Report Reveals How Russia Hacked Doorbell Cameras to Spy on NATO Bases

Dutch intelligence agencies have revealed that Russian hackers used unsecured internet-connected cameras, including common doorbell cameras, to spy on NATO military bases and track weapons shipments to Ukraine.

Russia has been using internet-connected civilian cameras, including common doorbell cameras, to spy on NATO military bases and track the movement of weapons headed to Ukraine. The discovery came from a joint investigation by the AIVD, the Netherlands’ domestic security service, and MIVD, its military intelligence agency, as per a report from The Telegraph. Together, they found that hackers linked to the Kremlin had broken into internet protocol cameras positioned along military transport routes, hoping to spot exactly which weapons were being shipped to Kyiv.

Once the scale of the operation became clear, the agencies alerted organizations whose cameras sat along these routes so they could take steps to protect themselves. The two agencies described what they uncovered as a large scale Russian operation that had specifically targeted European NATO countries, including the Netherlands itself, along with Ukraine.

The Dutch investigation didn’t specify exactly which camera models were compromised, but it did highlight a bigger problem. According to the agencies, a large number of these cameras are left unsecured, often still running on default passwords, outdated software, and factory settings that were never changed.

The process hackers use to find these cameras isn’t especially sophisticated either. Attackers rely on widely available apps to scan for devices that might be reachable online. Once a vulnerable camera is located, gaining access is often surprisingly simple, precisely because so many internet connected cameras lack basic security protections.

Ukraine has used the same approach against Russia. Ukrainian hackers have taken control of Russian surveillance cameras in the past to track troop movements and guide long range strikes. This method reportedly played a role in Ukraine’s first undersea drone strike against a Russian submarine docked at the port of Novorossiysk.

The tactic has also shown up in the Middle East. Israeli security officials have said that Iran used private security cameras to help select targets for drone and missile attacks against Israel.

Perhaps the most striking example involved Israeli intelligence and the CIA, who managed to infiltrate a network of security and traffic cameras throughout Tehran. That access allowed them to locate former supreme leader Ali Khamenei ahead of the air strikes that killed him on the first day of the Iran war.