Adversary Intelligence — 2026-08-25

Russian-Made Road Cameras With Hidden SIM Slots and GRU-Linked Vulnerabilities Discovered in Slovakia Purchase

BLUFSlovakia's network-isolation defense will unlikely yield formal contract cancellation by late November, allowing Bratislava to treat a procurement compromise as an operational footnote.

Slovakia's National Security Authority (NBÚ) examined NERO R-ONE speed cameras supplied by Cyprus-based Sodasus Ltd for the Interior Ministry and found the units, actually manufactured by St. Petersburg firm Simicon, contained a hidden second SIM card slot and could receive commands via SMS from 12 phone numbers registered in St. Petersburg and Russia's Kemerovo region 12. Opposition party Progressive Slovakia, which obtained the NBÚ assessment through a freedom-of-information request, said one of the pre-set numbers combined with a password could grant an operator full control of a camera 2. The Interior Ministry halted testing and removed the two pilot devices, saying the cameras operated on an isolated police system with no direct access to state databases 23. NBÚ separately flagged two other camera lines, Cordon-series units from Simicon and from Croatia's NEROline, as posing the same category of risk 1.

Analysis
Recovery rather than remediation is the likely trajectory for the two flagged pilot units. Formal cancellation of the Sodasus contract by November 25 is unlikely given the ministry's preference to frame the incident as a network-isolation success rather than a procurement failure, a framing Fico's public minimization reinforces by removing political pressure for termination even as the interior minister acknowledges a security problem. Confidence is high, resting on Fico's own statements, NBÚ's documented technical findings, and converging reporting across one primary account and three independent secondary outlets rather than a single recycled feed. NBÚ's flagging of two additional Simicon camera lines extends the supply-chain compromise beyond the original units. The ministry's database isolation may reflect adequate segmentation rather than an unresolved vulnerability, and continued cooperation with Sodasus under revised terms would let the 279-camera rollout proceed on schedule, while formal cancellation would force a new competitive procurement and delay deployment.

4 sources

Slovakia Warns of Cyber Risks in Road Speed Cameras - Security Affairs
Russian phone numbers found in road cameras, PS says - The Slovak Spectator
Cyprus-sourced road cameras for Slovakia were manufactured in Russia and may be used for espionage - The Insider
Die Slowakei kauft bei einer Firma aus Zypern neue Verkehrskameras – doch diese stammen aus Russland und nehmen per SMS Befehle entgegen - Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ)