Tech Security firm: 7,000 cameras in Japan compromised

A U.S. cybersecurity firm revealed that roughly 7,000 surveillance cameras in Japan can be viewed online without any protection. The number is far higher than the 1,340 open video feeds previously identified by The Yomiuri Shimbun across seven public websites, suggesting that many more systems have been left unsecured.

BigSight Technologies, which conducted the investigation, gathered IP addresses of vulnerable cameras between December last year and January this year using a proprietary detection system. The company discovered that more than 40,000 cameras worldwide were accessible without passwords. Japan accounted for about 7,000 of them — the second-highest total after the United States, where around 14,000 such cameras were found.

In Japan, footage on such cameras primarily showed parking lots and building entrances. Outside Japan, footage included what appeared to be the interiors of jewelry stores and data centers, as well as police stations, prisons and medical facilities. The company has also detected exchanges on the dark web concerning the IP addresses of compromised cameras and tools to collect their information that are similar to those used in the firm's investigation. The company pointed to the possibility that such tools and tactics will be used for crimes and illicit activities.

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