A hacker collective physically removed a Flock Safety camera from above a roadway in September 2026, copied the data stored on the device, and shared the files with 404 Media and WIRED — revealing in new detail how the surveillance system operates in the field.
The group, calling itself stegan0gram, found that the camera’s Android-based system contained multiple storage partitions. Some were unencrypted, including one labeled “media” that held an encryption key unlocking a separate partition containing videos and still images. Over a 21-day period, the recovered logs showed the device captured approximately 1.6 million images of around 50,000 vehicles. The camera can generate dozens of images from a single passing vehicle.
Beyond license plates, the recovered data showed the camera’s computer-vision software explicitly detects people, bicycles, and vehicles. It also sometimes isolated bumper stickers and other graphics — including, in one instance, an American flag patch on a motorcyclist’s saddlebag. Flock has previously described its cameras as protected by on-device encryption.
Flock Safety’s cameras photograph vehicles and transmit the data to company servers, where records become searchable by local agencies. In many cases, police departments across the country can also access those records through Flock’s national network. In Alpharetta, Georgia, WIRED found that one city’s camera data was accessible to more than 2,000 agencies, including police departments, colleges, airports, and the Office of Inspector General for the federal General Services Administration.
That national network has drawn scrutiny. 404 Media previously reported that local officers searched Flock’s system on behalf of Immigration and Customs Enforcement — including in jurisdictions that had banned sharing license plate data with immigration authorities — and that one Texas officer used the network to locate a woman who had self-administered an abortion.
“Why just destroy them when we can reverse engineer them and find the secrets of those spying on us?” one member of stegan0gram said. The hackers said they plan to publish details of their method, hoping others will replicate it.
Source: WIRED