Iran is tapping into private security cameras in Israel to gather real-time intelligence about its adversary, exposing a recurrent problem with the devices that has emerged in other global conflicts.
Earlier this week, after Iranian ballistic missiles tore through high-rise buildings in Tel Aviv, a former Israeli cybersecurity official went on public radio to issue a stark warning: Turn off your home surveillance cameras or change the password.
“We know that in the past two or three days, the Iranians have been trying to connect to cameras to understand what happened and where their missiles hit to improve their precision,” Refael Franco, the former deputy director general of the Israel National Cyber Directorate, said on Monday. He now runs the cybersecurity crisis firm Code Blue.
Read more: Iran-Israel Conflict Spreads to Hacks on Banks, Crypto
A spike in cyberattacks has accompanied the war between Israel and Iran, with a pro-Israel hacking group known as Predatory Sparrow claiming responsibility for disrupting a major Iranian bank and a breach that struck an Iranian crypto exchange. Iran’s state-run IRIB News reported that Israel had launched a full-scale cyberattack on the country’s critical infrastructure.
A spokesperson for the Israel National Cyber Directorate, a government agency, confirmed that internet-connected cameras were increasingly targeted for Iran’s war planning. “We’ve seen attempts throughout the war, and those attempts are being renewed now,” the spokesperson said on Monday. Photos of impact sites in Israel, though circulating on social media, are under an official blackout.
It isn’t the first time Israel’s foes have used the devices to spy. For instance, Hamas hacked into private security cameras ahead of its invasion on Oct. 7, 2023, said Gaby Portnoy, who recently completed a three-year term as director of the Israel National Cyber Directorate.
“The intelligence gathering that Hamas did from private cameras in the Gaza periphery was a disaster,” Portnoy said in an interview. “Thousands of cameras were hacked over the years, both public and private, and were used to collect intelligence.”
Similar tactics have been used by Russia after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russia “likely used access to private cameras at key locations, such as near border crossings, military installations, and rail stations, to track the movement of materials,” according to a joint cybersecurity advisory in May by the US National Security Agency and other Western intelligence agencies. “The actors also used legitimate municipal services, such as traffic cams.”