A portal on the "clear web", easily accessible through search engines, with thousands of illegally stolen audio-video recordings from over 2,000 security cameras located inside homes, beauty centers or medical clinics, has been discovered by the Treviso-based company Yarix, the cybersecurity expertise center of the Var Group company, which has reported the case to the Postal Police.
Active since at least December 2024, the portal allows free viewing of short fragments of recordings and offers the option to purchase access to the cameras for further content or to take control of them. The price for each camera ranges from about $20 to $575.
These are private videos stolen from homes around the world, which have been uploaded to this site denounced by the Postal Police, which classifies over 2,000 images according to location, rooms, people and activities recorded. By analyzing the camera IDs, it has been found that the recordings come from countries as diverse as France, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, Mexico and Argentina. Currently, about 150 videos have been identified for Italy.
The site offers paid subscriptions, with rates varying depending on the popularity and number of views of the videos. Some of them have been viewed over 20,000 times.
According to a statement from Yarix, the site contains thousands of audio-video recordings, mostly with pornographic content, illegally stolen from home security cameras and places like beauty salons and medical studios. Accessible without the need for registration, the site offers different subscriptions according to the popularity of the content.
Through a bot built into Telegram, users can purchase access to one or more cameras. The price varies depending on the number and popularity of the videos published – some of them have been viewed more than 20,000 times.
Content exploration can be done through a regular search bar, using tags that select content according to user requirements.
According to the company, the purpose of this investigation is "to draw public attention to the problem of personal data leakage due to vulnerabilities in hardware and software."
Yarix reported the discovery through the Cyber Security Operations Center (COSC) in Venice to the Veneto Postal Police, with which it has signed a cooperation protocol since 2016 and has previously collaborated on various investigations. The Cyber Threat Intelligence team is monitoring the portal and conducting further analysis useful for the investigation, which will also determine whether all the videos come from hidden cameras and unwitting victims.
It is not excluded that, in addition to authentic videos, there are also recordings or live broadcasts with actors, created with the aim of attracting more users and more paid subscriptions.
