alt.hn

8/23/2026 at 2:38:25 PM

Slovakia finds Russian backdoor in traffic speed cameras

 https://risky.biz/risky-bulletin-slovakia-finds-russian-backdoor-in-traffic-speed-cameras/

by dredmorbius

8/23/2026 at 3:23:45 PM

So they bought the cameras and some people pointed out they look exactly the same as Russian cameras. The government denied this but after they figured out the serial numbers matched the Russian cameras they started this investigation.

Good they investigated this before using them, but this sounds like a big fu...

by bdhdhduuyd

8/23/2026 at 4:23:51 PM

This would be far more impressive if not for:

> multiple reports in Slovak media that linked the purchase to a Cyprus shell company with fake certifications.

We're talking about this as if it's some precursor to a James Bond plot, but it really fizzles after learning Nina in the sourcing department skipped the compliance paperwork. James Bond doesn't need to leave the bed!

Trojan exploits aside, I just assume that it'd be easier for someone in SVR/GRU to bribe an admin.

by caminante

8/23/2026 at 9:02:16 PM

> Nina in the sourcing department skipped the compliance paperwork.

Well the interior ministry didn't really demand one (yes really) but the opposition people have read the documentation for the cameras and the hash of the supplied software was exactly the same as the hash for the russian simicon camera.

by tpm

8/24/2026 at 12:16:48 AM

They bought tech from a bogus company. Putting that aside, we still don't know if RU exploited the backdoor.

Occam's razor says this was simply a custom batch that was available cheap.

by caminante

8/24/2026 at 6:10:01 AM

There was no time to exploit it because only two cameras were installed, and one of them was right in seat of the company that supplied it.

by tpm

8/23/2026 at 7:25:43 PM

Current government is extremely pro-russian to the point of treason, and people involved in this case double so.

This wasn't some oversight of the proverbial Nina in any way. They just did sloppy job from both sides covering tracks, not uncommon with current government. They are loud (and racist, xenophobic, and often dumb), not competent smart people.

by kakacik

8/23/2026 at 9:53:57 PM

If they're so pro-Russian, then they're not xenophobic enough.

by like_any_other

8/23/2026 at 5:17:25 PM

> We're talking about this as if it's some precursor to a James Bond plot, but it really fizzles after learning Nina in the sourcing department skipped the compliance paperwork.

That's exactly the sort of thing that James Bond would do.

by locknitpicker

8/23/2026 at 6:25:38 PM

With high probablity they are actually made in China. I don't think Russia makes their own chips for cameras.

by codedokode

8/23/2026 at 3:51:25 PM

[flagged]

by yieldcrv

8/23/2026 at 4:04:45 PM

They also like to bomb people, so probably best to not let them locate individuals (or anything else) easily by using Russian traffic cams ...

by spwa4

8/23/2026 at 4:11:23 PM

It's remarkable how much the Russians love fighting given how generally inept they are at it.

by varjag

8/23/2026 at 4:19:38 PM

They are only losing one war in the last few decades, another major empire has in that timeframe lost one and is currently losing another.

by vkou

8/23/2026 at 8:22:05 PM

Even in the wars they win they tend to suffer massive human and materiel losses. And while we can't say they're losing in Ukraine yet it's clear they are just not very good at fighting a true peer whose operational thinking they should of understood the most.

by varjag

8/24/2026 at 2:34:48 AM

> Even in the wars they win they tend to suffer massive human and materiel losses.

Which is a doctrine that works in countries that will suffer far more pain before they get war-weary.

by vkou

8/23/2026 at 4:34:23 PM

>"it’s just cultural" - so is being fucking racist

by FpUser

8/23/2026 at 4:42:20 PM

generalizations about a group of people are not “racist” when not talking about race, they’re also not inherently pejoratives either. reduction is to know what to expect

still buy the cameras, still buy the natural gas

just dont go on the public record saying its not backdoored knowing the supply chain

but assuming there was some introspection you were hoping to reveal, which culture were you considering to be racist?

by yieldcrv

8/23/2026 at 5:20:05 PM

>"generalizations about a group of people are not “racist” when not talking about race" - cut the bull please.

by FpUser

8/23/2026 at 10:13:17 PM

I'm not going to be able to match your colloquialism on that, words have meaning and this one hasn't changed yet despite mods of illiterate people using it your way

by yieldcrv

8/24/2026 at 12:46:00 AM

beautifully onbrand, *mobs

by yieldcrv

8/23/2026 at 4:19:06 PM

Sounds plausable.

There is a video somewhere of a Finnish university professor from around the time the war started (maybe a bit before), explaining the Russian attitude to sportsmanship, or whatever you want to call it.

Basically he suggested cheating is not considered unethical in Russia. If you are not using all means available to reach your goal you are leaving something on the table and are weak. This applies to all levels of society.

I would be cautious of such generalisations normally. But the industrial scale cheating at the winter Olympics says a lot.

by phatfish

8/23/2026 at 4:53:49 PM

"Who does not steal [from the state] steals from his family." - Eastern bloc communist era worker proverb.

by pepperoni_pizza

8/23/2026 at 3:30:28 PM

A big what?

by NuclearPM

8/23/2026 at 3:31:55 PM

A big fuck-up, but some people prefer (nobly even if I don't abide by the same rule) to keep some words out of their mouths.

by GauntletWizard

8/23/2026 at 5:35:00 PM

spelled like that the "u" could mean "you".

by amelius

8/23/2026 at 6:20:18 PM

You've got a point, a fuck-up and a fuck-you are somewhat different in this context, though I was assuming both had malice in my original interpretation.

by GauntletWizard

8/23/2026 at 3:33:16 PM

fuck up

by bdhdhduuyd

8/23/2026 at 7:52:07 PM

Over 100 comments, zero mentions that government funds should be spent on devices with auditable open-source firmware. Anyone here? No? Then I'm the first one to say this.

SecureBoot is a funny one. It should be signed with the deployer's keys (Slovak), not the manufacturer's. Trusted boot probably wasn't a consideration here, really.

Ironically, a custom firmware can now be used thanks to the lack of a digital lock... if you still trust the hardware.

PS: Props to NBU for doing their job.

by PinkSheep

8/24/2026 at 4:06:32 AM

That was in fact the angle of the Fediverse post from which I first saw this story:

"Please use open source systems whenever possible so you can review the source code."

<https://floss.social/@mikebabcock/117134334377276076>

by dredmorbius

8/23/2026 at 8:15:40 PM

Would you be able to get those devices at all, especially at similar price as those with closed source firmware? R

by srdjanr

8/23/2026 at 9:52:03 PM

Maybe you trust the hardware and software and firmware to not be malicious or negligent (currently such assurances are extremely rare [1], so it's hard to overstate what a step up in security just this bare minimum would be), but what if it simply gets hacked by a nation-state level opponent? And there are so many ways to hack it - hardware and software supply chains, interdiction and replacement with compromised parts, attacking the software systems connected to it (maybe the camera is secure, but what about the computers it sends its signals to?), or the human systems, blackmailing an employee to insert a backdoored USB key somewhere...

Are traffic cameras worth the risk of giving away the movement of your key personnel, military and political, in the age of drone warfare and targeted strikes?

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49248678

by like_any_other

8/23/2026 at 5:12:12 PM

> the cameras expose live streams to anyone without a password and who knows their broadcasting IP.

Are these cameras in use in Russia? Can people outside of Russia look in at Russian traffic in this way?

by Animats

8/23/2026 at 6:47:29 PM

There is a small number of cameras which broadcast the video publicly. For example, Moscow: [1] (Taganskaya square), [2] and Saint-Petersburg: [3] (Nevsky prospect and Gostiniy Dvor). Sadly the quality is not great and in reality those places look much better. For example, many of the small 2-floor buildings on Taganskaya square are over 100 years and have a nie classical architecture but one cannot see any fine details in the camera view.

[1] https://gidcam.ru/camera/moskva-panorama-centra-stolicy-s-ma...

[2] https://gidcam.ru/camera/moskva-volgogradskij-prospekt-i-plo...

[3] https://camguide.net/ru/europe/russia/saint-petersburg/nevsk...

by codedokode

8/23/2026 at 3:37:27 PM

Imagine somebody being able to track almost anyone using road side cameras. Good thing such things happen only in eastern Europe wink wink

by tomas789

8/23/2026 at 4:04:23 PM

Most cameras are insecure by default. Check out: http://www.insecam.org/en/ or https://www.shodan.io/ The first isn't even using default access creds, which I suspect is what was 'discovered' in this case, but cameras that immediately hook up to the internet with 0 restrictions to access.

by somenameforme

8/23/2026 at 3:47:11 PM

For the goal of recording a cat scratching their car or catching an imaginary thief neighbour (a magpie or fox stole that thing that one time, you dullard) people will plug into Chinese, Russian, and American video surveillance networks in no time and pay for it.

by lifestyleguru

8/23/2026 at 3:36:38 PM

[flagged]

by gumby

8/23/2026 at 11:28:08 PM

> You reap what you sow, MFs!

Please don't post like this here. We're accustomed to better from you than this.

by tomhow

8/24/2026 at 1:32:30 AM

Thank you for this comment. You’re right.

by gumby

8/24/2026 at 7:26:28 PM

We're glad to have you back in any case! A gumbyless HN is a sadder HN.

by dang

8/23/2026 at 8:33:10 PM

opposition to sanctions does not imply pro-Russia stance.

slovakia also doesnt support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. you made that up.

its crazy that such a lie is a top comment.

by xX_Hacker_Xx

8/23/2026 at 8:56:24 PM

It is literally a pro Russian action, to be against sanctioning Russia for their war against Ukraine.

Tell me how it’s not advantageous for Russia to enable trade with them.

by Gud

8/23/2026 at 9:05:22 PM

it may be advantageous for Russia. thats true.

but it still doesnt imply that slovakia is therefore politically pro-russian.

they might care about pro-slovak advantages it brings. or they might think that sanction dont work as intendet. or they might think that sanction paradoxically cause too many problems in EU. or that it is not the right approach to resolve the conflict.

by xX_Hacker_Xx

8/24/2026 at 5:10:13 AM

There is no “pro Slovak” removing the sanctions against Russia.

Short term, they may benefit by getting access to cheaper resources.

Long term, there will be Russian tanks in Bratislava.

by Gud

8/23/2026 at 9:15:44 PM

Or not be as willing (as the British state is for example) to sacrifice the entire male population of Ukraine to fight a war for them.

That makes you "pro Russian" apparently

by ifwinterco

8/23/2026 at 10:29:46 PM

When populations resist wars of conquest from imperial powers, and request aid, it's not "sacrificing" them to send them aid as they requested. That is a pro Russian narrative you have just deployed though.

by Sabinus

8/24/2026 at 5:28:19 AM

It’s genuinely a lot more complicated than that.

Just look at how officials in positions of power in the the British state reacted, especially people like Ben Wallace.

They’re clearly, shamelessly happy that this war is going on. They love it! The fact Ukraine is getting destroyed as a viable nation is neither here nor there, they don’t care at all.

To them it’s still 1880 and they’re playing the Great Game again, never mind the fact Britain would struggle to fight its way out of a wet paper bag in 2026

by ifwinterco

8/24/2026 at 12:21:51 PM

If Putin is going continue Russia's imperial politics then I think that the British engaging in their very long habit of opposing conquerers on the Continent should be appreciated by everyone.

The complicated start of the war is that the circumstances of the Soviet breakup created a Ukraine entangled with Russia, and when the Ukrainians wanted to join the EU and attain the associated prosperity and reforms, Russia responded in the ways familiar to it, and to Putin.

by Sabinus

8/23/2026 at 9:27:13 PM

lets say you have a digital privacy activist, and someone says their actions are literally "pro CP".

well technically, existence of some private messaging network can help predators. i dont know if there is a way around that.

but saying that the actions of the activist are "pro CP" is not fair IMO. its often a manipulative labeling. it might be what it motivates the activist or it might not be. they might have completely different reasons to advocate for digital privacy.

by xX_Hacker_Xx

8/24/2026 at 5:08:58 AM

Just because someone “says something“ doesn’t make it true.

And yes, digital privacy is obviously advantageous to the child pornographer, unfortunately.

by Gud

8/24/2026 at 6:16:47 AM

A prime minister visiting Russia on victory day, sure sounds like pro-Russia to me.

I know plenty of Slovaks, and you can divide them into 2 groups:

First group are disgusted that their government is pro-Russia.

Second group claims the Ukrainian government was "bombing the Donbas", and finds it normal that "Russia went to defend the Russian speaking population".

But sure, the second group probably consider themselves "neutral" and not "pro-Russia". That doesn't mean we all have to consider them as neutral, since they are deep into the Russian disinfo.

by koonsolo

8/23/2026 at 10:27:34 PM

How does sanctions affect Russian government in war progress exactly? How does it affect regular Russian people in everyday life?

Same questions to opposite side.

by t0bia_s

8/23/2026 at 3:51:52 PM

One could say that Fico himself is a Russian backdoor...

by vrganj

8/23/2026 at 4:05:08 PM

I find it amusing that the biggest supporters or Russia in its current war of aggression against Ukraine are/were Hungary, Slovakia, and Serbia -- precisely the countries that should know better, since they were the principal recipients the "love and friendship" from Russia:

- Hungary: November of 1956

- Slovakia: "spring" of 1968

- Serbia: the Stalin's betrayal at the end of WW2

by chimpontherun

8/23/2026 at 4:36:40 PM

Hungary and Slovakia are largest importers of Russian natural gas in Europe. France is third as I remember.

by codedokode

8/23/2026 at 7:41:01 PM

Yet somehow "preemptive nuclear strike is a valid defense" France is a bit different from Hungary and Slovakia in their stance on Russia.

So maybe natural gas imports aren't the thing that determine the outcome.

by alterom

8/23/2026 at 10:17:23 PM

[dead]

by Barrin92

8/23/2026 at 4:17:46 PM

Geopolitical decisions aren't made by countries, they are made by individual people.

Sometimes those people are a plurality that organically endorses that decision and votes some representative in. Sometimes those people are a plurality that has been brainwashed by compromised media to do it. Sometimes those people are just a small ruling elite that get voted in by people who didn't think very hard about those particular geopolitical decisions and just want, I don't know, their political and cultural enemies brutalized and $1.99 gas.

by vkou

8/23/2026 at 6:04:37 PM

Older people in these countries have good memories of that time, employment and housing were basically a given, healthcare and public transportation were solved, etc. They're very easy to manipulate, promise them a 13th month of pension and they'll vote for you.

I don't think you understand how bad globalization fucked up these countries, people live with their parents until they're 30+, young people can't find decent jobs, etc.

by toasty228

8/23/2026 at 8:24:37 PM

South Korea took themselves out of military dictatorships and authoritarians. What’s the problem.

by hbarka

8/23/2026 at 7:16:31 PM

No, globalization gave them as a nation a chance and they mostly didn't do any serious effort to use that. Its 1000 little decisions here and that that led to some post-soviet-sphere countries to thrive, while others stumble and generally gain prosperity mostly from being dragged into it via EU membership. Ie specifically Slovakia is / used to be a big car factory for whole EU due to low salaries. Not really something to build long term success on, ie if Ukraine would join EU all of those foreign factories would move even further east.

Sure, we can blame politicians which were mostly bad to worse and stole everything that was previously state-owned (meaning everything). But folks kept voting for them in similar fashion you describe so this is the result, its trivial to 'buy' votes with relatively low budget. I mean current PM has very tight and visible connections to Italian 'Ndrangheta mafia, he or people around him did a contract murder of reporter looking into that. He didn't ever faced jail and is back being PM like there is no tomorrow. There is only so much blame one can point outwards, you can't be dumb / do dumb shit and expect long term marvels of prosperity on Switzerland's level.

Lived in both of those countries, and they look exactly as they should given overall population efforts towards hard work, honesty, rule of law and so on. If US would be a nation of slackers and thieves it would also look very differently to how it is.

by kakacik

8/23/2026 at 8:13:22 PM

> and they mostly didn't do any serious effort to use that.

Those countries who were fresh from behind the iron curtain were really dealt a bad hand. They had lived in a "protective bubble", albeit a very unsustainable one and suddenly were thrown in the ocean surrounded by sharks looking for an easy meal. Almost every one of those people found themselves desperate but "inexperienced" and unprepared for the new world, every politician was absolutely blown away by the fortune they could make, and every other country jumped on the opportunity to make money. Like shooting fish in a barrel.

For every politician who took a bribe, someone who already had money paid it. That money didn't come from inside those poor countries. This leveraging of poorer countries never stopped. That's how some countries get a better deal than others when the EU adopted the Euro, for example. But it's never been so bad as back then because it's incredibly rare that entire countries find themselves exiting a time capsule, just ready to be exploited by people who already know how the game is played.

This reminds me of two things. The people who always think others are poor because they're lazy, and the people with perfect hindsight and no pressure judging that Captain Sully could have landed the plane back on the runway instead of the Hudson.

by buran77

8/24/2026 at 9:58:40 AM

Well, yes and no. This is valid across 2 decades, not something that happened over 6 months after iron curtain fell. And in some way it continues till today, rule of law is still pretty weak for example and politicians often sidestep laws valid for everybody else. Thats really indefensible and completely on population, not some evil forces outside conspiring to harm.

Also, most corruption, or ie sale of factories worth billions for thousands/millions was mostly to local people, not outsiders.

by kakacik

8/24/2026 at 8:26:08 PM

> something that happened over 6 months after iron curtain fell

That's how you think it went, huh? Six months and every country and person got over the decades of communism like they never existed? Six month was just enough for the euphoria to wear off.

If reading a book gave you 1 million HN karma everyone would jump on it. Instead it just makes people more educated. Here, gift link [1], check out what did most countries manage to achieve before say June 1990.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutions_of_1989

by buran77

8/24/2026 at 10:49:40 AM

> No, globalization gave them as a nation a chance and they mostly didn't do any serious effort to use that.

Sure buddy... That's why the country is full of german supermarkets, french banks, german factories, etc. They totally were not accepted in EU just to milk the low ages at all.

by toasty228

8/23/2026 at 7:40:41 PM

> people live with their parents until they're 30+, young people can't find decent jobs, etc.

A lot of people in the US feel the same way right now.

by esseph

8/23/2026 at 4:29:46 PM

My brother visited some of these countries. He said most people there are oblivious to what happened to their countries. They simply don't care. It also didn't help that everyone he met (agricultural sector) was a day-drinker.

That's why they're doomed to repeat it. Again and again.

by spiderfarmer

8/23/2026 at 7:46:51 PM

exactly. they need a foreigner that visits for a weekend to tell them what is happening in their own country. those stupid day-drinking eastern europeans... the arrogance of you and your brother is incredible

by Blah1113

8/23/2026 at 5:13:14 PM

It's almost like people who are simply trying to survive don't have the time, energy, or space to worry about international, or even national affairs. Weird.

by Loughla

8/23/2026 at 6:34:02 PM

They’re not simply trying to survive. They’re not that poor.

by spiderfarmer

8/23/2026 at 7:38:35 PM

>precisely the countries that should know better, since they were the principal recipients the "love and friendship" from Russia

Goes to show that 1984-style conditioning really does work, decades later.

Remarkably, it can even be passed through generations, as it gets ingrained into the mentality of how parents raise children: "The nail that sticks out gets hammered down. Don't rock the boat."

Which was a survival trait in those times.

The current incarnation of Russian propaganda is different, but is even more virally poisonous:

> I'm not political. Politics is dirty. There's nothing you can change anyway. "Two sides" is an illusion. Everybody is lying and has an ulterior motive. Only naive fools believe otherwise, only naive fools ever trust. You can't know anything for sure. What you think is true is actually a lie. The only thing that's real is who you're with. That's the only truth. That's the only thing to look for in anything anyone says, that's the only thing one really says. That's what makes something true or false. The words uttered don't matter at all.

You might have seen this kind of mentality spouted by your friends on either side of the political spectrum.

Remarkably, whatever the political persuasion of people who have it is, the end result is the likes of Orban/Fico coming to power.

Sadly, this thing not only spreads, it also sticks.

If you know of an antidote, please tell me what it is.

by alterom

8/23/2026 at 4:31:41 PM

The Slovaks ultimately got federalization of Czechoslovakia from the crisis (1969), which both distracted them and made their memories less negative.

As far as Hungary goes, I asked my friend who studied Hungarian history. He explained to me that while the Soviet invasion was very traumatic, the subsequent Kádár "goulash socialism" was a lot more lenient on the people than all the other Soviet Bloc regimes, and that the Hungarians made an incorrectly confident conclusion that losing a small war to the Russians is not catastrophic.

Of course, this is NOT the experience of basically anyone else who happened to be in a similar situation. A potential puppet regime of Russia in Ukraine wouldn't look like Kádárs by any means, it would rather look like the Kadyrovian microstate in Chechnya, minus the Islam of course.

by inglor_cz

8/23/2026 at 5:24:20 PM

A lot of Eastern European countries have oligarchs who largely made their fortunes with help from the Russians. In Czechia one such example is the prime minister Andrej Babiš, who was a bureaucrat in a state owned business who then sold it to himself in the 90s (with the help of some "Swiss" money) and became a billionaire. He's consistently been as pro-Russia as he thinks he can get away with (the positive is that Czechs hate Russians a lot).

Also in these countries there's a lot of old people who have never been able to adapt to living in a free, capitalist society, so for them, there's some nostalgia for communism.

by dismalaf

8/23/2026 at 6:43:08 PM

And maybe they mistake current Russia for a communist country? It has every single ingredient of Stalin's Russia except the pretense of socialism or communism.

by pmontra

8/23/2026 at 8:53:08 PM

oh no, they see very clearly, to the West it's a (more or less) rule-based order and to the East it's a might-makes-right one, so they having acquired their power and money in a not entirely legal way, naturally are drawn to the east.

edit: ah you mean the old people? not really, no, it's just pure propaganda, it doesn't have to make sense.

by tpm

8/23/2026 at 4:08:20 PM

[dead]

by cindyllm

8/23/2026 at 8:16:34 PM

[dead]

by cineticdaffodil

8/23/2026 at 7:16:58 PM

[flagged]

by drysine

8/23/2026 at 4:52:10 PM

Are there any other wars that are not of aggression? What do you gain by parroting the legalese speak? Implying that it is extra bad and extra illegal war? Not your run of the mill PG-13 war? This one is X-rated kids.

Everyone knows who the attacker is - just some people root for Russia for their own reasons. Usually tied to the internal politics of their countries - like hating for unrelated reasons the political actors from their states that happen to support Ukraine.

by ReptileMan

8/23/2026 at 5:37:37 PM

> Are there any other wars that are not of aggression?

There are concepts like wars of necessity or just wars (e.g. of liberation), but that depends on how cynical you're feeling.

by Cpoll

8/23/2026 at 7:40:29 PM

> wars of necessity

Propaganda always tries to convince people that the current war is the just war and everyone else is wrong.

by shevy-java

8/24/2026 at 12:36:46 AM

It does, but that doesn't mean that wars aren't started for different reasons, or that those reasons can be morally justified or not.

by Sabinus

8/23/2026 at 9:53:57 PM

No, it just means their governments are controlled by pro-russian people, or are simply Russian puppets installed years ago.

by elisbce

8/23/2026 at 5:56:25 PM

Slovakia is heavily influenced by Russian propaganda, which started way before Corona times.

It's mainly the older people that are influenced by this, and a lot of young people either left the country already, or have concrete plans to leave.

It's really sad, how these old people are ruining the future of their children and grandchildren, really crazy.

You can say a lot about Russia, but they are very good with misinformation, it's a real threat for Europe.

My wife is from Slovakia, so I have front row seats on the whole situation. The kinds of misinformation these older people are willing to believe is really nuts.

by koonsolo

8/23/2026 at 6:26:06 PM

Old people are ruining their grandchildren’s lives everywhere, not just in Slovakia.

by fmajid

8/23/2026 at 6:08:47 PM

It's rooted in the education system to this day.

The majority of school teachers grew up under the Soviet side of cold war propaganda.

And in history education in particular, we are told that "we" have always looked towards Russia as a role model, to fight Hungarian nationalism (since the country was just part of Hungary for most of its history).

by fallingbananna

8/23/2026 at 6:16:35 PM

That is possible, but I also see people who used to be very anti-Soviet, now to be anti-EU and anti-Ukraine. It's kind of like they hated Russia in the past, but now are convinced that EU and Ukraine are worse.

When in the past they would claim that the Soviet times were bad, now they would claim that it wasn't that bad in the end. That is of course because of all the horrible things that are happening in EU, like gay and trans people, and vaccinations. Terrible! Let's bring those good old Soviet days back!

by koonsolo

8/23/2026 at 7:42:38 PM

Well - people can dislike Russia, Ukraine and the EU all at the same time as well.

The world is not simple black/white.

> When in the past they would claim that the Soviet times were bad, now they would claim that it wasn't that bad in the end.

We are here talking about different things. You refer to these people praising the Soviet Union for e. g. healthcare and what not. This has absolutely nothing to do with Putin's genocide against Ukrainians though. Putin represents the aggressive russian empire that wants to conquer more land. It is really simple to see. It has nothing to do with healthcare.

by shevy-java

8/23/2026 at 6:57:54 PM

[flagged]

by pacija

8/23/2026 at 7:12:23 PM

I live in the EU, particularly in the part that Russia is looming over, Latvia.

I'm quite glad that we're not a part of Russia, where even queer people are considered extremists and critiques of the illegal war will either carry a prison sentence or being conscripted to sent to the meat grinder. The human rights situation doesn't seem perfect ofc, but that's mostly cause of right leaning views being prevalent.

I also believe that we'd probably benefit from more militarization, not less - investment into drone technology so borders and such could also be patrolled more easily to prevent or limit things like this https://www-lsm-lv.translate.goog/raksts/zinas/latvija/11.08... as well as just having a stronger NATO as a deterrent.

The push for things like Chat Control sucks and it's very easy to imagine how it will get misused, should our governing structures be compromised by a sufficiently totalitarian regime or ideology.

At least over here people still carry the memory of the Soviet deportations: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_deportations_from_Latvi...

by KronisLV

8/23/2026 at 7:11:27 PM

The EU doesn’t have an army, wtf are you talking about. The military buildup is a very recent trend, a reaction to Russia war on Ukraine

by dgellow

8/23/2026 at 6:04:54 PM

Sounds like boomers everywhere.

by deepfriedchokes

8/23/2026 at 8:11:07 PM

[dead]

by Blah1113

8/23/2026 at 4:05:49 PM

[dead]

by throwaway_49409

8/23/2026 at 5:22:31 PM

[flagged]

by paganel

8/23/2026 at 5:30:18 PM

> God forbid for national politicians to think about their națion first!

Being pro-russia is being anti-Slovakian though. You get zero upside for teaming with terrorist state and all the downsides.

by azan_

8/23/2026 at 5:57:02 PM

Fico get all the free shit from Europe to build his country and a boat load of free money from his personal investments in shady businesses, so in that case he does get both upsides.

by toasty228

8/23/2026 at 5:48:37 PM

ceding sovereignty and to many degrees cultures to another nation to kinda like be a vassal state is quite literally not thinking about your nation first lmao. even less so when the other nation funds your political ascension, like.. that's the opposite of thinking about your nation first. that's flat out doing it for the other nation man.

by trueno

8/23/2026 at 4:02:27 PM

[flagged]

by tonyhart7

8/23/2026 at 4:11:48 PM

acting like western nation didn't spy to each other

Is he? I don't see that in his comment at all. Can you point out that part to us?

Perhaps your handlers never taught you that two things can be bad at the same time.

by reaperducer

8/23/2026 at 4:38:49 PM

[flagged]

by tonyhart7

8/23/2026 at 4:51:40 PM

it's not about Russia being good or bad, they will do anything in their interest like every other country. What's bad is Slovakia apparently not being careful enough about that.

by Yiin

8/23/2026 at 4:41:00 PM

so Russia is the good guy here?

by ricardobeat

8/23/2026 at 4:44:31 PM

now you putting word in my mouth, no one says that

but pointing "huh huh duurrr Russia is bad" while doing the same shit Russia doing is peak level irony

You don't have moral high ground

by tonyhart7

8/23/2026 at 7:58:20 PM

[flagged]

by Blah1113

8/23/2026 at 7:38:34 PM

That's wrong. Even the pro-Russia politicians did not support the genocide Russia commits against Ukraine. And they are not even in the majority right now anyway; people are not going to elect bribed russian tools anymore. You could see this in Hungary. The rest will follow - everyone sees the daily genocide Putin commits here. No amount of bribe money will convince regular people from what they can see with their own eyes here.

by shevy-java

8/23/2026 at 7:47:29 PM

[flagged]

by fierycatnet

8/23/2026 at 8:16:13 PM

Russians very much do touch civilians, please don't spread lies of these mass murderers.

Aside of what is happening on the frontlines and behind them, they target civilians in towns and cities in all of Ukraine with drones and rockets daily.

Just from today we have some examples:

A russian drone targeting a civilian train: https://bsky.app/profile/wartranslated.bsky.social/post/3mtr...

A russia drone targetting a cyclist and bragging about it: https://bsky.app/profile/wartranslated.bsky.social/post/3mtr...

And a few days ago, a targetted attack on a shoppping mall in Kryvyi Rih, 16 dead and scores of missing and injured: https://bsky.app/profile/wartranslated.bsky.social/post/3mtr...

Moreover a genocide is the stated objective from beforoe the war - according to the chief mass murderer, Ukrainian nation does not exist and so the state must be destroyed.

by tpm

8/23/2026 at 5:23:20 PM

That's a pretty harsh and uninformed take. Russia operates by capturing foreign governments and making their leaders beholden to Russia's interests. When it succeeds, it happens regardless of what the populace actually wants. They've been grooming Trump (along with a dozen or so other potential up-and-comers) since the 80s (Trump was considered a long shot and too unpredictable, but fortune favors the prepared - better weak support of their enemies than full belligerence).

The Belarusians aren't too thrilled that Russian troops are operating in their country either, but Lukashenko needs Russian support to stay in power, so he walks a tightrope. Notice how noncommittal he is about pretty much everything...

by kstenerud

8/23/2026 at 6:02:07 PM

In the case of Slovakia, it's purely Russian misinformation that was able to capture a large part of the population, mainly older people. First anti-EU, then anti-vax, and now anti-Ukraine and anti-EU.

by koonsolo

8/23/2026 at 10:01:43 PM

> Russian misinformation that was able to capture a large part of the population, mainly older people.

'Capturing' the population is worthless. Anti-immigration sentiment has 'captured' the UK, to the point that in every election since 1964, the public voted against immigration [1]. Yet every time they got increased immigration instead.

[1] https://www.woes.blog/p/tgr-democracy

by like_any_other

8/23/2026 at 5:53:08 PM

[flagged]

by icantevenhold

8/23/2026 at 3:44:24 PM

You must be new to state sponsored malware. Recent false flags are a thing: 2018 Olympic Destroyer, Marble Framework, Silver Fox, MuddyWater Chaos

by greenavocado

8/23/2026 at 5:03:20 PM

Silver Fox is a very vaguely defined Chinese cybercrime group of malware and actors...or are you referring to something else?

by pbrum

8/23/2026 at 4:09:27 PM

> Recent false flags are a thing: 2018 Olympic Destroyer, Marble Framework, Silver Fox, MuddyWater Chaos

How are any of those false flag? They're state sponsored, by different state actors.

by sofixa

8/23/2026 at 4:53:51 PM

It would be extremely stupid of Russia not to spy on Slovakia. If they had properly spied on Ukraine, they could have turned around 2014 and all of Nuland's "regime change" machinations. They have learned their lesson well now - do as the Americans do and spy on everyone - and most especially the "friendly" nations - by any and all means.

by lenkite

8/23/2026 at 5:58:54 PM

"learned their lesson well now" - I don't think Russia has learned any lessons at all since Ukraine. Russia's sheer incompetence keeps getting worse and worse, as Prigozhin exposed on the inside. The war went from total failure to achieve any objectives for 5 years, to now 4 hour lines in Moscow to fill up your car at the gas station - i.e. Russia went from "failing to capture Kyiv in 3 days" to now "getting hit in the center of Moscow regularly".

Given the level of incompetence that Russia has demonstrated on both the political and military front, I highly doubt it could've turned anything around in Ukraine even if knew everything about 2014.

by znnajdla

8/23/2026 at 8:24:08 PM

That does not make much sense. In 2014 Yanukovic was in power, who had been bought off by Russia. Lets not forget that Yanukovic ran on a pro EU platform and then reversed a day or so before signing the EU association agreement. Naturally the people went to the streets and eventually Yanukovic fled. Not sure what you would have wanted to spy on.

by Paradigma11

8/23/2026 at 10:15:31 PM

> Lets not forget that Yanukovic ran on a pro EU platform and then reversed a day or so before signing the EU association agreement.

During his 2010 presidential campaign, Yanukovic promoted a "multi-vector" foreign policy that sought to balance relations with both Russia and the European Union. He explicitly campaigned on maintaining economic and diplomatic ties with Russia. Also, do note that he was elected by the Russian-ethnic regions that subsequently rebelled after their duly-elected and EU-observer vetted President was overthrown in a coup.

Nuland didn't want to wait for formal elections or even a formal impeachment under the Ukrainian constitution. Because she had already planned the replacement govt and even the people for specific roles. She actively glued the political transition together quickly before Russian backstage maneuvering could undermine the anti-Yanukovych movement.

It was the crowning glory of her state department career. Only the US can get away with this sort of shameless regime change and Americans pat themselves on the back for being the "good guys".

by lenkite

8/24/2026 at 9:13:10 AM

So, what exactly did Nuland do? What are the actions she took and how did those actions accomplish a coup? Besides, afaik there had been a plan in place for a peaceful resolution but Yanukovic chose to flee to his handlers in Moscow.

by Paradigma11

8/23/2026 at 3:58:46 PM

It seems like a silly mess. But its easier than it sounds to end up in such a situation. We're are a lot of HN Kagi users that just have to trust that the Yandex collaboration is fully watertight.

by tokai

8/24/2026 at 12:39:55 PM

Wait until they find that "Russian backdoor" sits inside their government and issues orders to purchase such cameras.

by Lockal

8/24/2026 at 1:06:19 AM

I think i read Japan does this to CCTVs sold in China

Public Security Intelligence Agency (公安調査庁) apparently is sitting on a massive amount of data from China which imported their tech

by zuzululu

8/23/2026 at 6:08:02 PM

The comments here seem to presuppose that somehow Slovakia is the only ones who would need to worry about this, and not, say, any town with Flock in it

by thisisnotauser

8/23/2026 at 7:08:25 PM

What's the purpose of this? Opening a way to make the cameras going rogue and starting to fine everybody in a particular period of time to create massive discontent, administration chaos, and unrest? maybe just before an election? Aren't this cameras connected with some government computers?

by pvaldes

8/23/2026 at 8:37:11 PM

Perhaps. What actually happened is that we have a demented interior minister in a unbelievably corrupt but also pro-russian government. So it's really anybodys guess if it's just pure corruption (the interior ministry wanting to buy some traffic cameras and someone bribing to get the contract while buying the cheapest they could find which were these russian ones) or indeed some covert russian operation (the responsible minister wouldn't know about it, he's too dumb for that, but there might be other government people who did know). In any case in a functioning state this would end up with the minister leaving his post at least. Not in Slovakia.

by tpm

8/23/2026 at 3:08:25 PM

Next up, chinese solar inverter firmware.

by irishcoffee

8/23/2026 at 3:11:14 PM

To do what? Turn off the power in random individual houses?

by victorbjorklund

8/23/2026 at 5:13:12 PM

I think synchronized operations could really disrupt the grid — think thousands of inverters switching backfeeding to the grid on/off, causing waves and disruption. Or thousands of inverters having their grid sync disabled, simultaneously operating to shift the frequency of the grid (very bad).

by jwr

8/23/2026 at 3:33:46 PM

I'd be worried about the inverters in large commercial solar plants. On a sunny day you could easily cause a blackout by turning enough solar capacity off at once. Maybe shut down the entire grid when the sudden power imbalances trip the self- protection in half the grid. That's a pain to recover from. Spain went through that not too long ago

But maybe rapidly switching residential solar on and off in a coordinated way can also do funny things to grid equipment

by wongarsu

8/23/2026 at 3:45:28 PM

Any idea what happens to the grid when a significant chunk of solar power suddenly disconnects?

by rollulus

8/23/2026 at 8:11:09 PM

Not much if a couple of thousand homes in US switches off. There are way more sensitive targets than ”they could randomly hike the electricity usage with 0,0000000000000000001%”

by victorbjorklund

8/23/2026 at 5:37:28 PM

There are always some “stable” power sources kept on standby that can be activated within minutes, for example gas turbines. In European electricity markets, generators can actually be paid simply for keeping this reserve capacity available, even if they are not producing much electricity most of the time.

The problem is that a few minutes is still too slow when a large power source suddenly drops out. The grid needs an immediate response, which can come from fast reserves such as batteries, hydro, pumped storage and other generators that can react automatically.

Pumped storage is basically gravitational energy storage: you pump water uphill when electricity is plentiful, then release it through turbines when power is needed.

I quite fancy electrical grid.

by hsuduebc2

8/23/2026 at 4:27:07 PM

nah, the ones connected to the grid... you turn them all off during peak sun hours at the exact same time

same issue with large loads like boilers, this stuff should never be connected to the internet, but it is

if you can control enough load on the grid you can do real damage

by nom

8/23/2026 at 3:37:32 PM

DDoS, anonymizer proxy, and turn off power in large commercial installations. They kinda deserve it for investing in solar. US holds all the power in social media, can't blame China if they want to utilize their lead in solar for something too.

Hopefully mutually assured annoyance keeps everyone at bay.

by randoot

8/23/2026 at 11:30:52 PM

What do you think will happen if ALL the inverters in a city during a sunny day will suddenly switch off, then on, then off, then on, then off....

Also, you're sure its only home energy generation that's affected?

by subscribed

8/23/2026 at 3:32:40 PM

To set roofs on fire?

In the end it's all about trust. Right now I don't see why China would like to burn down their market.

by bdhdhduuyd

8/23/2026 at 3:33:54 PM

guys, do we need to reinvent the same Hanlon razor but for capitalism: Dont attribute to malice that which can easily be explained by capitalism?

by cyanydeez

8/23/2026 at 3:49:00 PM

If we're reinventing sayings, I suggest Clarke's third law first: Any sufficiently advanced capitalism is indistinguishable from malice.

by probably_wrong

8/23/2026 at 4:56:34 PM

To piss away decades of hard-earned trust in its products for some short-term one-time political 'pwn' of the enemy.

If that goal sounds stupid to you, that's because it is. I would expect some countries that are not China to act with such a capricious lack of foresight.

by vkou

8/23/2026 at 6:07:00 PM

The US pulled a 1-time trigger on Japan… twice. Looks like it worked out. You should be careful tossing around words like stupid.

by irishcoffee

8/24/2026 at 3:21:03 AM

Worked out how?

They've made no meaningful concessions, and are quietly dumping treasuries. US bond yields are skyrocketing, making it more and more expensive for the US to borrow... Under a president that's pissing away taxpayer money like a drunken sailor.

This isn't some 3D chess move, it's exactly what it looks like.

by vkou

8/23/2026 at 8:08:02 PM

If you had enough systems under control in an area, you could probably create a brown out or some other type of scenario by turning off 1000 houses on the right day.

by Spooky23

8/23/2026 at 3:29:18 PM

Track usage patterns to know when people are at home and then rob them.

by newsclues

8/23/2026 at 3:30:18 PM

Some of those are networked I think?

by emdash

8/23/2026 at 3:52:26 PM

Most of them are. Including the biggest ones.

by tomas789

8/23/2026 at 3:15:46 PM

The HN version of "I have nothing to hide."

by 2OEH8eoCRo0

8/23/2026 at 3:24:13 PM

The nothing to hide thing isnt even an HN only thing unfortunately.

by giancarlostoro

8/23/2026 at 5:36:53 PM

Do they even need that since, when most of the converters are attached to the Chinese cloud?

by hansoolo

8/23/2026 at 6:05:00 PM

I made the logical leap that the firmware enables this. I don’t have the code in front of me, so that may have been an incorrect leap.

by irishcoffee

8/23/2026 at 3:18:13 PM

[dead]

by szundi

8/23/2026 at 8:32:24 PM

It's almost as if electing a pro-Russia politician has consequences...

by physhster

8/23/2026 at 7:37:21 PM

The problem I see is that Putin fully committed to the war. It is not only clear that he has no interest in ending the war, despite the lip service, but will continue to create problems and cause issues. This backdoor here is not an isolated problem - it is a systemic, concerted problem. All retaliatory moves are handicapped by orange Agent Krasnov being an asset for Russia. The EU needs to stop outsourcing its security. That includes having a nuclear arsenal available for all member states.

by shevy-java

8/23/2026 at 6:07:08 PM

It wouldn't surprise me if the Russian misinformation inside Slovakia is able to spin this into an anti-EU, anti-Ukraine story.

by koonsolo

8/23/2026 at 3:54:57 PM

Slovakian prime minister is doing proud photos with Putin despite the ongoing war so the backdoor looks like a desired feature not a bug or fuck up.

by lifestyleguru

8/23/2026 at 3:51:05 PM

The detail that gets me is the Ministry saying the cameras were safe because they'd be on a closed network, while the backdoor can apparently be triggered via SMS from hardcoded phone numbers.

That's a pretty good demonstration of why "it's not exposed to the internet" isn't a security boundary if the device itself has an out-of-band communications path.

Add Secure Boot being disabled and unauthenticated live streams and this seems less like one unfortunate backdoor and more like nobody established what the trust boundary was supposed to be in the first place.

by LogTrim

8/23/2026 at 7:46:11 PM

"Not exposed to the internet" means exfiltration is hard in this case. If I were to dream about defense in depth, these SIM cards should be monitored for traffic anyway or have filtering rules at carrier level. Because at the end of the day, Russian numbers or not, mobile networks are insecure.

by PinkSheep

8/23/2026 at 7:39:01 PM

[dead]

by hno5b8kgpg

8/23/2026 at 4:16:02 PM

Zero chance of vulns in flock, so we're good in the US /s

by yodon

8/23/2026 at 4:31:04 PM

[flagged]

by sssilver

8/23/2026 at 4:33:41 PM

The article is neither about Germany nor about the US.

by flohofwoe

8/23/2026 at 4:42:46 PM

It's about allies spying on each other, a common practice since the dawn of civilization.

by sssilver

8/23/2026 at 5:49:27 PM

Imagine a headline reading, "People are starving in [city]." Someone might reply to that news by pointing out that starvation is as old as humankind. ...older even.

Would that remark be on topic? Would it be noise?

by fwn

8/23/2026 at 5:53:04 PM

[flagged]

by ojciecczas

8/23/2026 at 10:48:26 PM

Please don't fulminate on HN. The guidelines make it clear we're trying for something better here. You may not owe nation states better, but you owe this community better if you want to participate here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

by tomhow

8/23/2026 at 4:58:32 PM

Russia to Slovakia is Israel to USA. Puppet state.

by juliusceasar

8/23/2026 at 5:48:22 PM

Most people talking about Slovakia wouldn't even be able to put it on a map or know what currency they use, but they become instant geo political expert.

They don't even know how to pronounce Fico properly... Give me a break lmao

by toasty228

8/23/2026 at 6:21:47 PM

That is your argument? Omg, the level of it...

by juliusceasar