{
  "id": 8058945,
  "title": "Hackers Stole Flock's Camera Software, Revealing How the Company Tracks Cars and People",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/17/hackers-stole-flocks-camera-software-revealing-how-the-company-tracks",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-09-17T16:04:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Slashdot",
    "slug": "slashdot",
    "url": "https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/09/17/0517235/hackers-stole-flocks-camera-software-revealing-how-the-company-tracks-cars-and-people"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Hackers breached Flock's camera system, successfully copying a near-complete version of the stored data. The stolen files were shared with 404 Media and WIRED, who analyzed the material as part of a joint investigation. The hackers revealed that Flock's camera software not only detects vehicles but also people, license plates, and bicycles. The camera can generate dozens of images of a single vehicle and has produced over a million images from weeks of recovered logs. The software running on the device explicitly identifies people, noting their location within the image and the confidence level of the detection. The stegan0gram hackers, who breached the cameras, stated they destroyed them to reverse engineer and uncover the secrets of those surveilling them.",
  "summary": "\"Hackers ripped down a Flock camera above a roadway, made a near-complete copy of the data stored inside it, and shared the files with 404 Media and WIRED,\" according to an article published on both sites. Though Flock has described its system as protected by on-device encryption, \"The hackers were able to copy the camera's storage and recover an encryption key stored on the device, which…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "404 Media",
        "title": "Hackers Stole Flock’s Camera Software, Revealing How the Company Tracks Cars and People",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/16/hackers-stole-flocks-camera-software-revealing-how-the-company-tracks",
        "published": "2026-09-16T10:30:35.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}