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Cybersecurity specialist Anurag Sen discovered that Uzbekistan’s license plate recognition system database was freely accessible online: anyone could access all the information .
It is unclear how long the system has been active, but the database was launched in September 2024 and traffic monitoring began in mid-2024.
According to TechCrunch , Uzbekistan has around a hundred traffic camera clusters that constantly check the license plates of passing vehicles and their occupants.
The system records thousands of violations a day, from running red lights to drivers without seatbelts and unregistered vehicles.
An analysis revealed that at least a hundred camera clusters have been installed in major Uzbek cities, at busy intersections and important transport hubs. These cameras are located in Tashkent , the southern cities of Jizzakh and Karshi , and the eastern part of Namangan . Some devices are located in rural areas, along roads near the once-disputed border between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
The devices record videos and take photos of violators in 4K resolution. The unsecured system provides access to a web interface with a dashboard where operators can review violation records.
As the researcher told reporters, the system’s database was freely accessible to anyone online. He said this represents a rare opportunity to study how national license plate tracking systems work, what data they collect, and how it can be used to track the movements of millions of people.
According to Sen, the database reveals the actual coordinates of the cameras and contains millions of photos and videos of passing cars . The system is operated by the Department of Public Security of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Uzbekistan, but the department did not respond to TechCrunch’s requests for comment. UZCERT also sent journalists only an automated response to confirm receipt of the email.
The platform deployed in Uzbekistan is described as an “intelligent traffic management system” created by the Chinese company Maxvision . According to publicly available company documents , Maxvision exports its security and surveillance solutions to Burkina Faso, Kuwait, Oman, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and Uzbekistan.
It should be noted that Uzbekistan’s unprotected database is not unique. For example, earlier this year, Wired reported that over 150 license plate recognition cameras in the United States were accessible online without any protection.
US authorities are actively developing their own license plate recognition networks, and surveillance giant Flock provides these solutions primarily to the government. 404 Media recently reported that dozens of Flock cameras were publicly accessible online, allowing journalists to observe in real time how the company’s solutions are tracking them.
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