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Hackers Got Inside a Flock Camera

586 points · 270 comments · driverdan

  1. iamnothere · · focus · HN ↗
    I think I should start posting a reminder in Flock threads that Axon is a Flock competitor, is also engaged in mass surveillance, and is possibly even worse, but there’s rarely any mention of it. Journalists need to do some digging there. This shouldn’t just be a Flock story, or Flock will just get bought up or something and everyone will move on.

    (The above should not be read as supporting Flock or discouraging further investigation.)

    > The camera’s logs also show the camera struggling with storage. Its logs recorded more than 27,000 “no space left on device” errors while trying to save full-resolution images, along with tens of thousands of related errors, crashes, and reboots. At the same time, about every two minutes, code checked that the camera was still running and logged the message, “Who’s a good boy?!” More than 12,000 of those messages appear in the recovered logs.

    Lol

    1. wl · · focus · HN ↗
      Also, a reminder that ALPR abuse predates Flock. Flock has just made it more visible. About a decade ago I personally heard a cop let it slip that he had plate-stalked someone for the crime of saying mean things about his department on Twitter. The difference today is that more departments have access to these kinds of tools.

      Fixed ALPRs aren't the only privacy problem, either. Many tow trucks have roving ALPRs that feed into big databases. The notion is that it helps them repossess cars that might be garaged at home. That data, however, is for sale to third parties.

      1. cucumber3732842 · · focus · HN ↗
        I work in a different embedded space but our keepalive heartbeat messages have a payload of <3
        1. fullstop · · focus · HN ↗
          Man, ours is just '\0'.
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