spying site is peering into their private activities such as people changing clothes or engaging in other private activities inside their bedrooms.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the privacy watchdog in the UK, said it became aware of the problem in the past 24 hours and now wants to pursue regulatory action against the portal.

The first reports about the spying website came from Macau, Hong Kong, Australia and Canada, writes BusinessTimes.

The ICO said the target feeds in Britain is about 500 cameras, including one installed at a Manchester gym, a Birmingham residence and a Leicester office.

Simon Rice, ICO group manager for technology, disclosed that the Russia-based website uses default login credentials to access information. These details are usually available for free online for thousands of cameras used mostly by businesses and homes as security cameras.

The feeds are accessed with the use of software and search tools, while the website contains data about the location and maker of the camera, Rice added.

To thwart the spying, the ICO coordinated with the top three camera makers to instruct their buyers to change the default passwords. The three are Foscam in China, Linksys in the U.S. and Panasonic in Japan.

Besides changing passwords, tech experts also recommend that owners of these security cameras cover the lenses when the devices are not being used. David Emm, principal security researcher at Kaspersky, recommend securing their home router.

"The problem is that we think of such devices - mobile phones, webcams, etc - as out window on the world," Wired.co quoted Emm. "But we don't realise that for cybercriminals it could be their window into ours if we don't secure our devices."

TagsCocos Islands, webcam spying site, Russian website, webcam