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<\/p>\nThe hacker’s phone buzzes as he approaches the police station.<\/p>\n
“One, two, three\u2026,” he counts the notifications.<\/p>\n
Each one is another police officer detected; his screen details their exact coordinates.<\/p>\n
“\u2026Seven, eight, nine, ten.”<\/p>\n
This isn’t hi-tech spy craft; it’s an app available on app stores.<\/p>\n
Bluetooth-enabled tasers and body-worn cameras, used by thousands of Australian police officers, can inadvertently reveal their real-time location to any criminal with a phone or laptop.<\/p>\n
Police services around the country have been warned of the security flaw. But despite the safety risks, especially to officers who are undercover, in tactical units or who take their equipment home, none appear to have acted.<\/p>\n
Devices that use bluetooth have their own unique serial number called a MAC address. Most mobiles, like Apple iPhones, have built-in privacy features that randomise the code and make them harder to track.<\/p>\n
This hacker realised US tech giant Axon, which sells tasers and body-worn cameras to police around the world, had failed to do the same.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Axon makes body-worn cameras and tasers used by police agencies around Australia and the world. (Four Corners: Sissy Reyes)<\/p>\n
“I was just logging Bluetooth devices on my phone \u2026 and started seeing body-worn cameras and tasers appear in the logs and [thought] that’s a bit odd.<\/p>\n
“I think it comes down to either incompetence or laziness \u2026 it just seems like the engineers who developed this were either ignorant or incompetent,” he said.<\/p>\n
The man, who doesn’t want to be named, showed Four Corners how he built his own proof-of-concept software, and is able to locate and track officers by the fixed, public MAC address assigned to any Axon bluetooth-enabled device.<\/p>\n
“You can track police devices \u2026 from quite a significant distance away,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It’ll just give it a little alert \u2026 saying ‘police detected’.”<\/p>\n
Tonight on Four Corners: The tactics of the multi-billion-dollar tech giant behind tasers. Watch from 8:30 on ABC TV and ABC iview<\/a>.<\/p>\n The vulnerability is already being exploited overseas.<\/p>\n Border Patrol agents in the United States were reportedly told to stop using Axon body-worn cameras in the field last year after potential security risks with the devices were identified and an investigation launched.<\/p>\n Other hackers have shared instructional tutorials online.<\/p>\n “This is like quite an open secret,” the man said.<\/p>\n ‘It can be weaponised’<\/p>\n On the night Four Corners met with the hacker in Melbourne, he downloaded one of several publicly available apps on the Android app store.<\/p>\n Whenever an officer was detected, the app notified him. He suddenly had the latitude and longitude of each bluetooth-enabled device, the model and its serial number.<\/p>\n The man gets a notification as another device is detected. (Four Corners: Sissy Reyes)<\/p>\n We observed officers returning to a suburban police station in marked vehicles before some left in unmarked cars, potentially on their way home. The app continued to alert us to their presence, after we could no longer see them.<\/p>\n The hacker said his own software could operate at distances up to 400 metres away.<\/p>\n In the wrong hands, he said it could be scaled up using dozens of tiny, cheap Bluetooth scanner units positioned around a suburb or town, which would track police devices on a live map.<\/p>\n “It could be used for ambushing the police, attacking them, escaping them \u2026 organised criminal gangs or whatever. Essentially it can be weaponised,” he said.<\/p>\n Four Corners has obscured the name of the app. (Four Corners: Sissy Reyes)<\/p>\n Concerned, he wrote to every police agency and police minister in the country, the federal police and even national security agencies.<\/p>\n In Victoria, where he lived, he tried to raise the alarm multiple times.<\/p>\n “I’m trying to raise a potentially serious cyber security issue with police,” he first wrote in 2024.<\/p>\n “I’ve created software that can detect the presence of police officers from 400m away using just a laptop or phone.<\/p>\n “\u2026ur new AXON Tasers leave the entire force essentially wearing beacons that broadcast their location.<\/p>\n “The AXON brand Tasers need to be recalled and VicPol must demand that AXON implement Bluetooth MAC address randomisation for these devices.<\/p>\n “Im trying to make you realize the danger that frontline officers face due to this vulnerability.”<\/p>\n He warned police that, with the right hardware, organised criminals could set up a simple system that would allow them to track police in real-time and detect raids potentially from kilometres away.<\/p>\n “I basically told them that it was a gaping hole in the operational security and that it was very easy to exploit.”<\/p>\n He didn’t get a single response.<\/p>\n Through our own investigation, Four Corners has confirmed that Victoria Police did receive the hacker’s email back in 2024 and assessed the threat internally.<\/p>\n It was initially determined that the risk was very real and a recommendation was made to take immediate action, particularly within surveillance and undercover units.<\/p>\n But executives in Victoria Police dismissed it as a non-issue after speaking with the manufacturer, Axon.<\/p>\n Victoria Police determined internally that the risk is real but denied having had any issues. (Four Corners: Sissy Reyes)<\/p>\n Victoria Police told Four Corners it “hasn’t had any issues with unauthorised access or tracking of Tasers or bodyworn cameras over Bluetooth or wi-fi”.<\/p>\n A spokesperson said they had conducted their own testing which “identified no issues of this nature” and that Axon had provided “security advice”.<\/p>\n Victoria Police refused to confirm whether frontline officers have ever been directly informed they can be detected and tracked while wearing their Axon tasers and body-worn cameras.<\/p>\n Police pulled him over on his farm. He was tasered 30 seconds later<\/a><\/p>\n Disturbing cases of people wrongly tasered by police raise questions over whether officers are too reliant on the devices.<\/p>\n Other states exposed<\/p>\n Four Corners approached police agencies in New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, Tasmania, South Australia, the ACT and the Northern Territory to inform them of the security flaw. None would say whether they had informed officers or described any steps they had taken to ensure their safety.<\/p>\n NSW Police force said it was aware of concerns around bluetooth vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n “Applications, software and methods designed to ‘track’ or monitor police activity by criminals are not new or unique to Axon devices,” it said.<\/p>\n “This type of activity presents ongoing challenges for all law enforcement agencies.”<\/p>\n Queensland Police refused to provide any response at all.<\/p>\n Four Corners approached police unions in every affected state and territory. All declined to comment.<\/p>\n Axon didn’t respond to the ABC’s questions.<\/p>\n The company does have a disclaimer acknowledging the vulnerability, or “security consideration” as it describes it, of body-worn cameras in the product settings on its website.<\/p>\n Buried within the fine print of its trust and security page, Axon warns its police customers that “Axon Cameras’ Bluetooth and Wi-Fi radio signals can be generally detected”.<\/p>\n It states that “operational security considerations be made prior to deploying Axon Cameras in operations where \u2026 detection may result in unintended outcomes”.<\/p>\n Axon acknowledges its cameras’ bluetooth and wi-fi radio signals can be detected. (Four Corners: Sissy Reyes)<\/p>\n Axon concedes that its setting known as “Stealth Mode” does not disable the emission of radio signals on its devices.<\/p>\n Asked why the company wouldn’t just fix the issue, the hacker told Four Corners the vulnerability is a hardware issue.<\/p>\n “It has been engineered in a way that they can’t patch it or update the software,” the hacker said.<\/p>\n “The whole system would have to be redesigned from scratch \u2026 so if they were forced to recall the devices, they’d be put in a horrible position.”<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/abbe3b1eb57883869de94bbbcb2801ae.jpeg\")
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