A senior official from the Islamabad Police has confirmed that the cameras installed in Islamabad for the Safe City project once utilised software of Israeli origin.
The official stated that this software was operational from June 2021 until October 2022 and has not been in use since that time.
The video analytics software, Brief Cam, was pre-installed in the cameras for the Safe City initiative in Islamabad, which were supplied by the Chinese company Huawei.
Concerns regarding the software’s nature emerged recently following the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
A Financial Times report detailing his murder referenced the use of traffic and security cameras in Tehran to collect intelligence on his movements.
Israeli software found in Islamabad Safe City cameras
Although the software employed in those cameras was not Brief Cam, it was also of Israeli origin.
A high-ranking official (director level) from the Safe City Authority Islamabad indicated that the Brief Cam application had been utilised for a year.
However, this occurred after the company was acquired by Canon and integrated into “Milestone,” a Danish firm also purchased by Canon in 2014.
“This application has not been operational since 2022. We employed it for one year, from 2021 to 2022, and during that period, it was procured under the services of Canon Japan,” the official said.
“It was implemented as a test run but was ultimately discontinued after a certain period due to the expiration of the license, among other reasons.”
Another high-ranking government official with direct knowledge of the situation confirmed this and noted that the software was in use for approximately 16 months, from June 2021 to October 2022.
When questioned about reports suggesting that Brief Cam was still in use as recently as 2023, the official indicated that there was likely an error in those reports or that they were referencing outdated information.
