Moreover, approximately 8% have open SSH and Telnet ports, 3% have exposed MySQL databases, and at least 1.7% of these devices are still vulnerable to the HeartBleed SSL vulnerability discovered in 2012. Of these devices, 90% do not have secure login portals (use HTTP and not HTTPS). Through Shodan.io and Censys.io queries of well known manufacturers, we found over 1 million surveillance cameras and over 125,000 surveillance servers exposed to the Internet. For example, in 2014, the infamous Mira botnet targeted surveillance systems, and infected over 600,000 devices worldwide. These systems have also been recruited into botnets to perform nefarious tasks. For example, they have been the target of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, exploited to invade the users’ privacy, and even to mine cyrpto-currency. However, as expected, these systems and their components have been the target of numerous cyber attacks.

Due to their convince, practicality, and affordability, video surveillance systems have become ubiquitous in our daily lives.

As a result, the market for security devices in connected homes has grown by a factor of 17 over the last few years. Regardless, IP-based video surveillance systems have become affordable due to the popular and pervasive Internet of Things (IoT). Furthermore, these systems are often exposed to the Internet enabling attackers to continuously attack them while new vulnerabilities are discovered everyday. In contrast, IP-based systems have diverse topologies and technologies making them far more complex and which results in much larger attack surface (e.g., VPNs, gateways, multiple servers, WiFi, access control systems, etc.). Attacks on these systems were either denial of service by cutting wires, video injection by intercepting the cable, and record tampering by physically interacting with the recording unit. Analog systems use cameras that transmit analog signals (typically over a coax cables) to a recording unit. Over the last few decades, surveillance technologies have evolved from analog systems to packet switched systems (over IPv4 & IPv6 networks). For example, technology for facial recognition, identifying threats, event-detection, tracking objects, and rapidly investigating incidents can be scaled to thousands of cameras over large geographical areas.

Intelligent applications have made large surveillance networks practical to manage and utilize. They are in the streets, at train stations, workplaces, factories, and even at home. These days, video surveillance systems can be found everywhere.

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