Edit: Only 2 of these were actually installed.
…these cameras contain a hardcoded list of Russian phone numbers, which can be used to open a backdoor. An SMS from one of these numbers can open shell and network access.
…the web management portal can be accessed, exposing live streams, by anyone with the camera IP.
Reports also suggest that pressure from the opposition political party in Slovakia led to the NBU investigations. The current government of the country, led by populist Robert Fico, initially denied reports that the cameras were of Russian origin and rebuffed any security concerns. Fico has what some would describe as a pro-Russia tilt, but you can read more about that elsewhere, if you are interested.
Does make you wonder about all those Flock Cameras going up in the US and Europe.
I wonder how the public would respond if they believed the cameras were accessible by the nefarious Russians or the insidious Chinese?
I as well wonder. I also wonder why we don’t start a rumour that that is the case.
It’s not unethical, because we should all know the US did make sure there are back doors they can spy through. It’s true, even if we don’t know how it’s true. Same with the kill switches in high value military gear they sell, like fighter jets and bombers.
Benn Jordan exposed their utter cybersecurity failure. His videos are in great part responsible for why the deflock movement took off.
Or the fascist US, which they very likely are.
That’s not a backdoor though, that’s their stated purpose
What’s the difference?
They are accessible by the Russians. They’re accessible from Joe Smoe, as evidenced by Benn Jordan. The cameras don’t discriminate in their discrimination and securities.
I remember seeing articles that there are/were security vulnerabilities that went unpatched.
Since the american government is already abusing them, there’s less of a conversation about how foreign governments might abuse them
The public has been generally brainwashed into believing the Russians aren’t a threat, or are even a savior of right wing anti-gay gun-toting wife-beating conservatism.
But considering Trump is working with Russia, and Russia is working with China, it’s probably not that far out of reality.
Are you fucking joking?
Dude they sent congressmen to Russia on the 4th of July.
They hand out t-shirts that say “I’d rather be a Russian than a Democrat”.
The current American president said that he trusts Putin over his own intelligence agencies.
Are you fucking asleep?
Or do you think they just haven’t gone far enough?
The Stephen Crowder tier of right-wing hucksters make money on the “Buy My Merch To Make The Libs Mad” gambit precisely because you’ve got a full panel at MSNBC screaming about Russians being behind everything from Black Lives Matter to InfoWars. This kind of annoying Own-The-Libs bullshit only works because Liberals eat the Evil Foreigners Behind Everything line up with a spoon. It works because so many people are panicked about Russians hiding in the weeds.
“They” also happily parade around with “Trump 2028” hats and bumper stickers that gloat about contributing to climate change, because these things are unsettling to a liberal audience. If nobody cared about Russia, conservatives wouldn’t try to enrage their Lib neighbors by claiming the love Putin so much.
Curiously, the entire mainstream political range in America specializes in blaming all the ills of America on foreigners in some way or another: either it’s the Libs claiming the problems are due to “foreign interference” or the Fascists claiming it’s due to “immigrants”.
In a country the size and wealth of America which can’t really be bullied by a greater, richer and more militarily powerful nation, it’s quite the stretch to basically claim that foreigners are the ones choosing how things are done, rather than the local power and money elites.
Yet, millions of morons incapable of even the simplest analysis when it comes to politics believe that shit (and I don’t mean just on the MAGA side).
The conservatives owning the libs aside, you make a good point in that the establishment democrats have used Russia to justify their losses after they nominate the most unpopular candidates they can find to run status quo campaigns against a republican party running as reform in an angry electorate.
But Russia is helping fascists across the west seize control, and it’s very dangerous. Very very dangerous, the fascists were already poised to seize control, and Russia’s help can be enough to put them over the edge seeing as we still trust the controlled opposition to stop them.
In fact, unless we get some real populists across the west, liberal deocracies are going to fall like fucking dominoes the next couple of decades.
The Newspapers, TV channels and Social Media owned by billionaires are helping Fascists across the West seize control.
Then the supposedly Leftwing mainstream parties helped Fascists across the West seize control by turning neoliberal (i.e. hard right), putting ever more money in the hands of the wealthy and cutting ever more public services, thus empoverishing the common people, reducing their opportunities and making their quality of life worse, which created the mood of despair on which the Fascist propaganda spread by the above-mentioned Newspapers, TV channels and Social Media owned by billionaires providing fascist-flavored “answers” and “solutions” for their ills found fertile ground.
Only after that comes the influence of foreign countries, not just Russia but in many countries of the West also Israel (and, especially, outside the West, China).
Democracy started failing in the West when the Pillar Of Democracy which is the Press got bought by the money elites, and when the dominant political strain became Neoliberalism which, quite literally, wants the power controlled by voters - the State - to refrain from controlling or even just regulating (what the Neoliberals call “interfering”) in anything controlled by Money (which the Neoliberals call “Free Market”, even though only markets with low barriers to entry can Mathematically be a Free Market, whilst all the others tend towards Monopolies and Cartels) or in other words, for the power of controlled by something were everybody is equal - the Vote - to sit below the power controlled by something were some are billions of times more powerful than others - Money.
Mainstream political parties spent the last 4 decades pushing a political ideology to turn Democratic countries from places where the Power of the Vote is the greatest power into places were the Power of Money is the greatest power - in other words, into Oligarchies - and, lo-and-behold, Democracies are about to fall (they’re already way less Democratic than 4 decades ago, which is why things like Stasi levels of civil society surveillance already are or are getting pretty widespread in supposed “democracies”)
Democracy to Oligarchy and when people who aren’t oligarchs or their minions in the new system push back because their lives are worse, then comes Fascism were the Theatre of Democracy of Oligarchy is taken down and boot on people’s necks stops being hidden.
IMHO, in all this the only foreign interference which is not late-coming opportunism is maybe America’s in most of the West (because that was the current political and economic model was assembled and from were it was spread to the rest) and possibly Israel in some countries like America, Germany and possibly Britain.
Oh absolutely Britain, they are the hardest hit by foreign meddling right with the US. Brexit for example, Russia helped put them over the edge. They are backing Farage that WILL win, him or his successor, if labour and the tories stay in charge.
Yes I agree, all of this started in 1971, in the Business Roundtable. Monied Interests huddled up and made a long game to cooperate on to seize control of and subordinate the republic to money. Everything from killing Unions, (sending organized crime to infiltrate them, the fbi to investigate them for those mobsters, and their media to propagandize against them;) taking ownership of the media; getting rid of the regulatory regime, and the new deal and great society by hook and crook; taking both parties and turning them into tools and corrupting their morals; subverting reality to protect their interests; and so forth.
There have been further game plans and iterations, from legions of organizations since, all working for the same types of interests off the same game plan, and project 2025 was no exception.
I think everything you wrote is accurate. But we shouldn’t discount the effect of the Russians’ help. Or that of Israel, they are worse obviously in many ways, but the democrats don’t use them as a foil for their own buggery of their constituents.
Foreign intelligence agencies can do a lot of things behind the scenes that can help one side over the top, and can also give a psychological boost to the fascists, courage to betray the country for party. Now it’s not just Russia, the US is in on it too. The CIA and security contractors like the corporation formally known as blackwater and such mercenary firms will be employed to help surrepticiously. For instance, intercepting the communications of other lawmakers and using the information to manipulate outcomes. Helping to sabotage candidates that could win and instead getting the moderate cunts to run as opposition to the fascists so they can win is a big part of how Russia helped fuck the US for instance.
The UK and France are doomed to fall absent some real challenge for leadership, backed by some organization in the populace. And they don’t have that and don’t seem to have any realistic chance of achieving that. To say nothing of eastern europe which is especially vulnerable once the dominoes start to fall, and the rest of western europe as well.
Dissolving the EU is a main goal, and they aren’t far off, as Russia helps the forces already on the cusp of seizing control, and helps push them further right, blaming problems of oligarchy on immigrants and such.