Sniping the security
The project:
How to remotely disable security cameras nondestructively from quite a distance…
Oh God oh God oh why:
It’s no secret. A lot of my inspiration comes from movies and for quite some time I have become more and more annoyed by Hollywoods sometimes rather silly solutions for an agent to shut down security cameras in order to remain undetected: E.g. blowing up the nearby power-plant or rigging up gadgets in sewers, where they can be detected by renovation workers and the sorts. If you blow something up or otherwise break it, your counterpart will immediately know it is sabotage and rule out a simple technical malfunction.
Another thing that got me to write this article is the abundant usage of surveillance cameras everywhere which makes me want to burst the bubble about security of surveillance cameras by exposing their weakness. Switching point of view will also often lead to improvement…
The basics:
The laser sniper project can basically be split in to three minor projects: The laser and scope with mount, The remote and The switch
Part one: The laser and scope with mount
- For the actual disabling of the camera, I decided to use a standard laser for simply blinding the camera. The simplicity of this construction makes me wanna weep (I think I read somewhere that the best spy gadgets are the simplest). In theory I’ll shoot it through a window using a suction camera mount as base, which also makes my contraption quite small and easy to put up almost everywhere.
Mount an ordinary sports rifle scope with the laser mounted directly on the scope and then calibrate the two so that the laser dot hits the center of the crosshair.
Part two: The remote
- In the search for a transmitter/receiver solution that had both range and some sort of signal encoding (so others wouldn’t accidently trigger my laser) it hit me: cellphones… they both have potential worldwide coverage, are hardcore encrypted and since they are sold by the billions, they are quite affordable - especially second hand cellphones. So I dug out my Nokia 6280 from my “Cellphone with SLR-lens” project.
I cracked it open once again…
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Flipped the top over, removed a warranty sticker and opened up, removed the built-in speaker and solded a sound output cable to speaker connectors.
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The next step is done so that the relay on the switch doesn’t sound like Fred Astaire on speed when the phone receives an SMS…
Set up the phone to play a sound only once when receiving an SMS
I found a single click sound off the internet, uploaded it to the phone and set the phone to use it when receiving an SMS…
Part three: The switch
- What I then needed was a way for the cellphone to communicate with the laser. Since I’m no wizz at making circuits from scratch, I started scavenging the internet for a building kit that would do the job for me and found a Sound switch from Smartkit. This little gizmo reacts to sounds like claps and flips a switch
I found a small acryllic case and built in the electronics, added a grafite core to filter out electrical noise and two resistors (together 125KΩ) to weaken the signal a bit. Finally, I gave it an on/off switch.
Putting the pieces together:
- Finally we just need to set up the laser on target, plug it into the switch, plug in the cellphone and you’re all set.
Materials and price tag::
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Hunting scope - 25$
BB gun Laser - 20$
Mountings - 15$
Cellphone - Anywhere form 50$ and up depending on the model and age
Switch circuit - 25$
Box - 3$
Wires, plugs, grafitecore, resistors and other - 15$
Putting it to real use:
Let’s just pretend for a moment that we were actually going to use this setup to enter a building without being seen…
Usually the guys that put up the cameras are clever enough to not just put one camera up to guard an entrance. But they put up several for two reasons; Mainly to get more than one angle on the perps trying to get in, and to make the cameras cover each other so the perps can’t just yank out the power-plug on the cameras…
To get in we’ll need a laser for every camera… (se the drawings below) and a cable-splitter for multiple lasers connected to one switch and cellphone.
And if we’re going to be smart about this… which I’d like to think… then maybe we should take out all the cameras covering the perimeter of the building to make it look like a system failure rather than us trying to get in unseen… just a thought.
Troubled thoughts during the projeckt:
I had some serious thoughts about how to trigger the laser on and off. First, I thought I’d use an old wrist watch as a timer, but ended up discarding that idea… It just didn’t feel right and if the “agent” had to shut down several security cameras, he would not only have to synchronize all the watches and set them up to turn the lasers on at the exact right time at once, but also turn them off after the job. My second idea was to remotely trigger the laser by radio or walkie-talkie. This would give the “agent” the possibility of e.g. pressing the call button on the walkie which would send out a beep to activate the lasers needed.
The problem with this solution is that by using a standard walkie, everybody else could activate the lasers accidently if they where using the same channel (keep in mind that almost all baby-alarms use the standard walkie-talkie frequency). So unless I were to use pro walkie with encryption, I’d have to modify my plans a bit.
In the search for a transmitter/receiver solution that both had range and some sort of signal coding, it hit me: cellphones. But how well will this actually work? Well, after I build this, I had to try it out on an old security camera… Then I had some friends sending it a test-SMS and finally I had someone I knew across the Atlantic do it as well… No problem there, either. It worked like a charm.
The fine print at the bottom…
In case you’ve missed the huge warning sign I’ve put up or choose to disregard it and are thinking about using the knowledge you’ve just gained to be messing with something you shouldn’t… Think about this: Maybe I left some minor, but crucial details out so assholes won’t be messing with something they shouldn’t be messing with… without getting their asses busted
So don’t !!!
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Tried it on my home security cams, doesn’t seem to do much unless you hit them straight on. Even then, its only a small dot on the screen.
Regarding the small dot:
For one, You could grab a higher powered laser and perhaps through a lens or such make the dot appear bigger on the camera. Also, a higher powered laser would heat it up more and since all sorts of penetration should probably happen at night, when the cameras are in Infra-Red mode, it should create a lot of heat on the lens really blinding it
oh, no. heating up the lens will make it emit “far infrared” normal sensors (that cost less than a medium-sized car, search for “FIR sensor”) are not able to receive. the “night mode” usually means that “near infrared” as emitted by remote controls is filmed. but there are lasers for this also (700-800nm should do).
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Can you post some test images? It would be interesting to see the effect… (and: some better cameras also use automatic blends and so on; it has to be a really powerful laser… — maybe better just cut the device off the wall with one…)
Shouldn’t it be passable to use a hands free cable, at least some phones beep in the hands free as well as the phone itself ?
what if you used a lazer from an old dvd burner? There was one featured on another blog lately that could light matches and burn holes into things….
Vince, that will burn out after ~1 min continuous run.
I’ve done a project like this also (not with a cellie thou) but just a effects of laser vs security-cams. Red lasers are kinda pointless, try green and blue emitting ones and to defect this type of attempt on your security. Install higher res cameras with 2way car tint/film on the camera housing (lower res cameras just cant hang without enough light (anything under 1mp and cmos ugh))
Great idea. Well detailed!
the author has left out (possibly) a crucial detail or two, perhaps as an exercise to the reader. i don’t know. if i were to attempt this, you can bet i would test it on a camera or two of my own, under various conditions (weather, lighting, shot angle, etc) to be sure of my results.
second, from the point of view of the infiltrator, the outage only needs to last as long as it takes me to pass through the zone of detection, on my way in, then on my way out. even then, not so much on the way out, as your security guard types are usually (unless they are really good) only looking for unauthorized entry.
in fact, with just a slight disguise, i’d walk right out instead of activating the blinder a second time. i think that a single malfunction, made as short as possible, would not arouse suspicion, whereas a second ‘malfunction’ in a single day, or single hour, would set off all kinds of mental alarms.
the nicest thing about this hack is that even if someone does decide to investigate, what is there to investigate? once the lasers are turned off, there’s nothing to see here, move along.
wicked! and, yeah, don’t try this for a real infiltration, that would be illegal.
Dont know why the author left out a “crucial” detail. ANYONE with security cameras is going to have a interior alarm system anyway so this whole thing is useless. I dont know one business that has outside cams but no inside alarm. Its kind of useless to disable the outside cameras only to set off the motion alarm once inside the building. Also, take into account that alot of buildings (mine included) have PTZ (pan,tilt,zoom) that auto scan a area,so the lens is constantly moving, which defeats the laser as well.
Awesome idea, looks tidy too
in order to make this effective you have to aim the laser straight into the camera lens (like the sniper killing the sniper on “Saving Private Ryan” by sending the bullet through the other sniper’s scope)?
Doesn’t this mean an inordinate amount of time for the camera to watch you aiming our lasers?
You could be really far away, but then most cameras are going to be aiming down from the ceiling terminating their view at a wall or ceiling.
Fun exercise, but basically pointless.
Surely you would simply creep around the top of the building, use a small amount of memory to store a single image and then divert this to the monitor feed inside the building, then repeat with camera Three and Two by heading around the back of the building. This way absolutely nobody (providing they are static cameras) would be aware that either they had been tampered, or that youj had entered…
…and as for the comment about PTZ cameras, they are very difficult to fool, haven’t worked that one out yet.
Surely a better way if this was to be done at night would be to simply spray the entire area with IR light which is invisible to the naked eye? Surely this would look more like a sys failure?
How about crashing surveillance cameras with microwave magnetrons, ever thought about that? One could build a portable device with a battery pack and a horn antenna that fits in a small bag or suitcase. Of course, it’s a little bit more complicated and dangerous because of the high microwave radiation energy, but that seems to be a more effective and also a long term solution to that (sensitive semiconductor circuits just burn out when treated with mircowaves)…
I have a shark with a laser on its head. I use it to eat security camera’s.
Seriously though, perhaps some proof of concept photos/videos…
Wouldnt a bullet be more effective than a lazer ?
what happens if the camera is moving..
ok if thats too obvious..
then how about a remote controlled helecopter, very seldom do cameras look up.. so you could fly over the top of the building and then drop some kind of bird poop substance over the lense. or even use it to cut the signal wire.
well, nice project ^^
anyway, how ’bout relaying the laser with a camera.
if i don’t wrong, in hack-a day project, there was an auto turret using camera and some of airsoftgun (P90). how ’bout relaying the laser with a camera? so, u can save time 4 search the cam and eliminate the perimeter ^^
Who cares about building security cameras. Now those municipal revenue rasing traffic cameras are something I wouldn’t mind zapping, even though I haven’t been nailed by one…….yet.
The problem is that lasers powerful enough to zap one those cammeras cost to damn much unless someone in Taiwan is making an inexpensive green monster.
what is the effect on the security camera’s view?
pics or it didn’t happen
the best infiltrations occur during business hours. the alarms will be off. the infiltrator simulates a camera problem, walks in unseen, does the job, whatever that may be, then walks out, in plain view of the cameras. the security folks never know anyone was there. this is not for robbing banks blind or stealing information, rather, it may be to put something inside the building - some sort of monitoring device, or false (or even true) information that wasn’t there before.
ALL UR COMMENTS R INTERESTING, WHATS PUZZLES ME AND IVE PLAYED WITH MINE AT HOME IS MOTION SENSERS,
DOES ANYONE HAVE IDEAS ON INFILTRATING A ROOM THAT HAS 2 MOTION DETECTORS, I HAVE 2 IN EACH ROOM AND ALWAYS MESSEN WITH MY KIDS SO FAR THEY GOT ME BEAT COUSE OF THERE SIZE
In high school my group of friends all spent about three months disabling the motion sensors at school (without breaking them, not telling how) so that we could sneak in at night to play laser tag. the original game, so you know how long ago that was. it took a long time, but was totally worth it. you’ve never played a first person shooter that awesome.
If you were to have used the timer feature on a digital watch to operate the device, how, then, would you plan to change the signal–the one that would normally be sent to the speaker on the watch when the time on the timer has elapsed–to trip the relay and then turn on the laser? I thought about it a lot and cannot figure out a way to do it. Would you have to somehow reprogram the watch? I just wanted to know how it could be done, not for devious purposes or anything, just curiosity.
Could you do a video of this project so we can see it in action?
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article , but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.
DO NOT USE THIS FOR ILLEGAL PURPOSES
YOU WILL GO TO JAIL
AND GET RAPED
DO NOT DO THIS IF YOU ARE CHINEESE, YOU FAGS ALLREADY HAVE THE HIGH SCORE FOR SCHOOL KILLINGS.
Ive done this IRL before (with the cam owners premession of course, testing them for him and getting the security company to upgrade him to a better deal for free, as they said they would if he could crack any of their securty measures), This could also be VERY useful when you want to get away with a prank as, tho I do not condone such action.
The best use for something like this would be either when you dont want your face filmed as you enter, or if you only want to be able to move along an unsecured peremiter at night w/o the cams seeing you.
Hypothetically, one could use this on all external cameras at their school, or job, and roll the place or preform other pranks.
When disabling dumb still cameras that are not monitored, you would need to do several things
A: Have a POWERFUL laser, you just need to get the dot on the target and its blinded.
B: make your laser beam width adjustable, it then covers the entire lens.
C: for the high end cameras…… use a prism to split your laser beam. I have a 13way splitter prism that turns it into 12 extra beams that aim backwards, and 1 that still goes foward (beam is weakend, but still visable. Once you properly mound everything, you want to get a long sturdy (stable) SOMETHING (piece of tubing prehaps ?) and attach a mirror on a adjustable hinge THAT CAN BE SECURED FROM MOVEMENT.
The further apart the arms are, the better it works, but at the same time, the farther back the mirrors must be. This is essently a laser satalite dish.
To calibrate it, I suggest using a point across th room.
The foward part of the beam is your target.
swivel the mirrors until all the beams can easily converge
Also, move each hinge or joint. If the beam fragment does not, within a reasonable degree of accuracy, touch the fixed point center dog, adjust the angle of the mirror until it does.
When you deploy this, you can use a prism that makes any number of beams, but you must make them all converge, therefore it is best if the prism makes symetrical beams, for ease of use.
If you know enough about mechanichs to do so, I suggest linking all the mirror hinges so you can move them all at once, for ease of use.
To knock out a camera, focus the center dot on teh cam, then focus in all the other dots.
If they are distorted and wider than normal, as long as they are bright then they should work, as bright light directly in the lens from multiple differnt angles will do a LOT more to a cam than a single dot, regardless if you know what was left out by the author of this article.
Plus, mutiple impacts can do more to even a high end camera.
If youre loaded, replace the mirrors with multiple lasers.
Also note, I left at least one or more details that Ive (thru testing) found work out.
ONCE AGAIN, I DO NOT CONDONE ILLEGAL USE OF THIS TEXT. IF YOU DO YOU WILL GET ASSRAPED IN JAIL MOST LIKLEY.
Huh. Very interesting. About a year ago I heard about a device that, when activated, could “blind” cameras, camcorders, and other types of recording devices. I never saw any pics, or proof. but the concept sounded very neat. If I remember correctly, they said it could be used for protecting celebrities from people taking pictures of them, defeating people in movie theaters with camcorders, and I guess it could also be used to take out security cams. Wish I could remember the site. Anyway cool idea!
Green lasers look quite impressive but it’s a little too obvious. I think high power infrared lasers like those used in illuminators for night vision devices should do better.
Hay 007-1/2 In regards to bypassing your sensors. If you hold up a bed sheet between you and the sensor it will absorb the signal making you invisable to the alarm. the system works on sending out an ultra high adible signal and then measures the time for the sound to return. we have done this one alot and it works well. as far as heat detection cams hold a sheet of glass between you and the camra.This works well because the cam can only see the surface temp of the glass. make sure your fingers are also behind the glass. you can acomplish tis by lifting the glass with suction cups. I imagin that you could use plexiglass as well to make it a bit lighter.
if i read it corectly, you mentioned shining it through a window, that would NOT work and this is why. When you shined the thing through the window the beam would be scattered, not a ton, but enought to shine the beam on whatever was on the opposite end of the angle (think of a mirror) that would weaken the beam on the other side, also ive tryed this with just a laser, pointing at it, the technical stuff is cool but it just dosent work liek you would think go ahead and try it, but its still illegal so you know….
The whole scope laser project wont work due to an major flaw. the laser is mounted to the side of the scope there for the laser could only be sighted for one exact distance in referance to scope . kind of like a rifel. so depending on how far away you are your scope might be dead on but your laser would be off due to the fact you previously sighted it to a fixed distance of X number of yards the only time it would work is if you set up your laser exactly the distance away from the camera as when you callabrated the scope to the laser. this is exactly what hunters do every season is to shoot 200 yards and adjust the scope to dead on. when the hunter sees a target he has to make mentaal adjustment for this eg. aim high aim low etc. your using two difrent plains of sight (the scope and the laser) you cant expect these two thing to adjust themselfs for difrent distances.!!! The only way you could still do this is find an easy way to site the two on site ACCURATLY (range finder then adjust scope to laser) or find a way to project the laser down the exact path of sight of the scope. this is flawed due to it will block the site of the scope. cool idea but flawed non the less your better of just shooting the damn cammra with a paint ball gun.
I have to say, that I could not agree with you in 100% regarding , but it’s just my opinion, which could be wrong
yes i cant spell (always in a hurry)
As fas as sighting, I’d set up the scope to aim 2″ left of the laser, and then mount the laser 2″ left of the scope. This is how I use my sniper rifle when abusing ridiculously (for a sniper) close / small targets. Then you just have to aim 2″ right of the target, regardless of range.
The crucial details he omitted is that using a more powerful laser (dvd burners) aimed with a rifle scope one can set stuffs ablaze at very long ranges without being spotted, or even worse aiming it straight on ppl’s eyes, perhaps using an infrared laser (CD Burners) causing ppl irreversible blindness and they dont ever know what happened..
The comments have made me even more confused than I was before. All I want is an inexpensive and reliable device to stop my a?¿$%·&%$ of a neighbor to record the front of My house goddamn him to HELL.
For Mario:
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/20060159440.html
Hmmm, perhaps it’s another one, but I kow there’s a patent out there by some school (MIT?) that combines a laser and some sort of camera system to block covert photography.
While I like the idea in theory, in practice it has major flaws:
1) PTZ Cameras (Pan/Tilt/Zoom) constantly move - no blinding them.
2) Every place I have installed cameras, also has inside cameras that can’t be seen from outside that look straight at the door. You might as well walk in with a face mask and forget the laser.
3) Any institution worth it’s name will also have an alarm
4) Fixed Cameras are also connected to alarms and are on motion detect. The minute the picture changes, from the steady one to the bright light one, it can email/call/trip a relay so you’re busted. In our setups, people can just use their cellphone to look at the cameras or get an email with the picture.
Your idea is to be used at your friend’s house that has a camera at the front door to see who’s there and that’s about it….
I love this kinda Mc Guyver gadget stuff… do more!!!!
Havn’t any of you watched mythbusters lately? lol - they found a way and showed it to the world to walk through motion sensors - create a thumb print to get into doors with thumb print needed to unlock them - and even heat sensor alarms.
as for the original post - http://www.naimark.net/projects/zap/howto.html check out that site for pictures of what a laser does to a camera ect - it has alot more information about EVERYTHING - military ect
personally - i would just wear a mask and shoot the cameras with a paint ball gun - they are usually in a case with a clear pastic or glass cover to see - if u get caught u wont have to buy a new camera for em
cool. how about sniping your friend’s eye?
I have a paranoid neighbor who has put up cameras. I have no problem with cameras, but some look onto my property and at my home. How can I interrupt the cameras pointed toward my house. The cameras are stationary, and I believe they are hard wired. I live out in the county and sheriffs won’t do anything. They say its a civil mater and will need to go to court. Just want my privacy back.
PS I have asked politely to move the cameras “No” FUwas the response. I’ve heard of low repetitive sound waves sent towards a home will disturb the occupants. Anyone have information on this?
Concerning nosy cameras. Try spot lights on very sensitive motion settings. Use as many as necessary. Make sure that side of your property is more than lit up. Maybe add a 44 watt siren so whatever your neighbor is worried about sneaking around there won’t have a chance. Get a dog to run across there a few times a night for a while. get the idea?
Please send me information that I can buy this system.
Best regards,
Bernhard
For instance, lets just say that someone had a microscopic camera lense implanted in their pupil and wanted to jam it from the prying eyes that monitor his very thought, would you suggest shining the eyes with the infrared or would you use a less damaging approach? Answers would be appreciated… thank you.
hi how u beat new cameras in the skul bcoz we hav about 20 cam and i wana get rid of even geting seen not breakin them
but always remember cellphones aren’t that well encrypted. might want to check out the chaos computer club in germany. they have a vid from a kongress in 07, showing how easily 2g cellphones are decrypted.
3g is another fact, but atm to pricy to build gadgets with
I have a neighbor…little cockoo…she has cameras fixed on my house and other neighbors as well, we all sit out in the summer infron of our units and have a beer or two….she is constanlty snapping photos of me and my 3 small kids, my freinds and so on, cops have been called on her so many times its not funny…..i want to shut down her cameras……in a legal sort of way..since she is intruding my space…ideas?
Hey going nuts i suggest you buy a wicked laser from http://www.wickedlasers.com/ or get a spare 16x dvd burner extract the diode and u can find more on that by using froogle (google) by searching make a laser, make a burning laser etc. and then hide somewhere the camera cant be seen and other cameras arnt watching u while u do it and if ur under it use the laser on the wires or a box underneath if there is one or if ur infornt or possible to get the front shine the laser into the lens and then of the police or wateva ask throw away the laser or hide it and say some kids messin wit burning lasers came down the street and shon them in or some excuse like dat…
thats my idea but u cud get better LOL! XD im 13
What you fail to take into account is that the sensors in cameras are relatively sensitive and a massive 400mW green laser such as Dragonlasers would not need a direct sustained hit to damage it. Less than a second of reflected light would be enough.