Most organizations think of surveillance cameras as security tools. And in many ways, they are. Modern CCTV systems help businesses monitor facilities, improve operational visibility, protect physical assets, and respond more effectively to incidents.
What often gets overlooked, however, is that today’s surveillance systems are no longer isolated recording devices quietly sitting in a corner.
Modern IP cameras are connected systems. They run operating systems, communicate across networks, expose web interfaces, integrate with cloud platforms, and in some cases even support mobile applications, analytics engines, and remote administration. In practice, many of them behave more like small computers than traditional cameras.
That shift has brought undeniable operational advantages. It has also introduced cybersecurity risks many organizations underestimate.
Why Surveillance Systems Fly Under the Radar
IT and security teams typically apply rigorous controls to servers, workstations, and network devices: regular patching, credential policies, monitoring, and access reviews. Cameras rarely receive the same treatment.
Yet the exposure is often identical.
A server with default credentials facing the internet would trigger an immediate response. A camera in the same position often goes unnoticed for years. This is partly an ownership problem – surveillance infrastructure tends to sit in the gap between facilities, operations, IT, and security teams, with no single owner clearly responsible for its cybersecurity lifecycle.
The result is a familiar pattern of risk: weak or unchanged passwords, outdated firmware, admin panels exposed to the internet, and surveillance networks poorly isolated from business-critical systems.
What Attackers Can Actually Do
Unauthorized access to a camera feed is the obvious concern. But in most environments, the risk doesn’t stop there.
Compromised surveillance systems can become entry points for internal reconnaissance, lateral movement, and persistent footholds – especially because these devices are often trusted internally and monitored less aggressively than workstations or servers. Attackers can operate quietly while the cameras themselves continue functioning normally, making detection significantly harder.
The Mirai botnet demonstrated this at scale: by targeting internet-connected devices with default credentials, it compromised hundreds of thousands of cameras and embedded systems, using them to launch some of the largest DDoS attacks ever recorded. Most owners never knew their systems were involved.
More targeted incidents have highlighted additional risks. Vulnerabilities in major vendors such as Hikvision and Dahua showed how unpatched firmware could allow remote compromise. The Verkada breach drew attention to centralized cloud-managed platforms, where a single compromised administrative layer can expose thousands of cameras across multiple sites simultaneously.
The Business Impact Goes Beyond the Camera
For organizations operating in regulated industries, the stakes extend further than operational disruption.
Unauthorized access to surveillance infrastructure can create:
- Privacy and data protection exposure – particularly where cameras capture identifiable individuals in workplaces, customer areas, or public spaces
- Regulatory risk – surveillance data increasingly intersects with compliance obligations under frameworks governing personal data and physical security
- Reputational damage – especially where breaches involve sensitive environments or become public
- Third-party liability – where surveillance systems are managed or accessed by external vendors without adequate security controls in place
Practical Steps to Close the Gap
Reducing this risk doesn’t require replacing existing infrastructure. It requires treating surveillance systems as connected infrastructure – subject to the same security practices applied elsewhere in the environment.
In practice, that means:
- Eliminating default credentials across all deployed devices and enforcing strong authentication on admin interfaces
- Maintaining firmware updates on a defined schedule, rather than leaving devices unpatched indefinitely
- Segmenting surveillance networks from business-critical systems to limit lateral movement if a device is compromised
- Restricting internet exposure to only what is operationally necessary, with appropriate access controls in place
- Establishing clear ownership so surveillance systems receive the same lifecycle management, security reviews, and monitoring as other connected technologies
Physical Security and Cybersecurity Are the Same Conversation
The underlying challenge is a mindset shift. Organizations that have invested significantly in physical security infrastructure sometimes overlook that the same systems now carry cybersecurity risk – and that managing one without the other creates gaps attackers are well-positioned to exploit.
A camera system can improve physical security while simultaneously weakening your cybersecurity posture if deployed without proper controls. In modern environments, those two risks are no longer independent.
Not sure where your surveillance infrastructure stands? It’s worth finding out before someone else does. Talk to the AMATAS team – we’ll help you get a clear picture of your exposure and what to do about it.
