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Moscow Police Watch Pre-Recorded Scenes On Surveillance Cams

Posted by samzenpus on from the I-always-feel-like-nobody-is-watching-me dept.

An anonymous reader writes "During several months of 2009, Moscow police looked at fake pictures displayed on their monitors instead of what was supposed to be video from the city surveillance cams. The subcontractor providing the cams was paid on the basis of 'the number of working cams,' so he delivered pre-cooked pictures stored on his servers. The camera company CEO has been arrested."

6 of 114 comments (clear)

  1. Security flaw by girlintraining · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It took them five months to uncover this. If the contractor hadn't been greedy, it probably would have gone on a lot longer. It's no surprise though -- most camera feeds aren't encrypted/authenticated in any way. Nonetheless, the justice system and juries will rely on them as irrefutable evidence of a crime. And anyone who claims they were photoshopped into the scene will be laughed out of the courtroom.

    The industrial espionage possibilities are quite lucrative.

    --
    #fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
    1. Re:Security flaw by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 3, Informative

      Tom Baker? Who's that?

      For us in the other side of the Atlantic, the only Doctors are Christopher Eccleson and David Tennant

      How does someone living in Europe not know Tom Baker as Dr. Who? I mean good grief, the show was made in the UK. /s
      Ok, so I assume you are someone in the U.S. who only came out from under a rock in the last 5 years. I don't know anyone who watches the Christopher Eccleson/David Tennant "Dr. Who" episodes who isn't a big Tom Baker fan (besides myself, and even I am well aware of who he is).

      --
      The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
  2. But... by SnarfQuest · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yes, but, did they catch any criminals on them? Who cares if they're faked, as long as they catch the bad guys...

    Oh well, back to my global warming awareness seminar...

    --
    Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
    1. Re:But... by natehoy · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yes, one guy was arrested for armed robbery... 90 times.

      --
      "This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
  3. Outsourcing Risk by benjamindees · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I get the impression that most of the cameras were working at some point, but failed. And this is why the company started sending fake (cached) images. I wonder how many were damaged by unhappy citizens. And I wonder what the company was thinking when they signed up to be responsible for replacing security cameras that they should have known were likely to come under attack.

    Really this should almost be unsurprising. In any business, there's a huge incentive to outsource the most risky tasks just to have someone to blame when things go wrong. Personally, as a contractor, I hate working by the hour and would rather have my work judged on it's merits rather than by how long it takes. And for that reason I always have to carefully manage the amount of risk I'm willing to take for any job, and to weigh it against the fees offered.

    Clearly in this case the contractor in question did not account for the amount of risk he was taking on. And clearly the Moscow police didn't have much incentive to take enough of the responsibility of securing their cameras on themselves. The result is the contractor in jail and the police acting like they had no idea there was any problem. Typical, really.

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    "I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
  4. Barbarians!!! by serutan · · Score: 5, Funny

    In a Civilized country the company would be fined and the CEO would collect his severance bonus and move to a different company at a higher salary.