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The Eminently Hackable Police Bodycam

posted by chromas on Friday August 17 2018, @03:14PM   Printer-friendly
from the ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ dept.

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Fnord666

Josh Mitchell's Defcon presentation analyzes the security of five popular brands of police bodycams (Vievu, Patrol Eyes, Fire Cam, Digital Ally, and CeeSc) and reveals that they are universally terrible, though the Digital Ally models are the least bad of the batch, as Wired's Lily Hay Newman reports.

All the devices use predictable network addresses that can be used to remotely sense and identify the cameras when they switch on. Attackers could pinpoint intense police activity by watching for groups of cameras that all switch on at the same place and time.

None of the devices use code-signing, making them typical of garbagey Internet of Shit devices. That means that attackers can slip arbitrary code into them. And none of them cryptographically sign the video they take, which would be a relatively strong way of detecting tampering by police officers, their departments, or criminals.

Source: Boing Boing

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 3, Touché) by DannyB on Friday August 17 2018, @03:38PM (2 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday August 17 2018, @03:38PM (#722834) Journal

    And none of them cryptographically sign the video they take, which would be a relatively strong way of detecting tampering by police officers, their departments, or criminals.

    Why would we want to detect tampering by police officers or police departments? They are the good guys. Their word is gold. Their word is trusted in (some) courts even more than video evidence.

    Tampering by criminals, yes -- because they're criminals for not being part of the police force.

    Now if only electronic voting machines could be as secure as these police body cameras.

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  • (Score: 1) by messymerry on Friday August 17 2018, @04:48PM (1 child)

    by messymerry (6369) on Friday August 17 2018, @04:48PM (#722854)

    I didn't see a /sarc. addition. Are you serious? Police probable cause affidavits are lessons in creative writing. The truth takes a distant second to "" WINNING""

    Militarizing the police is a sure path to rebellion. The only hope for humanity is an "uncorruptible policeman" a la the 1950 movie: "The Day The Earth Stood Still". The bulletheads in D.C. are feverishly working to weaponize AI and all the while, we should be doing the exact opposite.

    The police are completely tribal. They are not your friends. Stop supporting them until they remember their place...

    --
    Only fools equate a PhD with a Swiss Army Knife...

    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday August 17 2018, @05:39PM

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday August 17 2018, @05:39PM (#722863) Journal

      The sarc tag was this: Now if only electronic voting machines could be as secure as these police body cameras.

      --
      What doesn't kill me makes me weaker for next time.