The widespread use of surveillance cameras — including foreign-made systems — not only raises concerns over embedded security vulnerabilities but also heightens risks of espionage and broader national security threats.

By Ailin Vilches Arguello, The Algemeiner

Israel’s widespread use of internet-connected Chinese surveillance cameras could pose a major security risk, a new analysis warns, potentially enabling Iran and its terrorist proxies to infiltrate live feeds, gather intelligence, and assist in the targeting of sensitive infrastructure and civilian areas.

According to a report by the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), Iran and Hezbollah have intensified coordinated efforts since the outbreak of this year’s war with the US and Israel to breach surveillance camera networks across the Jewish state, using the systems to collect intelligence, identify missile impact locations, and track potential targets.

The rapid spread of Chinese-made surveillance systems is creating a potentially dangerous intelligence vulnerability, with civilian camera networks increasingly seen as tools that hostile foreign actors could exploit for strategic monitoring and security operations.

In the past, Israel has also leveraged Iranian surveillance infrastructure for intelligence operations, specifically hacking Tehran’s traffic camera network to systematically track senior leadership and their security circles, providing the crucial data required to successfully execute the targeted killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Feb. 28.

Even though networked camera systems are intended to strengthen security and improve monitoring and control, the INSS report by research associate Yuval Less warns they can also become critical vulnerabilities if exploited by hostile actors for intelligence gathering and surveillance purposes.

The widespread use of surveillance cameras — including foreign-made systems — not only raises concerns over embedded security vulnerabilities but also heightens risks of espionage and broader national security threats, especially where sensitive visual data may be intercepted, exploited, or repurposed by hostile actors.

Based on artificial intelligence and IoT technologies, modern surveillance cameras can now analyze activity in real time and detect behavioral patterns, but these same capabilities also expose the systems to cyber intrusions, remote hijacking, data breaches, and privacy violations.

The report suggests that such systems could effectively function as “eyes and ears” for enemy actors, enabling intelligence collection, continuous surveillance, and support for operational planning.

Specifically, experts say the widespread use of Chinese surveillance technology in Israel presents a complex mix of geopolitical, technological, and security challenges that demand closer scrutiny from government and intelligence authorities.

These vulnerabilities come into sharper focus amid the deepening strategic alignment between China and Iran, fueling concerns that Iran-linked actors could increasingly exploit such systems for surveillance, intelligence collection, and other operational uses against Israel.

In recent years, the United States has repeatedly warned about the security risks associated with Chinese technology, with the US Department of Homeland Security cautioning that Chinese-made surveillance cameras could potentially be used for espionage targeting critical infrastructure.

The Iranian regime has previously relied on Chinese technology for strategic security purposes, with past instances pointing to a broader pattern of using such systems for intelligence gathering and surveillance operations.

According to a study by the international human rights organization Article 19, the Islamist regime used Chinese and Russian technology to silence dissent during nationwide anti-government protests earlier this year, imposing near-total internet shutdowns and disrupting satellite communications in an effort to suppress public scrutiny.

“In its pursuit of total control over the digital space, Iran borrows directly from the Chinese digital authoritarian playbook,” Michael Caster, head of Article 19’s Global China Program, said in a statement.

“From Chinese companies embedded inside Iran’s infrastructure, to Iran’s support for China’s ‘cyber sovereignty’ principles based on censorship and surveillance, both countries align in their ambition to disconnect their populations from the open, global internet,” he continued.

According to the report, China has provided material and technical support to Iran since at least 2010, bolstering its surveillance and censorship capabilities as Chinese firms including ZTE, Huawei, Tiandy, and Hikvision continue operating in the country despite international sanctions.

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Even surveillance systems set up by governments on networks sealed off from the internet are vulnerable: It takes just one insider turncoat to compromise such systems.

By The Associated Press

The role of Israel’s hijacking of Iran’s street cameras in the killing of the country’s supreme leader underscores how surveillance systems are increasingly being targeted by adversaries in wartime.

Hundreds of millions of cameras have been installed above shops, in homes and on street corners across the world, many connected to the internet and poorly secured.

Recent advances in artificial intelligence have enabled militaries and intelligence agencies to sift through vast amounts of surveillance footage and identify targets.

On Feb. 28, Israel vividly demonstrated the potential of such systems to be hacked and used against adversaries when Israel tracked down former Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei with the help of Tehran’s own street cameras – despite repeated warnings that Iran’s surveillance systems had been compromised, according to interviews and an Associated Press review of leaked data, public statements and news reports.

The use of hacked surveillance cameras among other intelligence in the operation to kill Khamenei was described to the AP by an intelligence official with knowledge of the operation and another person who was briefed on the operation.

Neither was authorized to speak with the media and both shared information on condition of anonymity.

Iran has installed tens of thousands of cameras in its capital in response to waves of protests, most recently in January, when massive nationwide demonstrations ended in a bloody crackdown that killed many thousands of Iranians.

That Tehran’s cameras were compromised was no secret: the city’s cameras were repeatedly hacked starting in 2021, and last year, a senior Iranian politician warned publicly that cameras had been compromised by Israel, posing a national security threat.

Conor Healy, director of research at surveillance research publication IPVM, said Khamenei’s killing illustrates a pressing security dilemma for governments seeking to quash dissent.

“The irony is that the infrastructure authoritarian states build to make their rule unassailable may be what makes their leaders most visible to the people trying to kill them,” Healy said. “Do you trust who is watching?”

Warning signs

For years, cybersecurity experts have warned that cameras could be hacked for war.

In 2019, security engineer Paul Marrapese discovered he could easily hack millions of cameras from the comfort of his home office in California.

Despite speaking up repeatedly since, the number of unprotected cameras only continues to grow.

A scan of unprotected camera feeds this year turned up nearly three million hits in almost every country in the world, Marrapese told AP, including nearly 2,000 cameras in Iran alone.

“There are millions and millions and millions of these throughout the world,” Marrapese said. Many, he added, are trivially easy to hack: “They’re just dumb little things. … It’s fish in a barrel.”

Companies have advertised cameras hooked up online, accessible with cellphones, with feeds easily diverted by hackers.

Many are installed with minimal security by unsophisticated users who fail to set up passwords or install security patches.

Securing cameras takes constant vigilance, but hacking them takes identifying just one exposed vulnerability, such as an outdated system or a generic password like “1234.”

Even surveillance systems set up by governments on networks sealed off from the internet are vulnerable: It takes just one insider turncoat to compromise such systems.

“Humans are kind of the weakest link,” Marrapese said. “There’s really only so much you can do.”

Eyal Hulata, Israel’s former national security adviser and a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said Israel is under constant cyberattacks from Iran but has so far been able to defend against it.

“There is high alert on all cyber fronts,” he said.

For years, hacking cameras for war remained theoretical. But in 2023, Hamas hacked surveillance cameras in southern Israel ahead of its Oct. 7 attack, allowing the group to monitor Israeli army patrols and assisting the attack, according to Israeli media.

That same year, a Ukrainian official told reporters that Russia attempted to hijack cameras near missile targets, a trend that continued in 2024 when Russians hacked cameras in Kyiv and last year, when they hacked cameras at border crossings.

Experts say advances in AI have allowed militaries to overcome a critical hurdle in weaponizing hacked footage: sifting through huge amounts of video to identify people, vehicles, and other targets, a task that once took teams of analysts weeks or months but can now be done in real time.

With a simple keyword search, AI can scan feeds and return results almost immediately.

“It used to be that you could hack the cameras, but humans had to do the real work of figuring out where the person was,” said cryptographer and security expert Bruce Schneier. “With AI systems … you can do a lot more automatically.”

The despot’s dilemma

Iran’s cameras have been repeatedly hacked over the past few years.

In 2021, an Iranian exile group leaked footage of abuses at Tehran’s notorious Evin prison. In 2022, another group claimed it hacked over 5,000 cameras around Tehran, dumping gigabytes of surveillance footage and internal data on a Telegram channel.

Then, during a 12-day war last summer, Israel used Tehran’s cameras to track and bomb the location of a meeting of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, injuring Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, according to Iranian lawmakers and an Israeli documentary.

“All the cameras at our intersections are in the hands of Israel,” Mahmoud Nabavian, deputy chairman of the Iranian parliament’s national security committee, told Iranian media in September. “Everything on the internet is in their hands … if we move, they will find out.”

The vulnerabilities have come amid Iran’s stepped-up use of surveillance cameras after a series of protests roiled the country. Subway cameras, for example, are used to detect when women don’t don the country’s mandatory hijab, or headscarf, using facial recognition to identify violators.

But data collected to consolidate control creates a ripe target for hackers, said researcher Michael Caster, who investigated China’s sales of surveillance technology to Iran.

“Malicious parties can more easily gain access,” Caster said.

Iran in particular, long sanctioned by the West, faces difficulties in getting up-to-date hardware and software, often relying on Chinese-manufactured electronics or older systems.

Pirated versions of Windows and other software are common. That makes it easier for potential hackers to target the country.

The Financial Times earlier reported on the use of cameras in Khamenei’s killing.

The person briefed on the operation who spoke to the AP said that for years almost all the traffic cameras in Tehran had been hacked and the information transferred to servers in Israel.

At least one camera was at an angle that allowed Israel to track daily movements of people, such as where they parked their cars near Iran’s leadership compound, the two people said.

Algorithms helped provide information including people’s addresses, routes they took to work and who protected them, according to the person briefed on the operation.

That same person said the attack had been planned for months, but the operation was expedited once it was determined that Khamenei and his top officials would be in the leadership compound that morning.

Israel’s prime minister’s office didn’t respond to request for comment.

Col. Amit Assa, a former official with Israel’s Shin Bet domestic security service, said that such operations are powered by many sources of intelligence, such as undercover agents and bugged conversations.

However, Assa says cameras play a key role because they allow intelligence officers to identify people, providing key confirmation in deciding on whether to strike.

When you see a person’s face on a screen in the command center, it helps in making the decision to put your “finger on the yellow button, as we say,” he said.

More cameras, more coverage

Check Point Research, a cyber threat intelligence group, says Iranian hacking attacks on cameras have spiked since the beginning of the war, with surges of activity in Israel and Gulf countries such as Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.

Such hacks could help Iran monitor targets and assess damage after missile strikes, according to Gil Messing, Check Point Research’s chief of staff.

“The more people are installing cameras … the more area is being covered by these cameras,” Messing said. “It is very easy to use in order to get extra eyes into different places.”

Analysts estimate there are more than one billion security cameras installed worldwide, triple the number a decade ago. Hundreds of millions more are installed every year.

Muhanad Seloom, assistant professor in security studies at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, said that oil-rich Gulf countries like Qatar have long known their petroleum facilities could be targeted in a war and had their systems tightly secured.

But only recently have officials in the region realized that street cameras, too, could be weaponized.

“I don’t think anyone anticipated that these traffic cameras would become targeting tools … there is alarm all over,” Seloom said. “How come Iran’s whole leadership has been decapitated on the first day? … It is a topic that is being talked about.”

Across the region, governments are on high alert.

Gulf monarchies have barred residents from filming or livestreaming footage of Iranian strikes, with the UAE arresting dozens of people for sharing video of the conflict online.

Though aimed in part to protect the country’s reputation, the bans are also motivated by concerns that such footage could be exploited by the Iranian military, Seloom said.

Earlier this month, Israel’s National Cyber Directorate said that it had warned hundreds of camera owners targeted by Iran and urged the public to change passwords and update software to starve off attacks.

Ali Vaez, Iran project director at the International Crisis Group, said though hacking has long been a concern in the Middle East, its increasing use since the war began was “a wake-up call”.

Still, he said there’s only so much that can be done to patch up vulnerabilities.

“It’s a whack-a-mole,” Vaez said.

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The cameras offer 360-degree and thermal imaging capabilities, and most of the recent IDF casualties were caused by explosive devices triggered by such cameras.

By JNS

Hamas has been using advanced cameras smuggled into Gaza on board humanitarian aid trucks to target Israeli forces in the Strip, Hebrew media reported on Wednesday.

These cameras allow remote detonation of explosives, contributing to high casualties among Israeli soldiers, particularly in northern Gaza, according to Channel 12 News.

Since Sunday, nine soldiers have been killed and 14 wounded by explosives in Beit Hanoun.

The cameras offer 360-degree and thermal imaging capabilities, and most of the recent IDF casualties were caused by explosive devices triggered by such cameras, according to the report.

A senior IDF officer stated that the military should have approached operations in Beit Hanoun differently, suggesting a more cautious and systematic strategy instead of storming the area, as Hamas had prepared with explosives and cameras in strategic locations.

“We left Beit Hanoun in January 2024, and Hamas had a year to prepare for our return. Every alley here is booby-trapped with explosives and rigged with cameras. We had to approach it differently—strike and clear the area from the air or use heavy engineering tools before any further ground entry. We shouldn’t have stormed in—we needed to proceed slowly and systematically. We need to rethink our strategy,” the officer said, according to Channel 12.

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Government committee approves bid to fast-track use of advanced facial recognition cameras in fight against Arab crime wave; Opponents warn of ‘Big Brother’ implications.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

A bill legalizing the dispersal of facial recognition cameras in public places so that police can better fight crime has been fast-tracked for Knesset approval Monday.

The Ministerial Committee for Legislation convened a special session Monday during the Knesset’s official recess to approve the bill, which is sponsored by Justice Minister Yariv Levin and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

The use of facial recognition technology is seen as vital tool in combating rising crime, especially in the Arab sector.

Most media attention has been paid to the protection rackets and murders attributed mostly to organized crime, with the number of deaths far outstripping previous years.

According to the Abraham Initiatives NGO, 174 Arabs have been murdered by internecine violence in 2023 so far, in comparison to 77 in the same period last year.

Ben-Gvir especially has been harshly criticized for not keeping his campaign promise to bring safety to all of Israel’s citizens, including the Arab sector.

Under the bill, cameras will be placed at key positions on specific streets deemed to be of particular importance for combating crime.

A senior officer will have to authorize their positioning on specific roads after being provided information “that this is necessary for a specific operational purpose, due to a high probability of serious crimes that endanger the life of a person… public safety or the security of the state.”

The technology enables the search for a particular identifying mark so that an alert can be sent in real time to the authorities, which could either allow them to prevent or catch the criminal or terrorist in the act, or find them quickly after the fact.

Such technology has been used for years by the IDF and intelligence agencies to catch terrorists.

The bill also retroactively regulates the use of the “Hawkeye” system that tracks moving vehicles across the country. Mounted both on main roads and on police cars, its smart cameras can identify license plates to see if vehicles have been stolen, or used in the commission of a crime or terror attack.

A Walla report revealed the unsupervised police use of the then-secret system three years ago, although it had begun in 2014.  Civil rights organizations then decried the lack of oversight that could lead to its misuse, with such a huge database of video footage being preserved for at least six months if not years, according to a police source cited in the report.

Critics of the bill are calling it “Big Brother in the public sphere,” warning that it will be the basis for constructing a biometric database of the citizenry and violate people’s right to privacy.

Groups protesting the government’s judicial reform proposals are going even further in their denunciations.

“Placing cameras in the public space is a clear sign of dark regimes with one common denominator – dictatorship,” said Hofshi B’Artzeinu (“To be free in our country”), while the Kaplan Force called it “a hallucinatory proposal that comes from the Iranian Ayatollah regime that spies on the opponents of the regime.”

Levin’s office countered that “The minister insists that high-level approvals will be required in order to use the system, there will be supervision, and the use of the database will only be done for the purposes of fighting serious crime.”

Safeguards such as an annual police report to the Knesset on the use of the technology, and consideration of the biometric information as completely confidential, are also built into the bill.

Versions of this bill have been discussed on and off since at least 2013, including during the previous government.

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Palestinian teens from the village of Kober, northwest of Ramallah,  discovered an IDF surveillance camera hidden in concrete in a cemetery on Friday. According to Ma’an, a Palestinian news agency, the boys burned the camera and destroyed it.

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The cabinet agreed to send the ‘Cameras Law’ to the Knesset for a vote.

By World Israel News Staff

Israel’s cabinet passed the controversial ‘Cameras Law’ during its weekly Sunday meeting. It will now go to the Knesset for a vote on an accelerated timetable in a day or two, Israel Hayom reports.

The draft law, which has been fiercely debated for some weeks in Israel’s media, is a result of irregularities and counting fraud coming to light during the April election.

According to the legislation, “every member of the elections committee, observer, secretary or representative representing the elections committee, can document visually or vocally everything he’s authorized to oversee in order to fulfill his task.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a staunch supporter of cameras in polling places, said at the cabinet meeting, “The integrity of elections is among the foundations of democracy. The best way to prevent fraud in the elections is to station cameras in every polling place and allow poll watchers from the rival parties to supervise each other.”

“Reciprocal oversight of all the parties is the essence of transparency in a democracy and one of the most important foundations in upholding the rule of law. Therefore, cameras in polling places in the hands of poll watchers are a necessary means to assist in maintaining the integrity of the elections,” he said.

The legislation is mired in controversy with both the chairman of the Israeli Elections Committee Hanan Meltzer and the Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit opposing it.

Mandelblit attended the cabinet meeting to express his opposition. He had said earlier in his opinion on the law that while he supported cameras in polling places in principle, he opposed the timing of the law, given it fell so close to election day and may interfere with the smooth running of the elections.

Support or opposition to the law has broken down along the lines of Left and Right. Netanyahu and other right-wing politicians have come out in favor of the law while left-wing politicos have spoken out against it.

The Labour-Gesher party is enlisting the help of the Kibbutz movement to go to the polls in Druze and Arab neighborhoods to try and prevent Likud volunteers from setting up cameras, Israel Hayom reports. “We won’t let Bibi steal the elections,” party representatives said, referring to Netanyahu by his nickname.

Left-wing Democratic Union head Nitzan Horowitz tweeted on Sunday, “The cameras are designed to wipe out the election. If the camera hijacking passes in the Knesset, there will be chaos at the ballot box and the voting will fail.

“If there are no cameras, Bibi will say (he’s already saying) that huge fraud endangers the Likud (most of the fraud was in favor of the Likud) and will cause a riot at the polls and claim that the elections are invalid. It’s a kind of coup. We have reached the red line of democracy.”

Netanyahu emphasized at the cabinet meeting that the draft law will only place cameras in the polling places and not behind the screen where people cast their ballot.

“The secrecy of the vote will be strictly maintained… No special preparations, training or equipment is necessary. Any poll watcher can film with his cellphone. This is what happens in our public space: Everyone photographs, everything is an Instagram story, every grocery has cameras, then the hall at the polling place cannot be photographed?

“Cameras in polling places for the integrity of the elections – it is simple, it is fair, it is transparent and it is just.”

“One cannot explain why photography is restricted precisely in the only public place where transparency is required more than any other. We will submit the issue for legislation in order to ensure that the coming elections will be clean, supervised and exact, just as the citizens of Israel expect from us,” the prime minister said.

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