According to the antivirus company Avast, there are more than 500 cameras in the Czech Republic that are freely accessible to third parties and can be misused. Avast said that the hackers attacked not only the cameras, but also the Verkada business network.
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More than 100 employees of the company had a so-called super-administrator account and thus had the right to view the cameras of all customers. The use of this authorization was so extensive in the company that it was also available to employees of the sales department or even interns, Bloomberg said, referring to two unnamed employees of the company.
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A group of hackers is behind the attack
The use of these accounts in the company usually required multiple identity verifications, but according to Bloomberg sources, this measure could simply be turned off by the user himself. Employees also had to state the reason why they connected to a specific camera at the customer, but these records were allegedly not checked by anyone and it was enough to fill in, for example, only a space, Bloomberg sources said.
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Verkada provides its customers with the opportunity to operate in a so-called private mode, which denies its employees access to cameras installed on clients. However, according to the company’s employees, the holders of the super-administrator account had the opportunity to circumvent this restriction.
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Behind the attack is a group of hackers around Swiss Tillie Kottmann, who managed to access the login details of one of the super-administrator accounts on the Internet and successfully log in to it. According to Kottmann, they wanted to draw attention to the massive expansion of security cameras and the simplicity with which these systems can be used to invade the privacy of users and the general public.
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According to them, the hackers managed to watch live footage from cameras located, for example, in schools, hospitals or private companies for two days. In addition to Tesla, the attack also affected the operator of luxury gyms Equinox and the company focused on Internet security Cloudflare. At the same time, the attackers could also view the footage from the cameras retrospectively, as they also gained access to the video archive.
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It’s worrying how much data from everyday life can get into the wrong hands and how easily it can happen.
cybersecurity expert Elisa Costante
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Verkada offers the installation of cameras, which can then be monitored and managed via an Internet interface accessible from anywhere. In addition, its software can detect when a person enters a camera, and customers can also turn on a feature that recognizes individuals and can track their movement across different cameras. However, not all clients use this function, notes the AP agency.
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“It’s worrying how much data from everyday life can get into the wrong hands and how easily it can happen,” said cybersecurity expert Elisa Costante. “It is a warning to make sure that whenever you collect such a large amount of data, you must follow the basic rules of digital hygiene,” she added to the attack.
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According to Avast, cameras often have security flaws. Data from the IoT search engine Shodan.io shows that it is currently possible to access more than 124,000 security cameras connected to the Internet worldwide. This number includes industrial security cameras that detect images from power plants, industrial factories, heating systems and gas stations, as well as smart home appliances. The privacy of individual users is also at risk.
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What is the Internet of Things?
IoT (Internet of Things) stands for smart devices that are able to connect to the Internet and communicate with each other through this global computer network.
Typically, these are devices that allow you to monitor or control certain functions remotely. It is possible to connect to them via a smartphone or computer tablet via the Internet, even if the user is on the other end of the planet.
The global computer network can be used in this way by various recorders, weather stations, but also smart light bulbs, for which it is possible to adjust the temperature of the light.
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