Pierluigi Paganini January 03, 2024

Ukraine’s SBU revealed that Russia-linked threat actors hacked surveillance cameras to spy on air defense forces and critical infrastructure in Kyiv.

Ukraine’s SBU announced they shut down two surveillance cameras that were allegedly hacked by the Russian intelligence services to spy on air defense forces and critical infrastructure in Kyiv.

The surveillance cameras were located in residential buildings and were used to monitor the surrounding area and a parking lot. Once the state-sponsored hackers hacked the cameras, they used them to spy on the air defense and critical infrastructure in the same area. The camera used to monitor the parking lot was used to spy on the surrounding territory, including critical infrastructure facilities.

The hackers changed the viewing angle and connected the cameras to the YouTube streaming platform.

The footage was used by the Russian army to support the missile strike on Kyiv on January 2.

“It is about two robotic online surveillance cameras that were hacked by Russian intelligence services to spy on the Defense Forces in the capital.” reads the announcement published by the SBU.

“According to SBU cyber specialists, one of the devices was located on the balcony of an apartment building and was used by a local condominium to monitor the surrounding area. However, as a result of hacking, the aggressor gained remote access to control this webcam. Having penetrated her settings, the special services of the Russian Federation changed the viewing angle and connected her to the YouTube streaming platform. In this way, the occupiers covertly recorded all visual information in the range of the camera.”

The Ukraine’s Security Service of Ukraine is implementing countermeasures to prevent future attempts to hack surveillance cameras to conduct reconnaissance.

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the SBU has disabled about 10,000 IR cameras, which the Russian army could use to adjust missile attacks on Ukraine.

The SBU calls to owners of surveillance cameras to stop online broadcasts from their devices, the agency also urges citizens to report detected footage from such cameras.

The Record Media, citing an investigation by Radio Free Europe, reported that Russia’s spies gained access to video footage from thousands of surveillance cameras in Ukraine that used a Russian software known as Trassir.

“There is a camera that records a certain situation, a certain place, certain objects. Then the data from this camera is transferred to certain servers located on the territory of the Russian Federation,” says Serhiy Denysenko,executive director of the Computer Forensics Laboratory . – You see, this is a risk, if this camera was located on some critical infrastructure object, there may be a question of what the employees of that side, the owners of that server see and how they use that information for military purposes.“

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, surveillance cameras)