Thousands of Verkada cameras affected by hacking breach

Organizations using the vendor’s cameras said to be affected include Tesla and software provider Cloudfare, while Bloomberg has reported that the hackers also gained access to footage inside psychiatric hospitals and health clinics.

The data breach is said to have been carried out by an international hacker collective, with one of the individuals involved explaining the reasons behind the attack were “lots of curiosity, fighting for freedom of information… and it’s also just too much fun not to do it.”

A Verkada spokesperson told Bloomberg that the company has “disabled all internal administrator accounts to prevent any unauthorised access,” and that its internal security team “are investigating the scale and scope of the issue, and we have notified law enforcement.”

The company has also set up a support line for its customers.

Many of the cameras utilize video analytics software, including facial recognition and tracking technology. The hackers have said they’ve been able to access live feeds and archived video, as well as audio.

The breach was described as “unsophisticated,” with the hacking group using a “super admin” account to gain access, with the spokesperson from the collective saying they found the administrator username and password on the internet.