Hackers tear down Flock surveillance camera and expose how thousands of cars are tracked
Flock surveillance cameras are located on various streets across the nation to act as automated licence-plate-reader cameras but there have now been reports of hackers tearing them down.
They have also been exposing information on how cars are being tracked by the cameras and even sharing details on how others can take them down.
This comes after 404Media reported they had been sent files which, in a joint investigation with WIRED, showed that ‘software running on the device explicitly detects people as well as vehicles, license plates, and bicycles’.
The hackers uncovered that these traffic cameras are able to snap dozens of images of a passing vehicle, with logs suggesting that they have generated over a million photos.
How do Flock cameras work?
The cameras are used to monitor traffic by photographing passing vehicles and using software to identify the licence plate and vehicle characteristics including the make, colour and type, along with the time and camera location.
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According to Flock’s website, the firm does not use facial recognition or collect biometric information.
Instead, the company’s system will capture an image of a vehicle in a particular time and location, but will not continuously track the individual, although, if this same vehicle is photographed by multiple cameras then this could be used to show where the vehicle was heading at different points in time.
How are hackers gaining access to Flock camera data?
The hackers have been literally tearing down the cameras from the street and using them to gain access into the device’s Android system where they have been able to find unencrypted data.
According to WIRED, one hacker, who is from a collective known as stegan0gram, said: “Why just destroy them when we can reverse engineer them and find the secrets of those spying on us?
“We liberated hardware in the field, disarmed them, and proceeded with reverse engineering of the cameras and associated solar equipment.”
Police misuse Flock cameras to stalk partners
There have been previous reports by the Institute for Justice that there are multiple incidents where members of the police have misused the Flock security system in order to digitally stalk their romantic partners.
This has reportedly included ‘current partners, exes, and even strangers who unwittingly caught their eye in public’.
The firm is now bringing out new measures to protect members of the public, including shortening the length of time recordings are kept.
Speaking to the BBC, Flock founder and chief executive Garrett Langley agreed that the surveillance has taken too long to act over the police abuse of the system.
He went on to say: “Our employees and communities have said loud and clear, they expect companies like Flock to have a stronger point of view as the expert. I resisted that because I didn't want to have that responsibility.”