79% of smart dash cams we tested had security issues Out of 28, only six didn’t have any concerns. Find out what problems we uncovered and how to keep your dash cam secure Callum Pears Researcher & writer

Callum pushes tech to its limits and has spent nearly three years bombarding antivirus with malware, taxing routers and inspecting computer monitors

Which? dash cam tests found security flaws and concerns in the majority of smart models we tested, and in some cases they were breaking the law.

Smart dash cams have wireless connectivity and features that use the internet. This could be tracking technologies, motion detection, voice assistant controls and voice alerts, as well as more advanced features such as automatic cloud backup, real-time alerts and remote viewing.

You’re also able to transfer footage wirelessly to the companion app on your smartphone, which is much quicker and more straightforward than traditional dash cams, where you’d need to remove the SD or micro-SD card and copy the files over to your computer.

Although these features make a dash cam a more useful tool for drivers, they also expose you to potential security risks.

Our testing found numerous dash cams with multiple security vulnerabilities. In fact, of the 28 smart dash cams we tested, only six lacked security concerns.

Find out what problems we encountered, which manufacturers took action to fix the problems we uncovered, and what you can do to keep your dash cam secure.

Best dash cams: compare dash cams from Garmin, Nextbase, Road Angel and more What were the issues we found? A person watching dash cam footage on their smartphone

Of all the issues we found, weak default wi-fi passwords were the most concerning security vulnerability because they mean that nearby hackers could connect to the devices and access data such as journey information, saved recordings and other personal information.

Since 2024, manufacturers have been obliged to ensure that default passwords aren’t easily guessable. This can be resolved by enforcing a mandatory password change or by assigning unique default passwords.

We contacted each manufacturer to share our findings and gave them an opportunity to comment and resolve our concerns.

Road Angel successfully addressed the issue with its dash cams, which now require changing the default password.

Miofive initially responded and released a firmware patch that fixed some of our other concerns, but didn’t resolve the default password issue. Miofive didn’t respond to our follow-up messages, and we received no response from Kitvison and Orskey.

In addition to weak passwords, we also found mediocre encryption on some dash cams. There were several exploitable security weaknesses that made it possible to intercept data, access, and potentially modify stored video files.

To do this would be difficult for hackers. In most cases, they would need to be very close to the dash cam to exploit it – but it’s not impossible. Many of these issues are also exacerbated by the poor default wi-fi passwords.

Nextbase resolved our concerns with firmware patches. Miofive and Road Angel fixed some issues but not others, and we’re continuing to work with Road Angel to get remaining concerns resolved.

Garmin reviewed our findings but stated that it believes that numerous factors 'limit the exploitability of any purported vulnerabilities such that there is no practical risk to our customers’. Kitvision and Orskey did not respond.

In an age of growing cyberattacks and sophistication among hackers, dash cam manufacturers should be placing the greatest emphasis on their devices’ security, even if they think it’s difficult to exploit or a niche weakness.
Why is PSTI important? Dash cam showing the road ahead

The Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure (PSTI) Act came into effect in April 2024. It mandates that manufacturers, importers and distributors (such as retailers) have a duty to protect devices that can connect to the internet or other networks.

It states ‘UK consumers should be able to trust that these products are designed and built with security in mind’.

The PSTI Act specifies the publication of information on how to report security issues, details on how long manufacturers will ensure security patches are released and the banning of universal default and easily guessable passwords.

These factors are important for strengthening security defences and ensuring that manufacturers release updates to keep products safe from new threats.

Although the Act gives manufacturers time to bring their products in line with its standards, they’re now duty bound to investigate compliance failures and take action if required.

If manufacturers fail to act, then the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) will intervene. The OPSS is an enforcement authority responsible for ensuring compliance.

Strong legal protections and vigilant enforcement mean UK consumers can use smart devices – including dash cams – with confidence, knowing that non-compliance by manufacturers will have consequences.

Which? takes this seriously too, and we’ve already informed the OPSS about our findings, the responses we received from manufacturers and the concerns we still have.

3 steps to keep your dash cam safe and secure A person installing a dash cam in a car

There are some simple steps you can take to boost your dash cam’s security, regardless of what manufacturers do or don’t do.

1. Update wi-fi passwords

The most important thing we would encourage every smart dash cam owner to do right now is to update the wi-fi password.

This is used to connect to paired smartphones and transfer footage wirelessly to them. A weak or easily guessable password could, under the right circumstances, allow others access to your dash cam and its library of footage.

As our testing has found many manufacturers still fail to either enforce a mandatory change, or provide a unique default password – it’s highly recommended that users update them independently to a strong, but memorable, alternative. Check out our guide to creating secure passwords for help with this. 2. Install firmware updates

In addition to resolving software bugs and performance issues, firmware updates also provide important security updates.

It’s important to update both the dash cam itself and any companion app. These updates ensure both are equipped to deal with newly discovered or recently resolved security vulnerabilities. 3. Keep footage backed up elsewhere

It’s good practice to ensure that captured video footage – particularly important footage (such as that showing an incident, accident, or crash) – is backed up securely and separately from internal storage and any subscription-based cloud storage you may be using.

The risk to footage located exclusively on the internal SD or micro-SD card is that it could become corrupted, damaged, lost or stolen.

Cloud-based storage is typically part of a subscription service (either from the dash cam manufacturer or a third party). The risk here is ending the subscription and losing access to the stored footage, which the provider may later delete after you’ve unsubscribed.

Back up footage on your computer or smartphone to keep it safe. Alternatively, for additional peace of mind, consider investing in a USB storage device or external hard drive to store your backed-up dash cam footage. Make sure to pick a model with a healthy amount of storage, as video files tend to be large.

The latest dash cams we’ve tested BlackVue DR970X-2CH Plus BlackVue DR970X-2CH Plus dash cam BlackVue DR970X-2CH Plus Amazon Marketplace UK £529.95 Amazon UK £529.95

The DR970X-2CH Plus is a forward-facing and rear-facing dash cam with a 4K camera for the front windscreen and a Full HD camera for the back.

It has a range of smart features and functionality, and you can review footage using the companion BlackVue app or the BlackVue Viewer web software.

You can also follow footage on a virtual map using the collected GPS data, helping you identify where key events occurred.

Through the BlackVue Cloud service you can access more advanced features such as push notifications to your smartphone, live view and cloud storage. Some of these features require a subscription at an additional cost.

Read our BlackVue DR970X-2CH Plus review to find out how it fared in our tough tests. Garmin Dash Cam X210 Garmin Dash Cam X210

Available from Garmin (£260)

The X210’s 2K camera is an upgrade of the earlier X110. It’s comparatively small, making its footprint on the windscreen minimal, especially compared with some models.

Motion detection, GPS tracking and voice controls are all notable smart features.

The Vault Subscription Plan Advance grants you access to Garmin’s secure cloud-based storage feature. This is accessed through the Garmin Drive app.

Take a look at our Garmin Dash Cam X210 review to see how it compares to others we’ve tested. Nextbase Piqo 1K Nextbase Piqo 1K dash cam

Available from Halfords (£99), Nextbase (£99)

The Piqo 1K is one of the more affordable dash cams we’ve tested, but it doesn’t come with a supplied SD card, which can easily catch you out.

It has a solid array of additional smart features, including GPS tracking, motion detection and the ability to access footage via the companion Nextbase app.

Footage is listed with thumbnails in the app, making it a doddle to cycle through them.

Check out the Nextbase Piqo 1K review to see if it’s the right dash cam for you.

Was thinking the exact same thing. Maybe https://media.gettyimages.com/id/2265322337/photo/noida-india-a-man-seen-carrying-lpg-gas-cylinder-on-cycle-in-sector-53-on-march-10-2026-in.jpg?s=612x612&w=gi&k=20&c=8ZL3ae36d5ZhVU2XKGhbYlXF_LRCv3_ppIWZpFEWpKY%3D

Depending on your download speed, you can manually download a TV show episode in seconds to minutes. By the time you watch that episode, at least the next one will be ready. It is quite rare to have to do this though, me and my family mostly add shows on Seer when we find them (recommendations, adverts, etc) and by the time we’ve sat down to watch it’ll be ready.

I did the whole lists thing others have mentioned but to be honest, we found there was too much choice, lots of crap and quickly ran out of space. Taking an active role in choosing shows and films works better for us and I’ll have a short list at any time to watch.

How about

• reinventing trains but worse
• rocketing amount of space launches filling up junk
• we deliver everything but once we take over it’ll all be crap rip off products (for slave wages)
• we deliver any food by people who can’t drive (for slave wages)
• we’ll create algorithms to enforce society divisions and hurt mental health of children
• we’ll take over a popular platform and make it even more disgusting and fascist

Wow, that is insane! Do you have any annual car checks like an MOT?

That is the same then but how do you get this number of infractions? I don’t understand. Maybe I should be asking whether we get the same issues here then if they’re falling through some gaps

That is interesting and shows they need to go further based on this so hopefully highlighting this issue will lead there. Any car without a clear licence plate should be immediately pulled over by police and fined on the spot plus checked for insurance, licence, etc. If they don’t have insurance here in the UK, the car is impounded until someone with a driving licence and appropriate insurance collects it. If you don’t have a driving licence, im not too clear if they impound it or just leave the car there and arrest the driver. Either way, they’re not able to drive off.

Any vehicle owner should either identify the driver at the time or take the points by default. Cameras should be changed to ones that take pictures of the drivers from the front. The technology exists!

If a car isn’t taxed, the police can fine or more usually, the driving authority roams around randomly and if the car is on any public road, puts a boot on the car and a massive yellow sticker on the windscreen. It doesn’t happen often but enough to make people pay taxes or get called out to your neighbours. Eventually those cars are impounded too.

The flip side to all this though is the need for infrastructure to actually slow cars down instead of just a speed limit. Only a combination of a lot of things will do anything

How do you not have a points system or something to penalise repeat offenders?

I’m an accountant and tax professional but have always been into computers. I had a social media account breached although it was no issue as hadn’t used it did years. I used a terrible password as thought it did not matter but made me realise I needed to be better generally so started using a password manager.

Then Netflix stopped account sharing. I had just got a 4k TV and only their top level with 4 screens supported it so was pissed off. The fragmentation across services had started so was getting annoyed anyway. This led me to the arr’s.

I decided I could no longer trust Microsoft and hated their pricing structure so was interested in Nextcloud. By then I found the self hosted community (on reddit), bought a desktop PC and after getting the hang of it plus many mistakes I loved my services so will never look back.

Joined the migration to Lemmy. Am based in the UK and joined the anti-US feelings so am setting up more storage, better redundancy and more services for my family. A few family members are interested in helping so can share backups.

It’s not as elegant but you could always try to use a smart plug to turn the TV on or off instead (if it turns on automatically when the plug is switched on)

It’s not as elegant but you could always try to use a smart plug to turn the TV on or off instead (if it turns on automatically when the plug is switched on)

I found it a real struggle with the TV to find a non smart one, especially as the smart ones are cheaper. Best bet is to get a TV stick and never connect the TV to the internet

I have a Nvidia Shield (bought used on eBay) and works fine with my LG Smart TV, which has never touched the internet. I have a Xiami Mii TV S on another TV, which is the closest to stock android TV I found. Do not get a firestick! Both have 4k, can control TV volume through the remote, have auto turn on/off, plus the TV just goes to that channel so don’t have to touch the TV remotes ever. The Shield is faster and easier to setup but much more expensive.

You could also buy a mini PC but can be harder for certain apps and full video and sound quality (avoid if you want Netflix and other apps). I have stremio (with Real Debrid), jellyfin and TiviMate (IPTV) for all of our needs so could get away with a mini PC but considering the effort I decided not to.

Not sure about the sound bar as bought sonos years ago. It works flawlessly with the TV and runs through home assistant now (responds to Shield remote volume control or can play music through HA BUT I set it up with the original app so can’t comment on that part). It has great audio quality but agree that I would look elsewhere if looking now (although would still consider it).

I also use pihole to try to block any trackers etc.

I saw one last week in suburban London. It is fucking massive. I’m used to bigger cars on our roads but this monster dwarfed my hatchback and the other days. It could barely fit in the lane and was left hand drive so must be imported. It’s absolutely insane for somebody to buy that and ride!

Do you or anybody know if there is a good place to find tactics currently being battle tested and updated from Minnesota and other places? I feel like the HK protests also had lots of interesting findings. It might be useful for SUTR and other UK anti-facist groups

Oh, actually that does make sense. They say they’re only targeting “illegal” immigrants and have no authority to police against citizens so this adds to the blatant lies. Thanks for the input.

It is still galling to see though so hope you can see that it is horrible to see, especially as a minority. It’s hard not to interpret as only citizens (or in some way white people) matter

Why does it matter if he is a US citizen? Speaks volumes about what is getting covered and what is not

For something similar here on a pavement, im really tempted to spray paint a line up all the cars in line with the curb but too worried that I’ll be the only one getting into trouble. Maybe if theres a washable one or I could get a few people together to protest

The worst part of this is they see it as a “look, you’re going to defend your people so don’t come after ours, checkmate, we’re super brainy, our way wins” whereas in reality, if they broke the law, fuck em. Anybody who breaks the law and pulls some shit deserves what they get, regardless of “politic view”

Ooof, that’s bad!

I get the “why are you so western, what’s wrong with you, why do you want to do what your friends do instead of what I tell you”, erm, well you came over to this country and had kids, we were one of very few Indians or any other minority, where they chose to move to from a fairly diverse area they lived in before just before I was born - yes of course it’s my fault completely!

Same on an Indian forum. They’d all blame me. They blamed me for not learning their language. I didn’t refuse to learn it, they didn’t teach me properly and the lagoons I got were on reading and writing, not speaking and understand. I could read any books but had no idea what it meant and lost it. I was in a taxi and the guy asked where I was from. When he’s said he spoke to me in that language and I said I don’t understand. He asked me how that happened and I said my parents didn’t teach me. He literally said to me that it wasn’t their fault and that it I wanted to, I could learn quickly, blaming me effectively.

Luckily for me, it was mainly my dad. My mum was like that for some things but not as bad. Made it more bearable than lots of people I know.

Everything you said resonates unfortunately. The worst for me was my dad paid for my first year of rent at university. He kept bringing that up years later for any little thing.

I learned to just avoid doing things, do a bad job or forget to reduce what they ask for. I don’t ask or expect anything in return, which has it’s own problems though as I try to do too much myself and don’t trust/rely on others which harms me long term.