Silicon Valley startup Verkada Inc, a closed-circuit TV and camera management platform, was hacked by a group of hackers, revealing thousands of hours of footage from over 150,000 surveillance cameras, Bloomberg reported. Some of the company's clients, which includes hospitals, companies, police departments, prisons and schools, were using a facial-recognition tool to track and monitor their employee's behaviour among other things. Verkada provided its services to companies like Tesla, Cloudfare, Halifax Health and Madison County Jail in Alabama, all of whose camera feeds were compromised as part of the hack. The hackers claim to have access to the entire video archive belonging to all of Verkada's clients. They said that the intention of the hack was to see how pervasive video surveillance is and the ease with which these systems could be compromised. The hackers found that Verkada had implemented a facial-recognition technology, which in the case of hospitals is used to identify and categorise people. AI tools to monitor and analyse behavior According to a blogpost by Verkada, one of the tools it offers clients' is called 'People Analytics' through which they clients can "search and filter based on many different attributes, including gender traits, clothing color, and even a person’s face". The report said that some of the cameras with facial-recognition technology inside the jail, in order to track inmates and correctional staff, were hidden inside vents, thermostats and defibrillators. While Verkada's clients may have requested for such technology to be integrated as part of their camera services,…
