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Redditor finds unsecured surveillance cameras seemingly placed by US government
- ccktlmazeltov 6y agoAny screenshots? Cameras are busy.
- obilgic 6y agoI'm more surprised about how those cameras handle the reddit traffic without a glitch
- admiral33 6y agoGood point. Limited hangout?
- tinix 6y agothese cameras cost thousands of dollars. > The VB-H43's powerful DIGIC Net II Processor allows simultaneous streaming of M-JPEG and H.264 codecs in multiple resolutions (1080p, 720p and 4:3 category video sizes) to meet various end-user needs. > Max. 30 Clients + 1 Admin Client - H.264: Max. 10 Clients
- joemazerino 6y agoHow long until these get taken down?
- criddell 6y agoThe links and discussion or the cameras?
- theferalrobot 6y ago/r/conspiracy kids discovers public city weather and traffic cameras that have been around Since the 00s
- thebigspacefuck 6y agoIt’s pretty cool. You can change where they point and zoom in/out. Usually can’t do that with public cameras
- reaperducer 6y agoIt’s pretty cool. You can change where they point and zoom in/out. Usually can’t do that with public cameras Really? I occasionally visit public construction site cameras that real estate developers put up, and they're almost always interactive.
- MiroF 6y agoNot true - back when I used to mess around with this in high school quite a few cameras had the controls.
- nbrempel 6y agoMaybe, but you normally can't move weather cameras and I don't think they have such a high resolution... From another comment, apparently the cameras are distributed by https://www.crimepoint.net/ https://www.crimepoint.net/
- pcdoodle 6y agoOne guy there was playing around and found presets for: "Richards House"
- casefields 6y agoInside one of the cameras: "Due to its sensitive nature, the information contained on this website is restricted to law enforcement professionals and government agencies only. For access contact us at 503-932-6899 or email us at info@ipsurvconcepts.com" http://ipsurvconcepts.com/ http://ipsurvconcepts.com/ Good job fellas.
- snypher 6y agoThis phone number traces to Mike Bethers, Special Agent at Oregon Department of Justice. I might give them a call today and ask about these cameras.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- kchr 6y agoPlease post an update if you do.
- boopk 6y agojust echoing please post update if you do
- rolph 6y agoPhone Number Details Phone Number: 5039326899 Area: Salem, OR (Oregon) Phone Company: NEXTEL COMMUNICATIONS, INC. Switch: PTLDOR40CM1 User Reports About: 503-932-6899 Number of Complaints: 0
- zokier 6y agoHN is not really the place for doxing
- sbierwagen 6y agoTell it to GP, that's the same phone number posted upthread.
- TechBro8615 6y agoMaybe worth linking to: https://www.insecam.org/ https://www.insecam.org/
- mturmon 6y agoThe camera in LA is outside a bus rapid transit in the San Fernando Valley. It's being joysticked all over by the excited public. A car! Look! A car!
- chillingeffect 6y agomight not actually be govt... i've often effected federal-looking stickers and titles on things to keep random people afraid of digging into my stuff.
- pstuart 6y agoapropos considering your username.
- rolph 6y agoi vaguely recall something about gangs/narcos setting up nieghborhood networks and cameras in a similar manner to keep watch for cops and warrant activity teams. im also wondering if mike bethers is a tripwire-pseudonym should someone call and poke around there is a linkedin page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-bethers-8002a24 https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-bethers-8002a24
- yoschi77 6y agoyeah, probably not a tripwire name if you leave your cameras open and not secured. Seems more like a sec rookie to me
- TheBill 6y agothe one in Hawaii is currently pointed at the SN & access info for the cell data connection... This is going to get interesting.
- ikeyany 6y agoWhere is the conspiracy? I thought the US government had been surveiling its cities via aerial technology. Is the conspiracy that these are unsecured?
- dehrmann 6y agoIANAL. It's also surveying something openly visible from public space, so even distributing it accidentally isn't illegal, per se. Now, it's obviously fucked, and abuses and mistakes like this should make public officials think twice about building a surveillance state. My main hope is news outlets that pick this up tie it to the encryption debate.
- jjoonathan 6y agoI don't think people have internalized the fact that the US gov has surveillance drones in holding patterns over most US metropolitan areas. Every time I've seen someone poke around one of those persistence ADSB/radar maps, they have gone through the stages of discovery: "What are those circles?" "Surveillance drones." "Haha, no, really, what are they? Planes circling the airport?" "No, that (points to thin circle) is a plane circling the airport. The heavy circles are surveillance drones. Really." "Uhh.... (shifts uncomfortably) so where do you want to go for lunch today?"
- baconomatic 6y agoHave an example of this? Would be interesting to see it.
- elicash 6y agoAnybody else afraid to click some of the links in that post until you hear about legality of accessing (and controlling!) a DEA camera that's likely part of an active investigation?
- dsfyu404ed 6y agoAs a practical matter I'm not worried about clicking a link that's been clicked tens of thousands of times today. There's enough ambiguous laws they could likely come after anyone who accesses it if they wanted but given the facts of the situation I doubt they'd be able to make anything stick and it would be a giant PR snafu.
- ashtonkem 6y agoI believe there is precedent that you’re allowed to enter any computer system until you’re specifically warned. It’s a bit like traveling through open land, you can’t get in trouble for trespassing until you’ve been warned that you’re entering private property. IANAL.
- akersten 6y ago> I believe there is precedent that you’re allowed to enter any computer system until you’re specifically warned. Didn't work that well for weev
- bityard 6y agoAbsolutely untrue. In the US, the law is written such that you may only legally access a system that you own or have explicit authorization from the owner to access. It mirrors common law where you're not generally allowed to enter someone else's home even if they leave the door unlocked. You can, of course (and plenty of people do), debate the specific application of the word, "access" in the context of computer networks.
- 101404 6y agoSo accessing a web site is illegal? I rarely see explicit "you are allowed to access the HTML files on this server" anywhere.
- ogre_codes 6y agoThe only thing surprising about this is that they are so easy to pwn. Then again, PDs aren't exactly tech-savvy.
- MiroF 6y agoYeah, it's actually quite easy to find misconfigured IP cameras like these online and be able to control them, used to do it for kicks back in high school. Surprised this has gotten so many upvotes.
- rolph 6y agofrom the webpage [http://ipsurvconcepts.com/ http://ipsurvconcepts.com/ ] source " <td width="780" height="30" valign="top" class="copyright1">3030 Briana Ct.NW, Salem, OR 97304 (503) 932-6899</td> " also check these out: https://forum.mikrotik.com/viewtopic.php?t=19005 https://forum.mikrotik.com/viewtopic.php?t=19005 https://builtwith.com/ipsurvconcepts.com https://builtwith.com/ipsurvconcepts.com https://hu.cybo.com/US-kapcsolat/ip-surveillance-concepts-llc/Michael+Bethers https://hu.cybo.com/US-kapcsolat/ip-surveillance-concepts-ll...
- thsowers 6y agoPrevious discussion on "The DEA and ICE are hiding surveillance cameras in streetlights" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18427626 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18427626
- gccxsse 6y agoCan you foia request images from these cameras?
- A4ET8a8uTh0 6y agoIt is possible that it is my general weariness talking, but based on our US government amazing level of incompetence displayed when dealing with COVID-19, I am now way less inclined to accept as a given that government can do conspiracies well.
- lowdose 6y agoThe local manager of the Burger King doesn't decide what beef is on your burger, complaining about the temperature of fries to HQ is not going to help you either.
- williesleg 6y agoChina does stupid shit like this. They're all fake news.
- williesleg 6y agoReddit is owned by China too.
- milesvp 6y agoMy personal experience with these types of camera is based on a conversation I had with a friend who’s a public defender in washington state. She said it can be nearly impossible to figure out who owns or put up all the random cameras you see at traffic intersections. Also good luck trying to subpoena the footage. And this is from someone who has greater access to government information than the typical citizen and had reason to find out.
- sl1ck731 6y agoIs the implication that it is hard to find the owner because it is messy and any number of agencies could place them or that it is difficult to find the owner because it is purposefully hidden or "super secret"?
- aaron-santos 6y agoIs it not possible to destroy them and then find the owner by determining who has standing for the case?
- darkengine 6y agoI was thinking the same thing -- obscure its view with a few well-placed paintballs and see who shows up to clean it.
- acheron 6y agoIs this like when Redditors found the Boston Marathon bomber?
- forgot-my-pw 6y agoAt least in the UK they are known to public and secured.
- znpy 6y ago«Muh freedom!»
- ideophobia 6y agoA lot of statements and theories about these camera's from all sorts of directions, but they're just pole cams. LEA's have been using pole cams since before I was born (I'm 34). I worked in law enforcement as an analyst and spent some time staring at pole cams that were setup to surveil known drug dealers or criminal gang members. To do one correctly (i.e. legally) you typically need a warrant or a court order, but it can vary I guess based on jurisdiction. They're often deployed as an alternative to human surveillance efforts. They're called pole cams because, well, they get thrown up on telephone poles usually, to take advantage of the power source and ease of view. The surprising part of this isn't the cameras, its the fact that these are wide open on the internet. But honestly police are not IT people, and they often have officers or agents that work specifically as "surveillance techs" who are not IT people either. I imagine this will draw a ton of ire about privacy and such, and I generally agree, but from my limited experience with them, they aren't wide spread, they're typically temporary, and they're usually purged except for the parts that are relevant to the investigation. These cams appear to be the exception, not the norm. If I saw a cam was sitting on an openly accessible server like this I would have filed a complaint with the agency and the OAG. I don't live in a state where any of the ones listed on Reddit are in, but I would encourage people who do live in a state with one of these cams to notify your OAG about it.
- bsder 6y agoThe point is the bloody things are unsecured. It's one thing for LAPD to throw up a camera that looks in your windows with a warrant (not convinced they have one, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt). It's another thing for LAPD to throw up a camera that looks in your windows AND LEAVE IT UNSECURED ON THE INTERNET.
- leephillips 6y agoIf they are, or can be steered to, look in a window, that’s one thing. But if they can only see the public street, then they should be unsecured, for the convenience of the public. I can use them to check traffic, or see if the bus is coming.
- Gasp0de 6y agoThe cameras are all password protected for me (from Europe). Did someone get notified and changed it?
- kickopotomus 6y agoLooks like they did. The logins weren't there earlier. Would love to see the frantic email thread that led to that. Still worth noting that none of those sites appear to have any sort of TLS enabled.
- fulldecent2 6y agoJust file a FOIA and ask for the email.
- dopamean 6y agoonly a couple are left password free
- LiquidPolymer 6y agoMy idiot brother shot a county Sheriff during a traffic stop many years ago. The entire thing was captured on a dash cam so there was no doubt who did it. He immediately ran and was never captured. These camera types were placed around his house from the power poles. The neighbor actually filmed the install. I suspect this is standard le practice for various scenarios. it’s been 9 years and my brother has never been seen since that night. I suspect he killed himself in the expansive, Wild, thick forests the area is known for.
- leephillips 6y agoKind of surprising that at least one of the URLs still lets me not only look through the camera, but control it!
- a3n 6y agoWhat would happen to the camera if you ran a script that had the camera look directly at the sun and tracked the sun all day?
- rolph 6y agohas any body thought to call this fellow up and perhaps give him heads up that there is a potential problem with his website? i know i would appreciate it if someone did that for me, and id bet a lot of people here would.
- zenexer 6y agoI was surprised to find that one of the cameras listed is just down the street from where I live, and I frequently walk near it. It’s a pretty safe area, so I’m curious what sort of suspected crime they’re monitoring. That being said, the camera itself doesn’t make me feel uncomfortable. What does make me feel uncomfortable is the realization that such cameras are often open to the internet for anyone to view. That sort of incompetence isn’t what I like to see.