Israel Says Iran Is Hacking Security Cameras for Spying

Israeli officials said this week that Iran is compromising private security cameras around Israel to conduct espionage as the two countries exchange missile strikes after an initial Israeli barrage. A former Israeli cybersecurity official warned on public radio this week that Israelis should confirm that their home security cameras are protected by strong passwords or shut them down. “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. Like many internet-of-things devices, surveillance cameras are notoriously vulnerable to takeover if they are not secured with strong account protections. They have previously been targeted in other conflicts for intelligence gathering.