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WiFi camera concealed as screw
- this page is a stub
Screw Camera, or ScrewCam, is a commercial-of-the shelf (COTS) wireless
1080p camera,
concealed as a regular screw. It has a built-in WiFi transceiver
and can be connected to any local PC or mobile phone via an existing WiFi
network.
Devices like this can be found on auction sites such as eBay.
In 2002, a member of the Dutch Royal family accused the Dutch intelligence
service AIVD and the RVD of using a similar device to spy on him and his (then) wife
Princess Margareta.
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The unit consists of a miniature High Definition (HD) camera, attached via
a 10 cm flex PCB to a miniature WiFi transceiver, with built-in video
recorder. Power is provided by an internal Li-ion battery that can be
recharged via a standard USB cable.
Several hours of video and sound can be recorded onto a removable SD-card,
but can also be transmitted directly via a local WiFi network
using the device in peer-to-peer (P2P) mode.
The image on the right shows the actual camera, which is concealed by the fake
cross-head of a regualar screw. It has a diameter of just 9 mm.
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The camera can connect to smartphones running iOS (Apple) or Android (Google)
operating systems. For this, a universal video application (App) has to be
installed on the mobile phone.
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On 19 June 2001, Dutch entrepreneur Edwin de Roy van Zuydewijn married
Princess Margarita, a niece of (then) Queen Beatrix. Soon after the wedding,
both De Roy and Princess Margarita began accusing the Dutch Royal Family
— in particular Prince Bernhard 1 — of spying on him and his wife,
and interfering with his business contacts.
Bernhard was not particularly fond of De Roy.
On 4 March 2003, Princess Margarita claimed that she had been overheard during a
conversation with director of the State Information Service (Rijksvoorlichtingsdienst) — Eef Brouwer. Brouwer dismissed the claim and
showed the room 2 to the press the next day, pointing to an ordinary screw in
the wall that she had probably mistakenly identified as a microphone.
'Ridiculous', according to (then) Prime Minister Jan-Peter Balkenende.
Although it is highly unlikely that the pair had indeed been bugged this way
— there are much better ways to hide a microphone —
the device above shows that a microphone – and even a camera – can easily be
concealed as a screw.
Although the espionage claim was
never substantiated, the Dutch Prime Minister admitted in 2013 that the
Royal Family 3 had indead used the Dutch intelligence service BVD
(now: AIVD)
and the Dutch Diplomatic Security Service DKDB – and probably others –
to run a background-check on De Roy van Zuydewijn, calling him a charlatan
and an imposter.
The couple divorced on 8 November 2006 (announced in 2004) after which
Margareta had to pay alimony to De Roy [1].
The latter has since been seeking financial compensation from the Dutch State.
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Please note that the camera shown here was purchased on eBay in 2019, more
that 16 years after the incident. Sophisticated cameras like this were not
available in 2003. Simple cameras with CVBS output were available at the time,
but not in this small form factor. Nevertheless, it would have easily been
possible at the time to disguise a sensitive miniature microphone, such as the
ones from Knowles,
as a regular screw.
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Bernhard was the father of (then) Queen Beatrix, and husband of the former
Queen Juliana.
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The Roy van Zuydewijn later claimed that this was not the
actual room in which the meeting took place.
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More precisely the Kabinet der Koningin (Office of the Queen) [1].
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© Crypto Museum. Created: Wednesday 26 October 2022. Last changed: Saturday, 17 December 2022 - 11:53 CET.
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