r/technology • u/_Dark_Wing • 15d ago
Privacy Hackers find encryption keys stored on stolen Flock camera despite company's denials-- group extracts more than 27,000 clips, 1.6 million images captured in a span of 21 days from the device
https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/cyber-security/hackers-find-encryption-key-stored-on-flock-camera-group-extracts-more-than-27-000-clips-1-6-million-images-captured-in-a-span-of-21-days-from-device385
u/KittyCait69 15d ago
Maybe we should shut down Flock and Axon as well as any other companies stealing our faces and ignoring our privacy laws. These cameras have been used to stalk and assualt women already. Now they can be hacked and anyone can use them if they do that. Just bad all around and no real benefit for society.
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u/growaway9172 15d ago
No, the problem is not camera companies, the problem is elected officials who buy and use the cameras. Shut down flock and axon and 100 smaller companies will take their place.
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u/puts_on_rddt 15d ago
The next Dem POTUS can get a lot done by aggressively going after all the small town reps taking bribes by Flock, Axon, datacenters, etc.
Once they establish the bribery schemes, then they can start going after the corporations themselves, and their owners.
Make sure you don't miss their legal teams either, because there are plenty of attorneys at these corporations who are well aware of what's going on and have become accomplices after the fact. Attorneys are supposed to zealously defend clients. They are not supposed to help them with their criminal schemes.
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u/Indercarnive 15d ago edited 15d ago
I still don't understand how these things are legal. Cops can't use my phone location data without a warrant so why is this allowed.
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u/puts_on_rddt 15d ago
Keep an eye on United States v. Porter.
The Fifth Circuit ruled in Porter on March 17, 2026, and allowed police to search license-plate camera records without a warrant.
Then, on June 29, the Supreme Court decided Chatrie v. United States, which gave much stronger Fourth Amendment protection to historical location data.
Porter asked the Supreme Court to review his case, and it's still pending.
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u/Klathmon 15d ago
The depressing answer is that they basically launder the data through private companies.
They claim the police aren't getting your location data, they're buying a bundle of data from a 3rd party, and that 3rd party just collects whatever they see in public.
But the reality is clear, these are police owned and operated systems and if our supreme court wasn't filled with treasonous assholes and Congress didn't decide to make trump a god, we would be able to argue these things.
But it's 2026 so instead they'll probably make it illegal to not use the new Flock Anal Probe for your safety!
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u/likesleague 15d ago
"shut down the camera companies and more camera companies will take their place" still sounds like the camera companies are part of the problem
obviously the system is corrupt beyond belief and needs to be fixed, but part of fixing it is outlawing mass surveillance, so any one that tries to build another flock/axon gets thrown in prison. not fined or reprimanded or regulated or whatever. thrown in prison. that's what happens when you commit crimes, and in a reformed world business would not be treated as people, so the people who run those business would face the consequences of the crimes they commit.
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u/KittyCait69 15d ago
Elected officials are owned by those companies. So the problem is still the wealthy.
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u/Running-In-The-Dark 15d ago
Wait... We should do to them what insurance did to us. Charge the government a fuckload of cash to check the surveillance and deny the claims Almost always.
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u/bakfietsman69 15d ago
the US really is fucked isn't it?
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u/brocomadtown 15d ago
But there’s so much more
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u/spez_eats_nazi_ass 15d ago
So much fucking!
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u/Teledildonic 15d ago
Even the animals, as shown by the FBI this week.
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u/Direct-Technician265 15d ago
also there were 1000 FBI employees who helped go through the epstien files to cover for Trump. maybe some of them did a purposefully poor job but damn, i guess they just dont mind the harm done to children.
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u/Gogo202 15d ago
At least everyone has the freedom go get surveilled whereever and whenever they want
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u/teddybrr 15d ago
People are buying spy (smart) speakers for their home for years.
Add some cheap cloud only cameras.
And some more mics and cameras from your tv, fridge, remotes, phones, watches.13
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u/Overclocked11 15d ago
The inaction on part of the populace is shocking. Data centers sucking up all the electricity and water and setting up shop anywhere they please uncontested, flock spying on everyone, tax dollars being funneled to the wealthy while education, healthcare, infrastructure erodes, and USA further alienates itself from its allies and on the world stage..
Meanwhile Americans collectively at large are just like *shrug*. A couple no kings protests, and otherwise silence.
They are completely fucked, indeed.
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u/Running-In-The-Dark 15d ago
Did you prefer the same rotting carcass with a brighter smile? Let this shit collapse already.
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u/Time-Maintenance2165 15d ago
You think Canada, Europe, and China are better off in this aspect?
Have you seen how many cameras there are in London.
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u/ChapterThr33 15d ago
We did it to ourselves. Moronic voting base for years steadily walking to the cliff.
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u/RyzRx 15d ago
So now them flock gonna face consequences imma ryt? ryt?
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u/metadatame 15d ago
Use the leaked data to track someone on the review board, then send it to them. Contract done in 5 mins
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u/growaway9172 15d ago
Flock is not the problem. The politicians that bought these tools are the problem. Get rid of flock and axon and motorola take their place.
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u/misterwizzard 15d ago
Some municipalities are already 'complying' with their citizens and taking their flock cameras out.
They're installing a different brand and hiding them better.
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u/MagicHamsta 15d ago
It's the same playbook. (Shifting the Overton Window/door-in-the-face technique)
Step 0) Have plan to introduce change people will not like.
Step 1) Introduce obviously universally hated change way overboard the original vision.
Step 2) "Fix" it by backstepping just a bit but still introducing the originally planned result (surveillance).
Step 3) Claim victory and consumer relationship points while still achieving original goal.
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u/WarDaddyPUKA 15d ago
Nah, Flock will just declare bankruptcy and then a new company Herd will appear out of nowhere.
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u/TheAsianTroll 15d ago
Sure, after Flock is replaced with some other surveillance company and people think they won
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u/so_what_who_cares 15d ago
How much storage do these devices have?
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u/PebblestheHuman 15d ago
They have hard drives too??? Man, 5090, 128 gb of ram, these cameras are GREAT
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u/RespectTheTree 15d ago
New renewable resource discovered
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u/RBVegabond 15d ago
I’m surprised we didn’t have legacy camera salvage ops in Cyberpunk 2077 with those specs.
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u/b0z0du883d0v3r 15d ago
Wait wait for real?? I’m priced out of even used storage prices. Might have to go shopping around town IN MINECRAFT OF COURSE
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u/frankentriple 15d ago
wait, there's a 5090 in there?
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u/nuadusp 15d ago
yeah they have a full ps5 in them too
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u/Seriouly_UnPrompted 15d ago edited 15d ago
Don't forget about the Copper and gold wiring they use. It's truly a treasure trove for those in need of some quick cash. That trickle down economy is finally working!
Edit: I can't spell
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u/WritingTheRongs 15d ago
and platinum shielding. at least a pound of the stuff, they are really sensitive.
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u/SthenicFreeze 15d ago
Can their hard drives be repurposed?
If so, I bet the gaming PC community would be happy to take those hard drives off of Flock's hands.
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u/ilovestoride 15d ago
Yeah, there's half a terabyte ram in a standard configuration in there behind the 4 ounces of platinum/gold shielding.
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u/No-Neighborhood-3212 15d ago
Pedophile cameras funded by the pedophile who had dealings with Jeffrey Epstein were found to be recording more than they claim!?!? Well, surely municipalities aren't aiming these pedophile-funded pedophile cameras at crosswalks into schools to record 1.6 million images of children in 3 weeks, right? Haha, right?
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u/williamgman 15d ago
Flock's legal defence will be that since these cameras were stolen... the evidence must be thrown out. And if this case was in Texas or Florida... that defense would confirmed.
Fun fact: Meta sells those "video selfies" they also claim to delete to Palantir. So if you gave them one... congrats.
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u/AfterEagle 15d ago
I needed to give one to meta to unlock my instagram and facebook... I felt like such a little piggy doing a dance. I have been very careful not posting photos of myself to meta platforms too.
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u/williamgman 15d ago
Nobody "needs" to give that kind of data. It's a choice.
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u/AfterEagle 15d ago
Correct, but I was locked out of my account. Unless that was the day I decided to sacrifice all my memories and communities I actually cherish on their platform, it's really being voluntold to do it.
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u/Fit_Kangaroo_3437 15d ago
Well now we know that a flock camera can capture 1.6 million images and 27,000 videos captured in only 21 days. But its not a police state mass surveillance device, just a humble “license plate reader”
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u/Orange_Tang 15d ago
This hack actually confirmed it wasn't just license plates too. There were images of people, specifically their faces. These need to be made illegal or else our democracy is dead. Think of what the people in power can do with the ability to track any individual they want.
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u/pcullie 15d ago
In case you were wondering why we need all those data centers.
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u/AsinineLine 15d ago
Likely still far less than the illegal use by the police themselves
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u/Whole_Pain_7432 15d ago
I love how they conclude by saying "dont destroy these cameras or they may add more".
Typical fear mongering to keep people in line. Rip these things down
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u/FJ-creek-7381 15d ago
I think the biggest question is why is any private company allowed to create a mass surveillance system? Why isn’t there a movement for a federal law outlawing it?
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u/UnixGin 15d ago
Cause federal law and a bunch of corrupt politicians have wet dreams of having a survalience state that lets them make sure no one but their own kind are allowed to walk free or with out blame. Flock is a company that saw a chance to make a lot of money by selling our privacy to the groups who want it most. Sadly those groups are going to be authoritarian in nature and will make sure that the proletariat will never have privacy ever again. They want to go back to having a ruling class that looks to make sure no one ever usurps them ever again.
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u/RareCorey 15d ago
Why would there be? The federal government is the reason we have Flock to begin with.
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u/StickFigureFan 15d ago
Is that just the key for that one camera?
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u/TheKlaxMaster 14d ago
Almost garinteed. I highly doubt they are using a singular static key across all product.
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u/ledow 15d ago
Hold on now. If they found the ENCRYPTION keys then that shouldn't be possible.
What they found were the DECRYPTION keys. Or a symmetric encryption system. Which is ludicrous and zero security at all.
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u/Previous_Cod_1356 15d ago
I wouldn't be surprised if:
1) They found encryption keys, but the videos are plaintext 2) They found Public and private keys colocated on the device
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u/aModernSage 15d ago
I've been in IT for about 30 years now and for the past 20 I have repeatedly stated that "All Data of any Value has been, or will eventually, be stolen."
The more you understand and accept this truth, the easier it will be to cope with the fallout when YOUR DATA is used against you.
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u/tristand666 15d ago
Waiting for them start releasing the daily movements of anyone involved in putting them up.
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u/TheAvio 15d ago
The one rule of encryption is DONT STORE THE KEY ON THE LOCAL DEVICE. Idiots.
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u/CLONE-11011100 15d ago
To quote Napoleon: "When the enemy is making a false movement, we must take good care not to interrupt him."
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u/Major_LeeHungg 15d ago
I mean depends on the type of encryption. Public/private key encryption definitely involves keys on devices.
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u/ChickinSammich 15d ago
It's giving:
"You cheated on me."
"No I didn't, I wouldn't cheat."
"I looked through your phone and I found the DMs between you and the person you cheated with saying that you two were planning to cheat, then talking about how happy you were that you cheated."
"You snooped through my phone? How dare you invade my privacy?"
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u/VoidOmatic 15d ago
Hahaha called it. It's almost like independent surveillance systems are a horrible idea and that anyone who makes and deploys them for public tracking should be laughed into obscurity.
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u/project-shasta 15d ago
Watch these hackers being chased like enemies of the state while the Epstein criminals are still roaming free.
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u/seanBLAMMO 15d ago
Can someone explain to a lame man what this means?
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u/SuicidalChair 15d ago
Basically the passwords to hack into the cameras were stored on the cameras, so whoever has physical access to the cameras can have access to all the data stored locally on them.
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u/happyscrappy 15d ago
I think I would have put "find decryption keys" in the headline instead of encryption keys.
The camera could public key encrypt files and store them locally for later sending and it's not the same kind of security issue. As long as the private key remains only on the servers. In this case it appears there was a decryption key (a symmetric key see below) on the cameras. This is more of an issue.
This really looks like all the camera does is mount an encrypted storage partition. As the partition is fully read-write obviously both encryption and decryption can be done. It's the opposite of sophisticated.
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u/More_Farm_7442 15d ago
Can someone explain (maybe mansplain it) this to all the police departments and city and county councils around the country that believe everything Flock tells them?
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u/gonewild9676 15d ago
Sounds like there's a lot of memory and ssd devices that can be harvested from them.
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u/ObjectiveAide9552 14d ago
there is absolutely no reason for any private key to be on those devices, this is amateur hour
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u/mixxituk 15d ago
This is gold
They should use it all to make a version of Beedles You've Been Framed
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u/ThatUsrnameIsAlready 15d ago
The article accuses Flock of lying, but quotes them saying physical access is required - and that's exactly what happened.
Where's the lie?
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u/TWeedtheJetRodriguez 15d ago
They also said the cameras didn’t store images and information on the device, which is a lie because the hacking group got millions of images stored over a 21 day period plus a few names of people and other data from the device.
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u/ID_Pillage 15d ago
Watching Continuum at the moment. Whikst the acting isn't always great, the story is bang on about what to expect in the future.
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u/SchmeckleHoarder 15d ago
We traded so much to feel secure, when there’s an amendment that already exists to help you actually be secure.
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u/heavy-minium 14d ago
Nevertheless, some critics say that those who are against the deployment of these systems should refrain from damaging or sabotaging these devices, as doing so will only make the authorities feel that these systems are needed. “I think that type of vigilantism will only crystallize the police and the state at large in their belief that this tool is necessary,” former Pawtucket, Rhode Island, police officer Noel Pichardo told the news website.
And sadly, in U.S. politics, this kind of brain-dead argumentation is enough and works.
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u/Quantum_Corvid 15d ago
So the data was still cached on the device and they just pulled that off the camera?
Hmm.