Hackers Stole Flock Camera Software Revealing How Company Tracks Cars and People
4 hours ago
- Hackers ripped down a Flock camera, copied its data, and shared it with 404 Media and WIRED, revealing how the cameras track vehicles and people.
- The breach exposed an encryption key stored on the device, unlocking videos of thousands of vehicle detections, despite Flock's claims of on-device encryption.
- Flock's software explicitly detects people, vehicles, license plates, and bicycles, generating dozens of images per vehicle and over a million images in a few weeks.
- The camera's computer-vision software sometimes misidentified bumper stickers and graphics as plates, including an American flag patch on a motorcyclist's saddlebag.
- The hackers, from a collective called stegan0gram, aim to reverse engineer the cameras to expose surveillance secrets, not just destroy them.
- Flock's national network allows thousands of agencies to search camera records, raising privacy concerns, including ICE lookups and abortion-related searches.
- Flock acknowledged security flaws but downplayed them; the hackers gained root-level access, accessing unencrypted partitions and the media storage.
- The camera runs about 20 Flock-built apps, takes rapid photos of passing vehicles, and sends data to Flock's servers for analysis.
- Analysis of logs showed around 50,200 vehicles and 1.6 million images over 21 days, with typical daily counts around 3,300 vehicles.
- The camera's software detects people, but tests found few detections (11 clips) due to its roadside position; no face recognition was evident.
- WIRED reconstructed Flock's police software, showing how records are used to identify drivers and track movement patterns.
- A Flock spokesperson defended the company, stating the removal is illegal and encouraged vulnerability reporting; the hackers avoided investigation.
- A former officer warns that sabotage could strengthen police support for the cameras, as their use becomes more entrenched.
- Logs revealed storage issues, including 'no space left' errors and frequent reboots, with playful log messages like 'Who's a good boy?!' and '¡Adios Amigos!'