The ordinary security camera watching a street or a parking lot has quietly become a weapon of war. Ukraine’s Security Service has identified about 40,000 surveillance cameras since Russia’s 2022 invasion that Russian forces and spy agencies could have used to snoop, find targets and correct strikes, and has protected, reoriented or blocked them, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The discovered threat reaches well beyond Ukraine: Dutch intelligence warned in July that Russian state actors are systematically hacking cameras across Europe to track arms deliveries to Ukraine and the whereabouts of Ukrainian troops.
About 1.2 billion internet-connected cameras now watch the world, in doorbells, traffic lights, and baby monitors, and almost any of them can be hacked, the journalists found.
In Ukraine, the danger is lethal. In 2024, Russian hackers took over residential webcams in Kyiv, including one that a condominium association had installed, to find targets and adjust missile strikes on the capital, Ukraine's Security Service says.
Evidence of European reach keeps surfacing. Cybersecurity firm CloudSEK has recently uncovered an exposed server it suspects belongs to a Russian-speaking hacker, containing hundreds of webcam images of Ukrainian defense, government, energy, and communications sites, as well as scenes of daily life.
Many of the images came from locations near Ukraine’s border with NATO member Romania, CloudSEK says.
The Dutch warning and the server point the same way: cameras far from the front line are feeding Russia data on how the West arms Ukraine.
Ukraine also uses the same tactic inside the occupied territory. The international hacker group Team OneFist took control of a camera in Sevastopol, in occupied Crimea, and used it to watch Russian ships, submarines, and helicopters, spotting a previously unknown air base that Ukraine later struck, damaging planes and air defenses.
Team OneFist also reached cameras on the Kerch Strait Bridge, learning that Russia had installed motion sensors beneath the bridge to guard against waterborne attacks. Penetrating a well-placed camera gets analysts closer to targets at less risk than any secret agent.
Austrian police detained Ukrainian investigative journalist Mykhailo Tkach and cameraman Yaroslav Bondarenko in Vienna yesterday, on 8 October. Both were later released, but the circumstances of their detention remain unclear, and the prosecutor’s office said suspicion against them had not been substantiated so far.
The detention lasted more than 12 hours, the first time Tkach had been held that long while on a reporting assignment abroad. The case unfolded alongside a separate Austrian espionage investigation involving two men suspected of working for Ukraine’s military intelligence. Authorities have not said whether the cases are connected.
In a video published by Ukrainska Pravda, Tkach said seven people wearing masks and carrying weapons approached their car at a traffic light about 3–5 kilometers from central Vienna, broke its windows, and pointed weapons at them.
He said the people did not identify themselves or explain their actions. The journalists were pulled from the car, forced face down onto the road, searched, and had their hands taped behind their backs, according to Tkach. He said he initially thought they were being kidnapped because he did not see identification or have time to notice police markings. He realized they were police only after seeing police vehicles.
“As I felt it, they detained us like terrorists,” Tkach said.
He added that people shouted and pointed weapons, and there was no communication. He said one person put a knee on his neck and shouted at him to be quiet. He also saw glass from the broken window fly into Bondarenko’s face.
In a second report, Ukrainska Pravda said Tkach’s account of a document presented to him listed three allegations: espionage in the interests of Ukrainian military intelligence, participation in a criminal organization, and, as far as he remembered, causing harm to Austria. He said investigators did not explain the evidence behind the allegations.
Vienna prosecutor’s office spokesperson Nina Bussek told the Austrian Press Agency (APA) that suspicion against the two journalists had arisen during other investigations but had not been substantiated. She said it currently appeared that the suspicion was not holding up. Austrian officials have not publicly addressed Tkach’s account of the force used.
Tkach and Bondarenko were in Vienna on an assignment to find Ruslan Kravchenko, Ukraine’s former prosecutor general, Ukrainska Pravda reported. Kravchenko was dismissed on 15 September amid an investigation by Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office into alleged protection of fraudulent call centers. He denied involvement. Der Standard reported that it remained unclear whether the journalists’ detention was connected to their reporting on him.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi confirmed Tkach’s release and said the Ukrainian consul had requested access to him, according to NV. Musaieva said Bondarenko had been injured and hospitalized.
A statement signed by Ukrainian media and civil society organizations, including Euromaidan Press, called for an immediate, transparent, and independent investigation of law enforcement’s actions. The signatories also demanded an independent review of the force used, the return of seized equipment, and necessary medical and legal assistance.
Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner confirmed the arrests of four Ukrainians, according to ORF. The two men detained on 5 October were placed in pretrial detention until 21 October on suspicion of secret intelligence activity against Austria. APA reported that they were suspected employees of Ukraine’s military intelligence service. Both deny the allegations.
Germany’s Federal Interior Ministry confirmed on Thursday, 8 October, that it was examining whether confidentiality regulations may have been breached during August Hanning’s tenure as state secretary between 2005 and 2009. The examination follows his arrest on suspicion of espionage and attempted treason, and the discovery of a suspected network supplying sensitive intelligence documents from within Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND).
According to the latest information on the ministry’s examination, officials have ordered an immediate review. The ministry has not disclosed its scope or whether investigators have identified any additional security breaches during Hanning’s government service.
Hanning, 80, headed the BND from 1998 until 2005 before moving to the Interior Ministry, where he remained until 2009. An investigating judge at Germany’s Federal Court of Justice subsequently ordered his continued detention following his arrest on Tuesday.
His former chief of staff, identified under German privacy rules as Manfred D., has also been remanded in custody. Prosecutors suspect that the two men maintained an arrangement through which confidential intelligence documents were obtained in exchange for payment.
Federal prosecutors believe the arrangement began around 2010, several years after Hanning left the BND, and continued until June 2022.
Investigators suspect that approximately 2,000 documents were obtained through Hanning’s former colleague, who remained in senior administrative positions at the intelligence service under successive directors.
The material reportedly included assessments of Russia’s military activities, information concerning Iran’s nuclear programme and intelligence originating from foreign partner services. Some documents were intended for senior German government officials, including the chancellery.
Prosecutors suspect that Hanning used confidential material in his private security consultancy and prepared at least one analysis for a foreign intelligence contact. Whether the analysis was ultimately delivered remains unclear.
The investigation consequently extends beyond the suspected unauthorised removal of German state documents. Intelligence supplied by foreign governments is frequently shared under restrictions governing its subsequent distribution. Any compromise of such material could require Germany to assess whether sensitive foreign sources, methods or assessments were exposed.
BND president Martin Jäger has confirmed that the service initiated extensive internal investigations after suspicions emerged. The affair has also drawn attention from the Bundestag’s parliamentary intelligence oversight body, whose chairman, Marc Henrichmann, has called for a comprehensive investigation.
Hanning’s lawyer, Leon Kruse, has rejected the accusations while acknowledging that his client possessed confidential documents.
In a statement released following the court hearing, Kruse denied that Hanning had passed information to the detriment of Germany or received payment for doing so. He maintained that further investigations would establish that his client was being wrongly prosecuted.
The defence statement establishes an important point in the proceedings: possession of confidential material is acknowledged, but its alleged commercial exploitation and transfer to foreign intelligence services remain disputed.
Investigators must establish how the documents were acquired, whether payments were made and what classified information, if any, reached foreign recipients.
The identity of the foreign intelligence service involved remains another unresolved question.
German reporting has raised the possibility of a connection to Azerbaijan, although federal prosecutors have not publicly identified the foreign service concerned.
Azerbaijan has rejected suggestions that its intelligence authorities were involved. Baku reportedly lodged a diplomatic protest with the German government, challenging the allegations and their potential consequences for bilateral relations.
The possibility of a Russian connection has also attracted attention because of Hanning’s international business contacts and his association with former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. However, no evidence establishing Russian involvement has been publicly presented by German prosecutors.
Hanning’s foreign commercial relationships alone do not establish that classified information was transferred to any particular government.
The circumstances that brought Hanning to investigators’ attention have added another dimension to the affair.
The suspected intelligence breach emerged during an investigation connected to German businesswoman Christina Block, who is facing criminal proceedings over allegations concerning the abduction of her children.
Hanning had reportedly provided advisory services connected to the affair. Searches conducted in September 2025 led investigators to confidential BND material, prompting a separate examination of how the documents had been obtained.
The discovery subsequently developed into an intelligence investigation involving federal prosecutors and Germany’s domestic criminal investigation authorities.
The investigation comes as Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government seeks to strengthen Germany’s intelligence capabilities in response to mounting security threats.
The BND’s ability to obtain and exchange intelligence depends partly on the confidence of partner organisations. Concerns now centre on whether documents supplied by allied services were included in the material allegedly transferred, and whether Germany must inform partners about potential exposure.
The case is also prompting scrutiny of restrictions placed on former senior intelligence officials who subsequently enter private consultancy work.
At the German government’s press briefing on 7 October, a spokesman acknowledged the seriousness of the allegations but declined to discuss the proceedings, referring questions to federal prosecutors and the courts.
The Interior Ministry’s decision on 8 October to examine Hanning’s earlier government service potentially broadens the inquiry beyond the suspected transfer of BND documents between 2010 and 2022.
Investigators must now determine the extent of any unauthorised disclosure, identify any foreign recipients and assess whether information supplied by Germany’s security partners was compromised.
Both men remain presumed innocent unless convicted.
A case of treason on an unprecedented scale is emerging at Germany’s foreign intelligence service, in what German media say could shake the entire agency.
According to the investigative team of WDR, NDR and Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), August Hanning, the former head of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), is being investigated for alleged espionage detrimental to the state and intelligence activities.
Hanning’s tenure at the BND ended in November 2005.
But he is accused of having illegally obtained secret information for several years after he left the service, which gathers and assesses information on foreign, security, and economic threats.
He was arrested at his home in Nordwalde, near Münster in western Germany, on Tuesday (6 October).
Der Spiegel reported that police arrived at 6.41AM and took him away in a black minibus at 8.58AM.
Another former senior BND employee was also detained in the Bavaria region — apparently the former head of Hanning’s office, who worked for the intelligence service until spring 2026.
Neither German authorities nor Hanning’s representatives had commented on the case by Tuesday noon.
According to investigative journalists, Manfred D. leaked top-secret information from within the BND to Hanning until 2022.
According to Der Spiegel, which cited investigators’ findings, Hanning and Manfred D. agreed, as early as spring 2010, that the latter would, in return for payment, gather intelligence from the BND for his former boss, which Hanning could use in his private security consultancy work.
Investigators are working on the assumption that, in at least one case, Hanning prepared a security analysis for a foreign intelligence service.
According to WDR, NDR and SZ, it was not for Russia.
In another case, he allegedly used information from internal BND documents when communicating with a foreign agent.
According to information from security circles obtained by WDR, NDR, and SZ reporters, Hanning came under scrutiny after his home and offices were searched in September last year, when the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) was investigating the case of steak empire heiress Christina Block.
Hamburg prosecutors accused her of commissioning the abduction of her two youngest children in late 2023 amid a custody dispute.
According to investigators, Hanning was involved in an earlier attempt to abduct them, accusations he denies.
While assessing material seized from Hanning last year, LKA officers found an electronic data storage device with explosive contents, according to the investigative journalists.
The former official apparently had access to top-secret BND documents from the recent past which, under no circumstances, should have been in his possession.
In total, he obtained around 2,000 documents. In many cases, these were briefings for the so-called intelligence situation meeting at the federal chancellery, where the heads of security agencies exchange information every week.
They included highly sensitive reports, for example, on Iran’s nuclear programme or the Russian military. According to security sources, they also included reports from foreign partner services.
A leak of such material is regarded by intelligence services as an absolute catastrophe. Friendly intelligence services could lose trust in the BND and cut off the institution from crucial information.
After assessing them, the LKA Hamburg police team handed the seized documents over to federal authorities.
And in May 2026, the Federal Public Prosecutor General’s Office ultimately opened confidential proceedings against Hanning and his alleged BND informant. It remains unclear over what period the former intelligence chief was supplied with secret internal information.
According to security sources, the most recently discovered documents date from June 2022.
It also remains unclear how the alleged BND mole managed to remove material from the secured agency. The BND was asked for a statement on the case.
Hanning’s lawyers have not yet responded to a brief request for comment on the allegations.
For the BND, this is already the second serious incident in the space of a few years.
In 2022, the espionage case involved Russia, when a former head of a BND unit was accused of spying for Moscow together with another man.
It concerned top-secret information on BND cyber operations that was leaked from the service.
As the Tagesschau website noted, if the suspicions against Hanning are confirmed, this would be an espionage affair of historic proportions.
German history has never before seen an alleged case of treason involving such a senior former top official.
According to Der Spiegel, this is unprecedented. This is particularly so because, for many years after leading the intelligence service, Hanning remained among the most important officials in Germany’s security apparatus.
Before becoming BND president, he was responsible for protecting classified information at West Germany’s representation in East Germany.
After serving at the chancellery, including as coordinator of the federal intelligence services, the lawyer, who holds a doctorate, took over the leadership of the BND in 1998.
At the end of 2005, after leaving the intelligence service, Hanning became a state secretary at the interior ministry. He retired four years later.
According to German media, his subsequent activities were seen as problematic. He became known as a businessman and security consultant with a company in Switzerland.
Its German subsidiary was hired for a time in the custody dispute between Block and her former husband.
According to prosecutors, in 2023 he allegedly planned, together with an associate, to “discredit Block’s former husband through false allegations of paedophilia”.
Hanning and his alleged accomplice apparently tried to plant a hard drive containing child sexual abuse images and videos on the father of Block’s children.
The investigation has not yet been concluded. Hanning has previously denied all allegations in the case.
A senior official within Greece’s National Intelligence Service (EYP), Yiannis Papadopoulos, on Tuesday filed a criminal complaint with the Athens First Instance Court Prosecutor’s Office over the targeting of his phone using Predator spyware. In this, he accuses the four business executives convicted at first instance over the phone surveillance case with a series of […]
The post Greece’s National Intelligence officer files criminal complaint following Predator spyware surveillance appeared first on Keep Talking Greece.
Login