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Flock Exposed Its AI-Powered Cameras to the Internet. We Tracked Ourselves

404media.co

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Re: Flock Exposed Its AI-Powered Cameras to the Internet. We Tracked Ourselves

#4

Post by chaps »

dvtkrlbs wrote: post #3

I just watched the Benn Jordan's video on this. Even if this is just configuration error on some of their cameras this is terrifying and I think they should be held accountable for this and their previous myriad of CVEs.

Here's the video for interested folk:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vU1-uiUlHTo

Re: Flock Exposed Its AI-Powered Cameras to the Internet. We Tracked Ourselves

#5

Post by tencentshill »

dvtkrlbs wrote: post #3

I just watched the Benn Jordan's video on this. Even if this is just configuration error on some of their cameras this is terrifying and I think they should be held accountable for this and their previous myriad of CVEs.

It's amazing that any vendor, let alone a CJIS vendor even allows unsecured deployments of their software in 2025.

Re: Flock Exposed Its AI-Powered Cameras to the Internet. We Tracked Ourselves

#6

Post by edot »

Flock or their defenders will lock in on the excuse that “oh these are misconfigured” or “yeah hacking is illegal, only cops should have this data”. The issue is neither of the above. The issue is the collection and collation of this footage in the first place! I don’t want hackers watching me all the time, sure, but I DEFINITELY don’t trust the state or megacorps to watch me all the time. Hackers concern me less, actually. I’m glad that Benn Jordan and others are giving this the airtime it needs, but they’re focusing the messaging on security vulnerabilities and not state surveillance. Thus Flock can go “ok we will do better about security” and the bureaucrats, average suburbanites, and law enforcement agencies will go “ok good they fixed the vulnerabilities I’m happy now”

Re: Flock Exposed Its AI-Powered Cameras to the Internet. We Tracked Ourselves

#7

Post by dvtkrlbs »

edot wrote: post #6

Flock or their defenders will lock in on the excuse that “oh these are misconfigured” or “yeah hacking is illegal, only cops should have this data”. The issue is neither of the above. The issue is the collection and collation of this footage in the first place! I don’t want hackers watching me all the time, sure, but I DEFINITELY don’t trust the state or megacorps to watch me all the time. Hackers concern me less, ac…

Yes and the biggest problem with this kind of ALPRs are they bypass the due process. Most of the time police can just pull up data without any warrant and there has been instances where this was abused (I think some cops used this for stalking their exes [1]) and also the most worrying Flock seems to really okay with giving ICE unlimited access to this data [2] [3] (which I speculate for loose regulations).

[1]: https://lookout.co/georgia-police-chief-arrested-for-using-f... [2]: https://www.404media.co/emails-reveal-the-casual-surveillanc... [3]: https://www.404media.co/ice-taps-into-nationwide-ai-enabled-...

Re: Flock Exposed Its AI-Powered Cameras to the Internet. We Tracked Ourselves

#10

Post by embedding-shape »

SamInTheShell wrote: post #8

It's 2025. The ISP gateway I got comes with more default security than these cameras. The barrier to entry on security is lower than it ever has been in history. Whoever let this past the QC phase is an idiot.

> Whoever let this past the QC phase is an idiot.

It's all a matter of perspective. I'm sure to some executive somewhere, the person/s who approved all of this is seen as heroes, as they shaved of 0.7% or whatever from the costs of the development, and therefore made shareholders more money.

Until there are laws in place that makes people actually responsible for creating these situations, it'll continue, as for a company, profits goes above all.

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