The Trojan Horse in the Surveillance Network
At the signal from Researcher Lee Sang-hoon, CEO Cha Young-jin turned to the military official. "Could you ask the soldiers who just passed by to walk through the area again?"
As the soldiers, who had been waiting outside the CCTV's field of view, re-entered the frame under the official's instruction, the system immediately identified them. A gray box appeared around the marching soldiers, signaling the detection of an object. A moment later, the box turned green, accompanied by the display of their unit information.
Researcher Lee Sang-hoon moved his cursor and clicked on the green box, revealing the ranks and names of the moving soldiers.
"Whoa! Was this level of technology actually possible with domestic engineering?" the military official asked, clearly impressed.
Researcher Lee replied, "Facial recognition may fail at long distances or at night. In those cases, it will display a gray box and a warning message, so please keep that in mind."
Once the verification for friendly forces was complete, CEO Cha Young-jin moved to the next phase.
"Now, let's proceed with the verification under the assumption that enemy forces are on foot."
"We have special forces NCOs on standby who are not registered in the facial recognition database. Just give the order."
"If you're ready, shall we begin?"
At the same location, the special forces NCOs appeared, dressed as North Korean soldiers. As soon as the moving objects entered the frame, the CCTV began recognition, displaying a red box and triggering a warning message. Unlike the previous test, the red warning light flashed, and a message appeared, ordering the immediate deployment of the five-minute standby force.
"It identifies moving people quite well. Shall we try something a bit more difficult? Let's test the scenario where an enemy is moving through the brush. This isn't the same location as before, right?"
"Yes! We chose the location just as we coordinated in advance."
"The system identifies objects regardless of location anyway, so if you're ready, let's start!"
CEO Cha Young-jin requested that the "North Korean soldiers" infiltrate from a random position, assuming a low-crawl approach. The military officials signaled the NCOs to prepare. After receiving the radio command, the other side confirmed receipt, and then silence fell. CEO Cha and his team watched to see if the system could detect the infiltrating NCOs.
On the CCTV screen, the weeds and trees swayed slightly in the wind. The surveillance system occasionally flashed a gray box over the brush, but it disappeared just as quickly. Five minutes later, the alarm system suddenly blared, and a gray box appeared on Camera 43, highlighting a patch of grass.
Researcher Lee Sang-hoon clicked the gray box, and the corresponding information was displayed.
"The system indicates there is an object moving in the opposite direction of the surrounding grass. You're going to deploy the five-minute standby force, right?"
Having served as a sergeant himself, Researcher Lee spoke to the military official based on his own experience. The official, not knowing the exact location, radioed to confirm.
"Where did the infiltrating NCOs enter? What? Camera 43? Understood. Tell them to hold their position!"
The people standing around the control system couldn't confirm the presence of an enemy yet, even though the camera data matched, so the military official followed standard procedure and deployed the standby force.
A moment later, the standby force appeared on Camera 43, and the official picked up the radio to direct them. "At your current position, at the 4 o'clock direction, 30 meters out, movement suspected to be enemy forces has been observed. Be careful, as it could be our own special forces!"
On the CCTV, the standby force could be seen approaching the gray box. Knowing they were being watched by Ministry of Defense officials, they moved cautiously toward the suspected location. The soldier who got closest appeared to shout something, but since the system didn't support audio, the sound couldn't be heard.
A moment later, the person disguised as a North Korean soldier stood up from the brush, and they exchanged the pre-arranged password to verify identities. The people around the control system cheered and applauded as the Starlink-provided CCTV successfully detected the soldiers disguised as North Koreans. CEO Cha Young-jin looked around and asked for further cooperation.
"We will conduct one more test. This is also a random location, right?"
"Yes! We'll be ready immediately."
While CEO Cha and the military official discussed the next test, Researcher Lee Sang-hoon called out to CEO Cha with a puzzled expression.
"CEO, you need to take a look at the hacking side of things."
"Why?"
"Strange signals are being transmitted continuously. Perhaps because it's the defense network, they aren't getting through, but the system keeps repeating the command."
"Move aside! Let me see!"
CEO Cha Young-jin took off his suit jacket, sat in the chair, and immediately checked the source of the signals.
"Huh! The CCTV is still sending footage... What is this?"
CEO Cha typed on the keyboard. "The IP address is 1.80.255.255... This address is from China..."
CEO Cha turned to the military official. "Is this CCTV by any chance made in China? There's a continuous command being sent to transmit the footage to a Chinese address."
"No. This project is supervised by the Ministry of Defense, and the contract explicitly states that domestic CCTVs must be used. It's impossible for Chinese products to be here."
"That's strange. That's an address typically set for Chinese CCTVs..."
At CEO Cha's words, an NIS agent stepped forward. "Do you have a spare CCTV? If it's the same product, we'll know if we take it apart."
The military official immediately gave an order to an officer standing nearby. "Go to the logistics staff right now and check if there's a spare CCTV!"
While waiting, CEO Cha Young-jin asked about the scientific border surveillance project. "Wasn't this project handled by the Miso Group?"
"The Miso Group only handled the initial regional and integration work. Parts of the eastern and western regions were handled through central bidding."
A moment later, the officer returned with a CCTV unit, and CEO Cha looked for a screwdriver to disassemble it. Once opened, the internal components, including the camera, were revealed. CEO Cha inspected the elements on the circuit board.
"The parts inside this CCTV are Chinese."
The component CEO Cha pointed to with his screwdriver clearly bore the words Made In China. Flustered, the military official tried to make an excuse. "Couldn't a domestic company have used Chinese parts?"
CEO Cha didn't respond and looked at Researcher Lee. "Researcher Lee, did you bring our debug port?"
"It's in my bag."
Researcher Lee pulled the debug port from his bag and handed it over. CEO Cha connected it to the board and downloaded the firmware.
"Let's see! The security updates and the footage transmission addresses are all 1.80... It's all China. In my opinion, it looks like they passed off Chinese CCTVs as domestic products."
"..."
When CEO Cha concluded it was Chinese-made, the military official fell into a state of shock, lost in thought. "I think we should stop the test evaluation here for today."
"We only have the multi-path infiltration test left, so let's just proceed. The problems with the existing project have nothing to do with us, so I believe it's right to continue."
At CEO Cha's request, the military official picked up the radio and requested the infiltration from the special forces brigade. Just like before, alarms triggered from multiple cameras, displaying warning messages, verifying that there were no issues with the system itself.
The Deepmind employees packed their tools and bags and left the base with a sense of relief, while the military officials began to worry about how to handle the CCTVs that had been falsely labeled as domestic, already starting to tighten their lips.
As he left the base, CEO Cha called Taesik to report that the software installation was complete and that the origin of the CCTVs had been falsified.
"Are all the currently installed CCTVs for daytime use?"
"Yes. They were products without infrared capabilities."
"Did you also check the fence sensor section?"
"That was outside the scope of the contract, so we only updated the video processing part."
"It seems we'll need to talk to the government about supplying Starlink Defense's infrared cameras. Thank you for your hard work."
After receiving the call from CEO Cha, Taesik immediately called CEO Park In-tak to discuss the problems with the scientific border surveillance system and checked the feasibility of producing CCTV-specific products.
"The CCTVs currently applied in the scientific border surveillance system are for daytime use. Would it be possible to produce day-and-night hybrid CCTVs using infrared technology?"
"Representative, Defense is already producing day-and-night hybrid CCTVs."
"Yes...?"
"CEO Park Kyung-hoon of Security developed them to apply to affiliate security systems, and they are installed across all Starlink affiliates."
"What are the specifications?"
"Since they were miniaturized, the performance is lower than EO/IR, so the IR (infrared) visibility range is about 30 meters. Beyond 30 meters, facial recognition is impossible, but shape recognition is possible."
"Then, while facial recognition is impossible, object recognition is feasible."
"Yes. It's more than enough to distinguish between humans and objects."
"Is it in a state where production is possible at any time?"
"I'd have to check with our partner companies, but if we place a pre-order, we can produce them within three months."
After ending the call with CEO Park In-tak, Taesik immediately called Section Chief Choi Jae-ho.
"This is Kim Taesik from Starlink. Have you received a report about the incident that occurred during the installation of the scientific border surveillance system?"
"Yes. I received a report that the contractor falsified Chinese CCTVs as domestic products and attempted to connect to Chinese IPs."
"The currently installed CCTVs are for daytime use, making them useless at night. How about replacing them with CCTVs equipped with infrared functions?"
"I understand that the CCTVs currently on the market lack the necessary specifications..."
"I looked into it, and Defense is producing day-and-night hybrid CCTVs. The visibility range is about 30 meters, so I don't think there will be any issues with fence surveillance."
"Isn't 30 meters too short for a visibility range?"
"Ah! That's the distance at which facial recognition is possible."
"Oh! I didn't know such CCTVs existed. The NIS can install them immediately, but it seems the Ministry of Defense will need to address the problems with the existing installed CCTVs first. The NIS intervened in this case due to the North Korean defector shooting, but the primary entity is the Ministry of Defense, so I don't have the authority to decide."
"Then how about installing them for the NIS first? If the Ministry of Defense sees the NIS's surveillance system, wouldn't they follow suit?"
"Our side also needs an additional vehicle license plate recognition function..."
"That much is perfectly possible."
"Then I will include the replacement of the CCTVs in the existing contract."
"In return, if the Ministry of Defense requests it, I ask that you allow them to observe the system."
"Hahaha. That's nothing."
Having decided to add day-and-night hybrid CCTVs to the NIS surveillance system, Taesik called Lieutenant General Choi Young-gyu of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration. As soon as the General answered, he let out a sigh and began to pour out his grievances to Taesik.