Unidentified Flock Cameras in Florida

St. Lucie County in Florida discovered (alt link) a dozen Flock cameras whose ownership it can’t identify, and that the county government had not permitted.

I am reminded of the decade-old story of StingRay cell phone surveillance devices in Washington, DC, whose operators were also unknown.

My guess is that in the StingRay case, the devices were operated by foreign actors. This Flock case is more likely some local government entity that didn’t bother getting approval. Were I a foreign actor, I would rather hack the existing Flock network—like Israel did with Tehran’s surveillance cameras—than risk installing my own.

Regardless, once we normalize a surveillance infrastructure, both friends and foes will take advantage of it.

Tags: cars, infrastructure, privacy, surveillance

Posted on October 2, 2026 at 10:52 AM • 11 Comments

Comments

Clive Robinson • October 2, 2026 12:41 PM

@ Bruce, ALL,

With regards,

“Regardless, once we normalize a surveillance infrastructure, both friends and foes will take advantage of it.”

Hmm only “both friends and foes”?

To most that would be an “very incomplete subset of humans” probably less than 150 or so.

Because the majority of humans in the Northern Hemisphere actually care not a jot about most other humans, except where there is something to be gained… (Yup sad fact of life but that is the way it’s “educated in by the State”).

And then for the average citizen it’s looking for other humans to scapegoat for their own misfortunes (which is why MAGA droids and similar exist).

But as we should all know by now there is a “new kid on the block” (or more correctly some Data Center not far enough from view).

What the US President apparently thinks is “super-intelligence” in a box… And is thus keen on handing over as much running of US Government functions over to AI.

I suspect as that happens like those more than 150 children in Iran increasing numbers will come to harm or death, and their friends and relatives will increase the suffering many many fold.

UN mission finds evidence signaling U.S. war crimes in Iran; Washington rejects report

“A United Nations fact-finding mission said there was evidence to believe that the U.S. committed war crimes during the Iran war, lending credibility to Tehran’s similar claims.

There are “reasonable grounds” to believe that Washington’s forces “committed the war crime of launching indiscriminate attacks resulting in the loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects,” the UN’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran said on Thursday.

The mission pointed out the Tomahawk missile strike on a primary school that killed more than 150 people in the city of Minab, and another airstrike where missiles were used against a “clearly identifiable sports complex and residential area,” killing 22 civilians.“

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/18/us-iran-war-trump-hormuz.html

With the latest reports indicating further criminal activity delivered by US missile into the home of a fisherman celebrating his daughters wedding. With more than 60 hurt and injured and 4 dead including children.

https://truthout.org/articles/us-fatally-bombs-wedding-in-iran-killing-4-including-children/

cybershow • October 2, 2026 1:19 PM

“risk installing my own.”

I wonder what you mean by risk? What’s the exposure of someone who
deploys this tech, compared to say a Ring Doorbell? In the limit,
as the cost of technology goes to zero, isn’t it the case that these
things become ubiquitous; cheap as chips, untraceable, order online,
anonymous, millions of them, undocumented, all feeding into overlay
tunnels whose hidden service nodes are a complete mystery? It’s not
like they’re gonna have “property of FSB” written on the sticker.
Cyberwar moved from covert to open and declared, now brazen and naked.
What “cost” is there to “getting caught” in a world where enemies /tell us/
what systems they hacked and brag about it?

freedom • October 2, 2026 1:26 PM

handing over as much running of US Government functions over to AI.

The war crimes and genocides commited by the US, by so called israel, by england and the rest of their western accomplices have nothing to do with computers.

The recent murder of 150 schoolgirls in Teheran is just one more example of the countless murders of civilians in the middle east at the hands of israel and US mercenaries.

Notice that so called MAGA was an allegedly “isolationist” movement, which of course was a laughable CIA lie.

So we have all of the western establishment promoting genocide and global war, and fake opposition like MAGA promoting genocide and global war.

Ferentarius • October 2, 2026 1:58 PM

The state shrugs, the people scroll, and somewhere an invisible hand takes notes.

Liberty dissolves in the acid of convenience. When we normalize the architecture of surveillance, we invite both friend and foe to dance in our blind spots. The modern citizen, lulled by the illusion of safety, forgets that once you have accepted the watchtower, it matters little who climbs it first.

Joseph Kanowitz • October 3, 2026 7:32 PM

ב”ה,

It’s Florida –

Health insurers making use of cybersecurity grants to collect claim-related evidence?

After the past year there’s surely a lot up for grabs to prevent California level Medicare fraud, yes?

ResearcherZero • October 4, 2026 1:20 AM

The surveillance systems used by law enforcement contain security vulnerabilities.

‘https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/cyber-security/flock-seeks-to-have-security-researchers-map-of-flock-cameras-taken-down-unauthenticated-flaw-exposed-335-701-camera-locations-nationwide

“The systems built to comply with CALEA were not architected to withstand sustained intrusion by a nation-state intelligence service with virtually unlimited resources and patience. … Salt Typhoon’s entry point into U.S. surveillance infrastructure was through the telecommunications providers themselves. The FBI did not need to be directly breached for its surveillance data to be compromised. The attackers accessed the data where it was collected and processed: at the telecom providers who execute the surveillance orders.”

https://securityboulevard.com/2026/06/fbi-surveillance-network-breached-salt-typhoons-quiet-war-on-american-law-enforcement-infrastructure/

ResearcherZero • October 4, 2026 1:39 AM

There are other risks that come with a large unregulated surveillance state that operates at both the local level using poorly secured infrastructure, and with countless points of ingress and egress spread out across the sprawling national networks that ingest the data.

Combining all of the data the Palantir collects, creates significant risk of misuse. What were once tools built for the military, have now become tools used by local law enforcement to bypass the requirement for warrants. This is not just a collection system for those that operate these surveillance tools, it is an opportunity for anyone who can exploit it.

Digital systems containing large amounts of personal information are regularly breached by outside parties, and often misused and abused by individuals and agencies with access. The integrated databases of a police state are a one-stop shop for a range of malign purposes.

‘https://www.gadgetreview.com/ice-put-protester-photos-into-palantirs-surveillance-database

Palantir has been building physical and psychological profiles of its critics.
https://theintercept.com/2025/02/11/ice-immigration-social-media-surveillance/

Dragnet collection of personal information is being transformed into potential evidence.
https://campaignzero.org/the-private-companies-quietly-building-a-police-state/

Clive Robinson • October 4, 2026 4:40 AM

@ ResearcherZero, ALL,

With regards,

“The surveillance systems used by law enforcement contain security vulnerabilities.”

And when you read down the Security Boulevard article, following the causal chain you arrive at the “Idiots on the Hill” squabbling politicians,

“The FBI breach occurred during a period when CISA, the federal agency responsible for helping organizations defend against exactly this type of attack, was operating at roughly 40% capacity due to the ongoing DHS shutdown. Sixty percent of CISA’s workforce was furloughed. Six members of a highly technical threat hunting team resigned in a single day.”

So irreparable harm to US National Security because the politicians were “political point scoring”…

Do US citizens actually realise just how that sort of nonsense by geriatric politicos in their third babyhood nappy phase makes the rest of the world view them?

Clive Robinson • October 4, 2026 5:14 AM

@ CyberShow, Bruce, ALL,

With regards,

“I wonder what you mean by risk? What’s the exposure of someone who deploys this tech, compared to say a Ring Doorbell? In the limit, as the cost of technology goes to zero, isn’t it the case that these things become ubiquitous; cheap as chips, untraceable, order online…”

As Mark Twain once observed,

“Buy land, they’re not making it anymore.”

But as we all know people who own land in both the UK and US have a reputation for jealousy guarding their land rights with the traditional

“Get hoft my land”

Said over the barrels of a shotgun or similar.

Thus the “risk” as such is not in the technology but in the “trespassing on the land” in full view of everyone.

Few ask questions about Ring and similar even though they overlook public areas that have “an expectation of privacy”.

That said I was on my way back from hospital mid summer and walking very slowly as befitting an old crock. So it gave me the opportunity to observer the Ring and other CCTV surveillance that people had put up…

On just the side of the road I was on it was more than one in three homes. With all but one doing it unlawfully…

freedom • October 4, 2026 12:56 PM

The surveillance systems used by law enforcement contain security vulnerabilities.

And? Why is that relevant at all. The corporate-state surveillance systems are criminal tools used by an out of control criminal organization. Who cares about alleged “vulnerabilities”.

Combining all of the data the Palantir collects, creates significant risk of misuse.

“risk of misuse”? The whole system is a system designed for abuse and crime. Palantir is a criminal organziation and and arm of the US police state, which is in turn a genocidal organization.

it is an opportunity for anyone who can exploit it.

The US police surveillance state is the controlling entity. Nobody else can “exploit” anything. No “evil hacker” is going to “hack” the US police state and do bad things with it because the US police state itself is the source of evil.

So irreparable harm to US National Security

Please. “US national security” is the security of all the genocidal US criminals, both “public” and “private”. “US national security” is the security of anti-human organized crime.

R. Cake • October 5, 2026 3:31 AM

The topical focus of this comment section has slightly spiralled off topic it seems. What I am wondering: what keeps the county/city from obtaining a subpoena that forces Flock to identify the owner / who these cameras are registered to, or who receives their data?
Alternatively, just tear them down and scrap them.

Schneier on Security

Unidentified Flock Cameras in Florida

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