By Daily Mail (World News) | Created at 2026-06-09 10:30:36 | Updated at 2026-06-09 22:39:45
12 hours ago
Russia switched off parts of a specialist CCTV network used to protect Vladimir Putin amid fears it could be exploited by foreign intelligence agencies, according to a report.
The Kremlin ordered the shutdown after Israel's use of hacked surveillance cameras and artificial intelligence in Iran during the operation that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei raised fears similar technology could be used to track Russian officials.
The surveillance system, which is separate from the hundreds of thousands of cameras used to monitor ordinary Russians, was only switched back on after engineers attempted to isolate it from the internet, the Financial Times reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.
The move highlights growing fears among security services that advances in artificial intelligence have transformed vast CCTV networks from tools of state control to potential vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hostile powers.
According to the newspaper, Israeli intelligence officers harvested huge amounts of footage from Tehran's traffic camera network and used AI-powered software to analyse millions of hours of video.
The operation allegedly helped them map the Iranian capital, identify patterns of behaviour among security personnel and pinpoint the location and timing of a meeting attended by Iran's Supreme Leader and several of his closest aides.
Several top Iranian security officials were later killed in strikes described by the FT as part of the opening salvo of the US-Israeli war against the Islamic Republic.
The reported operation has sent shockwaves through intelligence agencies around the world, with Russian security chiefs warning that surveillance systems designed to monitor citizens could now be turned against the states that built them.
A video grab image taken from footage released by the Israeli military on March 1, 2026, shows what it says are large-scale strikes on 'the headquarters of the Iranian terror regime' in Tehran on March 1
Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to the United Shipbuilding Company CEO Andrei Puchkov during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Monday, June 8, 2026
Alexander Bortnikov, head of Russia's FSB security service, warned regional officials last month that the deaths of senior Iranian figures should serve as a 'clear warning sign' about the vulnerabilities of modern surveillance networks.
According to Russian state media, he said the locations of key Iranian officials had been identified in part through software backdoors in Tehran's video surveillance systems.
Governments have long known that security cameras can be penetrated by skilled hackers and intelligence services.
But advances in artificial intelligence have dramatically increased the ability to search vast amounts of footage and identify specific people, vehicles and patterns of behaviour.
Unlike older facial recognition systems, the latest technology can reportedly analyse footage using written prompts, allowing operators to search for actions and movements rather than simply individual faces.
That means intelligence officers can search thousands of hours of footage for events such as two people exchanging a bag, a person who has repeatedly changed their appearance, or a vehicle that has been repainted and appears in multiple locations.
One European official familiar with the technology described it to the newspaper as the 'holy grail of surveillance', saying it allows analysts to search for behaviour rather than simply objects.
Experts warned that once a target is identified, AI systems can rapidly build detailed profiles covering months of activity, revealing not only their own movements but also those of colleagues, bodyguards and associates.
The systems can also combine CCTV footage with information gathered from social media, travel records, hacked communications and other digital sources to create an increasingly detailed intelligence picture.
The idea that a country's own surveillance network could be turned against it has alarmed counter-intelligence officials across the world, triggering efforts to identify weaknesses in existing camera systems and close potential points of access.
Russia has long been concerned about threats to Putin's security, particularly from Ukraine's intelligence services, which have previously penetrated traffic camera systems and used mobile phone data to help target senior Russian military figures.
The report said the Kremlin's decision to temporarily disable part of Putin's protective surveillance network came amid growing concern that surveillance systems can be exploited by hostile intelligence agencies.
Despite Moscow's precautions, an independent Ukrainian hacker told the FT that cameras in the Russian capital, including some around the Kremlin, remained vulnerable to intrusion, although he declined to discuss whether Kyiv possessed the capability to analyse footage on a large scale.
The newspaper also reported that the US, Britain and China are among the countries developing or deploying increasingly sophisticated AI-powered surveillance tools capable of analysing behaviour, identifying patterns and searching video using simple written commands.
A security official from one of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance countries told the FT: 'They're the ones putting the cameras up - all we have to do is find a way in. And there is always a way in.'
The Kremlin and Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not respond to requests for comment, the newspaper said.
