It is the 10th day of the war between Israel and Iran, and the technological front is heating up: Israel's defense system operates not only in the physical arena against missiles, but also in the digital space. Iran is stepping up advanced cyber attempts against Israel, with one of the main goals being to penetrate organizational networks through vulnerable security cameras.

According to data published by Check Point, since the outbreak of the fighting, there has been a dramatic increase of about 1274% in attacks on Hikvision security cameras. This is an exploitation of a known vulnerability – CVE-2017-7921 – that still exists in thousands of cameras across Israel, which have not been updated since it was identified.

According to the report, about 21% of organizations in Israel have experienced this type of intrusion attempt, but the attacks were stopped by Check Point's defense products. Most of the attacks targeted small and medium-sized businesses.

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Miri Ophir, Director of IoT at Check Point, explains: "Since the beginning of the war, we have seen increasing attempts by Iranian attackers to exploit cameras with security vulnerabilities. The attackers exploit old weaknesses in the cameras that have not received security updates since 2017. The attackers exploit a weakness in the camera that allows them to access all the information that the camera collects without user authentication, and in this way they try to gather open intelligence from the public sphere in Israel."

Ophir adds: "The use of cameras as a spy device is a common practice among state attackers. We have also seen such actions by Hamas in preparation for the events of October 7. In addition, cameras sometimes serve as proxies or as an entry point to corporate networks."

In light of the situation, last week the temporary order that allows the IDF and the Shin Bet to penetrate security cameras for protection purposes – even without the owner's knowledge – was extended until the end of the year.

In response to the developments, the National Cyber Directorate issued a warning and instruction to the public: update the software version of the security cameras, change default passwords, and block external access to the equipment.

The warning is also in addition to the call not to upload photographs from crash sites to social networks – due to the fear of leakage of sensitive information.

In conclusion, Ophir emphasizes: "It is important to remember that like any other digital device, security cameras can also be protected. The protection starts with selecting cameras from leading manufacturers that include built-in security capabilities, and regularly monitoring and installing security updates in a timely manner."