Risky Bulletin: Slovakia finds Russian backdoor in traffic speed cameras

Risky Bulletin Newsletter August 19, 2026 Written by Catalin CimpanuNews Editor This newsletter is brought to you by Socket Security. You can subscribe to an audio version of this newsletter as a podcast by searching for "Risky Business" in your podcatcher or subscribing via this RSS feed. You can also add the Risky Business newsletter as a Preferred Source to your Google search results by going here. 🗨The intro was updated post-publication to fix the link to the technical report and to add more context from a local source.Slovakia's national security service NBU has issued a security alert against the use of NERO R-ONE high-speed traffic cameras.The agency says the cameras contain a backdoor mechanism that grants shell and network access to the devices via an SMS message received from a list of hardcoded Russian phone numbers.The NBU started an investigation into the devices after the country's opposition accused the government of buying the cameras from Russia and after multiple reports in Slovak media that linked the purchase to a Cyprus shell company with fake certifications.According to the NBU, the cameras are a rebranded version of a Russian traffic camera model named CORDON PRO.M, produced by St. Petersburg-based Russian firm Semicon.via NBUvia NBUThe cameras were bought as part of a €30 million EU-funded project to rebuild the country's national traffic monitoring system.The Interior Ministry has allegedly bought and preparing to install 279 cameras on selected roads across Slovakia.The Ministry initially denied that the cameras were of Russian origin and said there's no danger of data theft since the devices were going to be on a closed loop Ministry network.According to an NBU technical report, besides the backdoor system, the cameras also contain several security flaws. They have a crucial SecureBoot security feature that's turned off so the firmware origin is never enforced, the web management portal contains multiple vulnerabilities, and the cameras expose live streams to anyone without a password and who knows their broadcasting IP.Interior Ministry officials paused the camera deployment after the NBU report and said it would order an additional assessment from an independent auditor to confirm the findings.Some similar devices are also allegedly installed in Croatia and maybe some other countries in Eastern Europe.Source Nobody should be buying security cameras from Russia, or China for that matter https://t.co/ZiuuZ3ODjQ— ChrisO_wiki (@ChrisO_wiki) August 18, 2026 Risky Business PodcastsIn this episode of Risky Business Features, James Wilson chats with PortSwigger’s Director of Research James Kettle about using an LLM to develop genuinely new attack techniques. 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