Chinese-made surveillance cameras are in British offices, high streets and even government buildings - and Panorama has investigated security flaws involving the two top brands. How easy is it to hack them and what does it mean for our security?

In a darkened studio inside the BBC's Broadcasting House in London, a man sits at his laptop and enters his password.

Thousands of miles away, a hacker is watching everything he types.

Next, the BBC employee picks up his mobile phone and enters the passcode. The hacker now has that, too.

A security flaw in the surveillance camera on the ceiling - manufactured by the Chinese firm Hikvision - means it's now vulnerable to attack.

"I own that device now - I can do whatever I want with that," says the hacker. "I can disable it… or I can use it to watch what's going on at the BBC."

 

 

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52 minutes ago, Social Media said:

In a darkened studio inside the BBC's Broadcasting House in London, a man sits at his laptop and enters his password.

Thousands of miles away, a hacker is watching everything he types.

Next, the BBC employee picks up his mobile phone and enters the passcode. The hacker now has that, too.

I doubt any of these cameras have the resolution to get that information.

My phone (that has 10x the resolution of these cameras) can't read a QR code from 1m away.

I have around 15 cameras around the house, half of them are Hikvision because they are good and only cost B550 on Lazada.

 

BUT a security hack can only happen if they are logged into the internet through the router or on a cloud, mine are used as surveillance and recording only to a hard disk.

 

The definition is quite good and can read number plates and see individual pieces of grass

 

The other cameras I have that are on line are VStar cam as far as I know there is not a problem with those, but if there is who cares, they are welcome to look at my perimeter wall and watch the cats outside playing in their catio ????

9 hours ago, BritManToo said:

I doubt any of these cameras have the resolution to get that information.

My phone (that has 10x the resolution of these cameras) can't read a QR code from 1m away.

Those particular cameras perhaps.

 

But by no means all.