Militaries Turn to Hacked Civilian Cameras for Surveillance

For decades, the use of satellites, drones, and human spotters has been integral to the surveillance and reconnaissance strategies employed in warfare. However, the availability of affordable, often insecure, Internet-connected consumer devices has provided militaries with a new surveillance tool: every hackable security camera installed on private homes or city streets, which might overlook potential bombing sites.

On Wednesday, Check Point, a security firm based in Tel Aviv, revealed new research detailing hundreds of hacking attempts aimed at consumer-grade security cameras throughout the Middle East. Many of these attempts seemed to coincide with Iran's recent missile and drone strikes on targets in Israel, Qatar, and Cyprus. These efforts to hijack cameras, some of which have been linked by Check Point to a hacker group associated with Iranian intelligence, imply that Iran’s military may have used civilian surveillance cameras to identify targets, plan their assaults, or evaluate the damage resulting from their retaliatory attacks against US and Israeli bombings.

Iran is not the first to employ such camera-hacking techniques. Earlier this week, the Financial Times reported that the Israeli military had gained access to nearly all traffic cameras in Tehran, Iran’s capital. Partnering with the CIA, they allegedly used these cameras in orchestrating the air strike that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader. In the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, officials have long warned that Russia has exploited consumer surveillance cameras to zero in on targets and observe troop movements, while Ukrainian hackers have similarly commandeered Russian cameras to monitor Russian forces and possibly oversee their own operations.

The hacking and use of networked civilian cameras are increasingly becoming standard practice among the world’s armed forces. It provides a cost-effective and straightforward method of obtaining visual access to targets located thousands of miles away. Sergey Shykevich, head of threat intelligence research at Check Point, notes, “Now hacking cameras has become part of the playbook of military activity. You get direct visibility without using any expensive military means such as satellites, often with better resolution.”