Laser pen lights taped togther and shown at security cameras can disable it by overloading the light sensor.
Had a friend with a business inquire about the possibility of disabling a CCTV camera using a laser light. It seems he needs some countermeasures to prevent or thwart such an attack.
Unfortunately, I don’t know of anyway to prevent such an attack against a security camera. Except by installing hidden cameras in case the open camera is attacked you can still videotape the intrusion.
How does this laser attack apply to cameras?
A laser creates a super bright and focused spot on the CCD (camera sensor). This spot can be bright enough to blind the camera, or strong enough to physically damage the CCD/CMOS sensor of the camera (melting, overloading the circuitry etc). This is the type of image you’ll see when a laser is pointed at your camera (above).
Even without a laser you can circumvent most security cameras. Most security companies install two cameras in the same area.
Each camera has a blind spot, some times someone could “sneak behind it” and cut the wires or somehow tamper with it. I know of many businesses that can be defeated that way.
The only way around that is having a “covert camera” to watch (especially on important choke/entry/exit points in buildings) is much better than just having a second one pointing at the first. You can also set up the cameras in away that each one falls in the other’s visual filed.
With that being said a laser won’t shut off a security camera, but it will overload its light sensors and cause it to malfunction
In most cases, especially with government installations security camera’s are often used to direct security staff. In most cases it’s sufficient to know that a camera is under attack and deploy resources to prevent an intrusion.
In some cases most real-world security camera’s have tamper sensors and self-diagnostics for the same reason: to detect physical attack as opposed to internal failure, but the cost is much more expensive.
In this case I recommended a hidden CCTV camera to maintain surveillance of his maintenance yard, where he has almost a half million in copper plates and wire.
In addition I recommended he hire an armed security guard at night to thwart thefts of his copper.
I also discussed the fact that lasers can be used to turn off street lights in certain areas – another indication of a impending intrusion (see video: How to turn off street lights with laser http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhH76mr-AQs
NOTES OF RELATED INTEREST:
*I recently monitored a chat room conversation on an al-Qaeda affiliated website between two suspected terrorists discussing the fact that cheap lasers can damage cameras that are on security drones as well and speculation that the Syrian Army and Air defenses are investigating using them against drones in Syrian airspace.
See also video: How to modify a Green laser light into burning laser http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQWx-7lH8ec
See also video: Egyptian army helicopters lit up by protesters lasers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAfagq8PjpM
See article: Laser attacks pose serious risk to pilots and law enforcement officials http://www.examiner.com/article/laser-attacks-pose-serious-risk-to-pilots-and-law-enforcement-officials