{
  "id": 8441411,
  "title": "Hackers breach Flock camera, recover 1.6m images",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/19/hackers-breach-flock-camera-recover-1-6m-images",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-09-19T06:12:12.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Arabian Post",
    "slug": "arabian-post",
    "url": "https://thearabianpost.com/hackers-breach-flock-camera-recover-1-6m-images/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Hackers physically removed a Flock Safety roadside camera and successfully copied much of its internal storage, exposing tens of thousands of video clips and data associated with around 1.6 million images generated over 21 days. The breach occurred without hacking Flock Safety's cloud network. The hacking group, known as stegan0gram, reverse engineered the device and shared its contents for independent technical examination. The compromised camera captured 27,321 short video files, each one to two seconds long, at a resolution of 1,024 by 768 pixels, with no audio. Logs indicated the camera photographed approximately 50,200 vehicles and generated around 1.6 million still images during the 21-day period. Each passing vehicle typically triggered about 28 images, while some captured more than 100. The camera used different exposures to capture license plates and wider views before selecting and cropping useful frames for transmission via cellular connection. The recovered software revealed that license plate reading and vehicle identification were performed on Flock's servers rather than on the roadside unit itself. However, more sensitive parts of the camera's storage remained encrypted and inaccessible. Flock emphasized that its cloud infrastructure has not been compromised and its customer information is protected through encryption and other security measures. The company urged anyone with legitimate vulnerabilities to report them through its vulnerability disclosure process. The hacked camera also demonstrated the ability to detect people, including motorcyclists, in 11 out of the stored video files. The recovered software showed that the camera could be vulnerable to false positives, treating objects like bumper stickers or dealership frames as license plates. The incident underscores the difference between compromising a field device and breaching a central service, as physical access to the camera allowed the hackers to thoroughly inspect the storage partitions and software, while there is no evidence that the stolen credentials were used to enter Flock's cloud systems or access other customers' data.",
  "summary": "Hackers who physically removed a Flock Safety roadside camera were able to copy much of its internal storage, uncover an encryption key and access tens of thousands of video clips and data linked to about 1.6 million images generated over 21 days. The compromise involved a single camera taken from above a roadway and did not amount to a remote breach of Flock Safety’s cloud network. The […] The…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "TechRepublic",
        "title": "Hackers Crack Flock Camera, Expose 1.6M Images in 21 Days",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/18/hackers-crack-flock-camera-expose-1-6m-images-in-21-days",
        "published": "2026-09-18T21:48:36.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "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."
}