A security breach has provided live camera feeds from thousands of customers around the world to a group of hackers. Among the locations affected was a Tesla supplier warehouse in Shanghai.
The cameras are produced by security startup Verkada. The company says its cameras use artificial intelligence, facial recognition, and online controllability to better secure locations.
It’s unclear exactly which customers exposed in this hack were using facial recognition, but all cameras sold by the company appear to be capable of the feature. The cameras’ widespread use and potential for abuse have been criticized.
Speaking to Bloomberg, which broke this story, Tesla said the “cameras being hacked are only installed in one of our suppliers, and the product is not being used by our Shanghai factory, or any of our Tesla stores or services centers.”
The issue is especially touchy in the area because of the Chinese government‘s widely publicized use of facial recognition. China is accused of allegedly using the technology against its Uyghur Muslim population.
Verkada, meanwhile, has faced its own reports of abusing this technology. Vice reported in 2020 that Verkada employees used their own camera technology to harass female employees. The company has since fired those employees. It also told Bloomberg that this worldwide security leak has been patched.
According to Tillie Kottmann, who took credit for the breach along with a group of other hackers, obtaining the security footage and accessing live feeds was easy. That’s alarming because along with the Tesla supplier, jail, business, and hospital security feeds were also made available to hackers as part of the breach.
Kottmann claims that the hack was made to point out how pervasive surveillance equipment has become and how easily sensitive information can be obtained.
