Michael Murphy and his son Kieran were “flabbergasted” when they realised their dairy cows in Co Waterford were among the Irish farms whose CCTV footage was being broadcast to all and sundry on the internet, as revealed by the Irish Farmers Journal last week.

“The shed was listed on the website as being in Youghal, in Co Cork, but that’s actually only seven miles from us here in Knockanore,” said Michael, a former IFA national dairy committee chair. “I saw the shed in the paper and didn’t recognise it right away, but Kieran saw the story on the Journal online when he was up at the winter fair.”

“I saw the headline about the security cameras on my phone,” recalled Kieran. “And I thought to myself: ‘That’s wicked like our shed.’ When I got home, I realised I could even number some of the cows from the picture.

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“I got a fright, to be honest. I was having a bad enough day as it was with a problem bulk tank and putting in heifers. When I rang our cameraman, he nearly fell off the ladder.”

Footage from two of the Murphys’ five CCTV cameras was being live-streamed on Insecam.org. Both have now been removed from the site by changing the default and password which had left them open to being viewed.

The cameras were installed after a quad bike was stolen three years ago and are situated to allow the pair monitor the roadway and entrance to the farm, the yard, two views of the cubicle shed and the calving pen.

An app installed on Kieran’s mobile phone allows him to manipulate the cubicle camera to zoom in and pan around the shed while he is away from the farm.

“Kieran would be more tech-savvy than me,” said Michael. “I would even be apprehensive about doing online banking. I heard someone describe these computer hackers out in Russia as like someone firing a machine gun at a wall. Eventually they will get one through.”