The development of artificial intelligence has allowed intelligence agencies to analyze millions of hours of video from street cameras using simple text queries. This technological leap is already being used to track targets at the state level, forcing Russian intelligence agencies to temporarily disable the surveillance system around Vladimir Putin for fear of large-scale cyberattacks.
The development of artificial intelligence has allowed intelligence agencies to analyze millions of hours of video from street cameras using simple text queries. This technological leap is already being used to track targets at the state level, forcing Russian intelligence agencies to temporarily disable the surveillance system around Vladimir Putin for fear of large-scale cyberattacks.
The Financial Times reports on new methods of digital espionage and their impact on global security, citing its own sources in intelligence agencies of various countries.
The main innovation is the use of AI to search through video using voice commands. Unlike old algorithms for recognizing faces or license plates, the new tools allow you to search for specific behaviors. For example, intelligence officers can tell the system to find “two men passing a bag to each other,” “a person who changed clothes several times in a day,” or “a car that has just been repainted.”
“Simply put, this is the first time in history that we can talk to computers in plain language about what they’re seeing,” says Matan Goldner, head of Israeli startup Conntour, which is developing such systems. The ability to find a precise moment among thousands of hours of footage opens up entirely new possibilities for intelligence, he says.
The effectiveness of the technology was demonstrated during the assassination of senior Iranian officials earlier this year. According to sources, Israeli intelligence was able to collect and analyze vast amounts of data from traffic cameras in Tehran to identify patterns of behavior of the guards and determine the exact location and time of the meeting of the targets.
This precedent has raised concerns among Russian intelligence agencies. According to the publication, the Russians have turned off part of a special surveillance system that protects the Kremlin's top brass so that engineers can try to isolate it from the Internet. The director of the Russian FSB, Alexander Bortnikov, admitted at a closed meeting that surveillance cameras have become a vulnerability that enemies can use against themselves.
Despite Russian attempts to protect their networks, a Ukrainian hacker commented to the publication that cameras in Moscow and even directly around the Kremlin "are still working and are regularly hacked."
It was previously reported that the Kremlin is funding the development of gene therapy for Putin against cellular aging, 3D bioprinting technology for living tissues, and the cultivation of human organs in pigs, hoping to achieve the first results of organ replacement by 2030.
