Flock Camera Vulnerability: It's Worse Than You Think

Becoming ‘root’ on a Flock camera. By pressing this button a secret number of times, you gain complete control of the computer inside. (Image from video below)

By Thomas Neuburger

We recently pointed out a number of problems with Flock Safety’s cameras, marketed to police and the public as “license plate readers.” These are cameras placed publicly in municipalities, operated by cops, and used to record everything they see. Everything they see. And they’re used for any purpose whatsoever.

For more on that, go here.

Turns out there’s much more to this story — these cameras are evil in many more ways than one. (Thanks to commenter Friend at Naked Capitalism for the tip.)

Flock Camera Vulnerabilities

The best way to understand the myriad problems with Flock’s “Safety” cameras — safety’s in quotes because the cameras are wildly unsafe — is to watch the video above. It’s provided with chapters:

1. Vulnerabilities (1:30)

2. Questionable Efficacy (21:26)

3. Pushing Back (30:28)

4. A Compromise (37:38)

I recommend watching the first two, especially the first, about the amazing number of vulnerabilities. Yes, Flocks can be hacked completely. Among the vulnerabilities:

• Flock cameras are computers. With the touch of a button, they surrender ‘root’ access and grant complete control.

• They can be hacked to send their video stream to a designated remote server.

• They can be used as a botnet client for hosting malware (see video for explanation).

• They can capture Wi-Fi handshake credentials and perform “middleman” or “honeypot” attacks.

• With captured handshake credentials, you can replace or modify stored footage or images.

Consider just that last problem. A prosecutor could be forced to prove that Flock data has never been hacked or risk having it ruled inadmissible in court.

Or imagine the blackmail possibilities for unscrupulous actors who can use hacked (or unhacked) images. (“Was that really the mayor? Who was that woman he kissed?”) Remember, Flock cameras record everything, not just license plate numbers. And that’s on top of the fact that these cameras don’t really reduce crime (21:26). This is an excellent section all on its own.

Go here for to see maps of Flock camera placement (mentioned in section 3).

Surveillance Produces Unhappy Societies

I can’t speak for Chinese reactions to constant surveillance, but the following is certainly true for those in the West. From the video (26:45):

If you have a job where you think your superiors are constantly watching you and judging your every move, you’ll be concerned with appearing to be productive instead of learning and developing your skills at your natural speed. Or consider this recent study that strongly suggests that high levels of surveillance cause a steep decline in voluntary visual processing, meaning that it quite literally impairs the brain’s ability to process and recognize human faces. And once again, this is one of those things that you hear and you’re like, “What?” But when you think about it, it’s not all that surprising. When you feel like you’re in an environment where you are intrinsically not trusted, you’re going to be far less likely to make friendly or meaningful social connections with others. And I’m sorry, but that just doesn’t sound anything like a safe environment to me. And that’s on top of an exhaustive amount of studies outlining exactly how and why increased surveillance decreases well-being and mental health. But some people seemingly only read the studies conducted by companies trying to sell them something.

“Some people” above means cops and city officials. I’ll come back to that, why modern Americans default to surveillance and control.

And we all go along; we even defend our submission. Why do you think that is? Why do we submit, like cows, to the “airport experience”?

Scott Olson/Getty Images

Why are so many European countries so widely surveilled? For example:

Here in Sweden, the use of license plate scanners has become the norm for basically all parking houses, bridge tolls and road tolls. Even if you don’t install the app or become a “member” of whatever system they are using, the license plate scanners is still used to detect when you enter or leave, and in some cases they automatically look up your home address to send you the bill with zero interaction with the driver. Even if they offer alternative ways to pay, by for example SMS, it still uses the license plate scanner when you leave. The only political party to even mention this as a problem was the pirate party back 15 years ago, and even then it never became a major issue that got discussed. Like paying with credit cards rather than physical cash, people see it as convenience or just as the way things now work.

For more, read the comments here and here.

Your thoughts?