Israel Hacked Iran's Cameras for Khamenei Assassination

0:00It's March 23rd. Welcome in. This is Global News Today, where global headlines meet AI. Israel's military hacked into Tehran street cameras to track and kill Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on February 28th. This operation highlighted how enemies are turning surveillance systems into weapons during conflicts. The cameras, many poorly secured and linked online, gave Israel real-time intel on Khamenei's movements, despite Iran's prior warnings about the breaches. These hacks have been going on for years in Tehran, starting around 2021 as the government ramped up cameras to monitor protests. Advances in artificial intelligence now let agencies quickly scan massive video feeds for targets like vehicles or people, turning what used to take, weeks into instant results. Similar tactics appeared in other wars, like Hamas using Israeli cameras before its October 7th attack and Russia targeting Ukrainian ones. Experts point out the irony for strict regimes, tools built to control crowds end up exposing

1:02leaders. Iran's systems, often outdated due to sanctions and relying on cheap imports, proved easy march with weak passwords or no updates. Cybersecurity pros have flagged millions of vulnerable cameras worldwide, including nearly 2000 in Iran, alone from recent scans. Both sides keep pushing cyber efforts, with Iran spiking attacks on cameras in Israel and Gulf states since the war started. Officials there are urging password changes and software fixes, while banning public filming to avoid feeding enemy intel. Gulf nations, once focused on oil sites, now see street cams as risks too. This shift means more cameras mean more battleground eyes, forcing governments to rethink surveillance in an age of easy hacks and smart AI.