Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. has announced it is partnering with an international CCTV market leader Provision-ISR (Israel). The partnership will involve Check Point Quantum IoT Protect Nano Agent being embedded in Provision-ISR's CCTV cameras for on-device runtime protection against zero-day attacks. The solution brings an entirely new level of cybersecurity to the video surveillance market.

CCTV plays an integral role in keeping people and organizations safe, everywhere from transport hubs to retail, banks, and critical infrastructure. Modern CCTV cameras are essentially functioning as small computers that run operating systems, applications, have various networks and radio frequency (RF) interfaces. As such, they are also susceptible to hacking attacks.

One of the biggest issues is that end-users will often keep the default usernames and passwords, essentially leaving the door open for hackers. Even with a strong password, traditional CCTV cameras are not supplied with adequate on-board security. But why even hack a CCTV camera?

Criminals may wish to gain access to the camera's controls, to turn it off, point it in a different direction, and manipulate images and associated information or just to watch the activity covered by the camera. In addition, as a network device, once hacked, it can be used to gain access to sensitive resources on the corporate network via lateral movement, where cybercriminals can then exploit vulnerabilities and deploy botnets or crypto miners.