A congressional staffer whose office was
notified by the agency said the breach affected
fewer than 100,000 people. The staffer was not
authorized to speak publicly on the matter
and spoke on condition that the staffer not be
further identified.
CBP said none of the data had surfaced on the
internet or Dark Web. The Register said the
hacker provided it with a list of files exfiltrated
from the Perceptics corporate network and said a
company spokesperson had confirmed the hack.
“Initial information indicates that the
subcontractor violated mandatory security and
privacy protocols outlined in their contract,” the
agency said in a statement.
CBP said it learned of the data breach May
- It said the subcontractor had transferred
copies of the images to its company network in
violation of government policies and without
the agency’s authorization.
Perceptics, of Farragut, Tennessee, bills itself as
the sole provider of license-plate readers “for
passenger vehicle primary inspection lanes at all
land border ports of entry in the United States,
Canada and at the most critical lanes in Mexico.”
It says it has secured “thousands of border
checkpoints” and says its products automate over
200 hundred million vehicle inspections annually.
Perceptic technology is also used in electronic
toll collection and roadway monitoring.
Civil liberties groups including the ACLU and the
Electronic Frontier Foundation have expressed
alarm at the general lack of regulation of license
plate-reading cameras and databases, saying
the technology has great potential to be abused
for surveillance and location-tracking.