I don’t think it was a software issue. I forget the document I was reading, but I vaguely remember hearing it reported that a hardware malfunction that caused the cameras to fail. If it was a “bug” that turned the camera off at all I would have considered that suspicious, because it would probably be the easiest way of disabling a prison camera.
What I would find convincing is if there was a specific diagnosed hardware issue, which couldn’t be triggered by software at all, like one of the chips had a bad solder joint or there was a burnt insect lying across two contacts. I haven’t heard anything like that, though.
I completely disagree in general with your sentiment about computer forensics. It is very difficult to cover up evidence of a breach 100% perfectly.
I think you’re really overstating the difficulty. Especially in the context of a denial-of-service attack on a camera system, which really is easy mode: there’s no need for persistence, the storage is being continuously rewritten so there’s not much free space to worry about, and an approximately-identical copy of the whole security system can probably be bought from the same camera vendor to use as a testbed.
I think you’re really overstating the difficulty. Especially in the context of a denial-of-service attack on a camera system, which really is easy mode: there’s no need for persistence, the storage is being continuously rewritten so there’s not much free space to worry about, and an approximately-identical copy of the whole security system can probably be bought from the same camera vendor to use as a testbed.
The best analogy I can make: Start with editing and submitting a spliced Zelda speedrun to speedrun.net before you say it’s easy to keep the FBI from uncovering pretty clear evidence of a your DOS attack against CCTV inside a monitored internal network.
What I would find convincing is if there was a specific diagnosed hardware issue, which couldn’t be triggered by software at all, like one of the chips had a bad solder joint or there was a burnt insect lying across two contacts. I haven’t heard anything like that, though.
I think you’re really overstating the difficulty. Especially in the context of a denial-of-service attack on a camera system, which really is easy mode: there’s no need for persistence, the storage is being continuously rewritten so there’s not much free space to worry about, and an approximately-identical copy of the whole security system can probably be bought from the same camera vendor to use as a testbed.
The best analogy I can make: Start with editing and submitting a spliced Zelda speedrun to speedrun.net before you say it’s easy to keep the FBI from uncovering pretty clear evidence of a your DOS attack against CCTV inside a monitored internal network.