Since its founding in 2007, the Mumbai-based collaborative studio CAMP has used surveillance, TV networks, and digital archives to examine how we move through and record the world. In addition to their film and video projects, the wildly prolific studio runs a rooftop cinema in Mumbai and maintains several online video archives, including the largest digital archive of Indian film.
Technology
What can a 100-pixel video teach us about storytelling around the world?
CAMP’s first major US museum exhibition is on view now at the Museum of Modern Art in New York through July 20th and includes three video projects spanning two decades of work. The exhibit’s three films repurposed private television sets into interactive neighborhood portrayals, collected cellphone footage recorded by sailors navigating the Indian Ocean, and reimagined how a CCTV camera could be utilized for exploration rather than control. In one film, CAMP collected cellphone videos that sailors shared at ports via bluetooth; in another, passersby on street level control a surveillance camera 35 stories above.
I chatted with two of CAMP’s founders, Shaina Anand and Ashok Sukumaran, about the importance of maintaining an open digital archive, the slippery definition of piracy, and how footage that never makes it into a finished film is often the most illuminating.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Your film, From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf, offers a portrait of sailors navigating the Indian Ocean, using cellphone videos to document their journeys and daily lives. Can you talk about how that project came to be and how this partnership with the sailors began?
Ashok Sukumaran: Around the global financial crisis, in 2009, we were walking around the city of Sharjah in the UAE. Sharjah is a creek city, like Dubai. Before oil was discovered, the creeks were the main city center focus. And these boats were these kind of weird, out-of-time wooden ships, and many of them were going to Somali ports. So, we asked them, “How come there were no issues with pirates?” Because everything we were hearing about Somalia at that time was about piracy. They said, “No, no, there’s a difference between going to the Somali town carrying everything they need and driving past it with a ton of oil.”
Shaina Anand: Almost all of these giant wooden boats were built in these twin towns in the Gulf of Kutch, in Gujarat, and they were massive. They were 800–2,000-ton giant wooden crafts.
AS: There’s a kind of language of the port. The Iranians, the UAE folks, the Somali, and of course, Indians and Pakistanis speak a kind of common language, which is close to a Hindustani mix of Farsi and Urdu. So, we were able to talk to everyone, to some extent, and we discovered a kind of music video genre that was really inspiring. This was the 2000s, with early Nokia phones, and sailors would shoot video and add music to it. Then their memory cards would run out [and they’d get deleted]. Some of the videos were 100 by 200 pixels.
SA: It was really important to us to try to trace the genealogy of the cellphone video, and it obviously was changing so fast. [The videos were] 10 frames a second, or 13 frames a second, in odd, square formats. It was rapidly changing.
For us, what was striking was that this image emerged in the middle of nowhere, out at sea, when a brethren boat or a comrade boat was filming on a phone. When our film had its festival run at the National Theatre in London, one of the film programmers came and told me, “It gives us such joy to see those images on the best screen in London.” And it gave us the same joy, too. That there is an equality, then.
Many people misread this “low-res image” and [call it] “a poor image,” and we’re like, that is not what it is at all.
How were the videos originally transferred and shared among sailors?
SA: It was a very physical process because these were not found on the internet. We were physically sitting down with people and saying, “What’s on your phone? Can I have a look at it? What did you film?” These [videos] were exchanged over Bluetooth, so they were not uploaded to YouTube, but they were literally transferred by putting the phones together.
AS: [When the boats] anchor for a bit at these smaller islands along the Gulf of Aden or Gulf of Persia, they’re still always in pairs or threes. They travel together for safety. That’s also the time for leisure and piping in those songs.
There’s something sweet about this moment of being bored at sea and using that space to create something.
SA: In a lot of our work, you see this idea that the subject of the film is usually behind the camera. They’re usually running the thing, and they are looking out at whatever interests them. At sea, you have a lot of time, even though it’s busy when it’s loading and unloading. But at sea, a lot of people are basically hanging out and taking pictures of the things that they can see. Then the music adds the emotional tenor. All the music in the film was found with the video; we didn’t add any music ourselves.
AS: And then if your phone has 2GB memory, that’s the ephemera bit. The video gets deleted, but it’s found on another boat on someone else’s phone.
SA: And within these communities, the videos are quite traceable because the boats are known. There are a thousand boats, but people would instantly recognize, “That’s so and so.” Even by looking at the shape of the boat in a 100-pixel video, they would know which boat it was.
You talked a little bit about how these videos were really ephemeral; they got erased very quickly. So much of your work seems to be about a commitment to maintaining an archive.
AS: We set up CAMP in 2007, with our collaborators who were lawyers and coders and cinephiles, and then, all of us together, good friends. We set up Pad.ma, our first online archive, and the lawyers were working around copyright law and trying to challenge them legally, pushing fair use. We didn’t want to valorize piracy, but we realized how, for countries in Asia, piracy was vital.
You didn’t even think of [buying software from] Microsoft. You bought the parts of a computer with help from the person selling them, saying, “Okay, so much RAM, this motherboard,” and so on, and then loaded what you wanted.
SA: The whole Indian tech sector was built on piracy, or what’s called piracy. People were not able to pay the fees. With Pad.ma, we basically initiated this idea of a footage archive or a collection of material that was not films, but things that were shot by people during film projects that never made it into the cut. For political reasons, for economic reasons, for the reasons that the films were only 30 or 60 minutes long and they had filmed for years, all those kinds of things. The idea was that Pad.ma was a footage archive that allowed you to deeply access that material.
So it’s an archive of scraps — the things around the edges that maybe weren’t shown elsewhere.
SA: Yeah, but here, the scraps are 20 times the size of the finished thing.
AS: I think that’s the important thing. You had 100 hours of footage for a 60-minute film. That was really the reason for building a non-state archive, and we’re the custodians and collaborators who think the 99 hours may be more important. It’s not those old remnant scraps.
It’s the other way around.
AS: It’s the other way around. I mean, you have a one-hour interview, and two minutes might make it into a film.
SA: You had all these examples of European avant-garde filmmakers coming to India making films and then doing these edits of what they thought they were seeing. But the footage is saying much more than their particular edit at the time. It can be very revealing of what was actually going on and how they filmed.
So the archives contain a huge amount of data.
SA: I mean, we have committed to that. We raised money from various sources for the projects. Indiancine.ma, which is a sister project, that’s like the whole of Indian cinema as a metadata archive. AS: There were magical things in 2008 on the platform. One was that the timeline had cut detection. So, you can actually go to a cut just by using your left and right arrow keys. And you don’t have that even in [Adobe] Premiere. You could also densely annotate. So you have researchers working, you have activists, you have film scholars, and they may take from the archive. But in that process, they’ve given back their expertise or their views of the archive.
Can you talk more about your work with participatory filmmaking?
AS: On one level, what had been occupying my head space was this critique of how documentary images are taken, or why this relationship between subject, author, and technology is so dumb.
I would keep saying, “look at the image,” and we can say a white guy filmed it, or we can know this really important Indian filmmaker filmed it, or you can say a top feminist filmmaker filmed it, or a queer person filmed it or a person from that community. But something’s a bit off in that form as well. Not just [in terms of] who’s speaking for who and all of that.
Another of your projects in the exhibit, Khirkeeyaan, which created video portals between neighbors and community centers using CCTV, seems like a place where the subject has a lot of authority over their image.
AS: Between 2005 and 2006, CCTV cameras started to proliferate all over. And they were cheap. So, the electronic market where we’d go to buy computer stuff now had become a CCTV market.
It was $10 for those static cameras. You could get that quad box, like a four-channel mixer. They were everywhere really fast: the grocery store, the dive bar, the beauty salon, the abortion clinic. Wherever I went, I was seeing these tiny things.
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
SA: When you put the camera on top of the TV and you allow the two systems to meet, you can just look into the television, and then that’s part of the cable television network. By default, these systems are kind of oppositional. One is a broadcast system, or one is a sucking and one is a closed thing, and if you join them together, they start to talk to each other or—
Download and upload simultaneously.
AS: Exactly, which was the key property of video. That there was feedback. It was immediate.
SA: It was live, and unlike film, you don’t have to process it. They were ambient. They would go on for 24 hours. You were able to say that your household TV is now a portal.
AS: The key thing was that this wasn’t the internet. The cables were all 100 meters each. For a long time, until it got replaced by dish antennas, coaxial cable just used to snake across our cities. The cable would come to your house from the window sill, where the coax would be wrapped around, and there’d be a little booster. It would go from neighborhood to neighborhood, building to building, terrace to terrace. [With Khirkeeyaan], the network was neighborly, but these neighbors were meeting each other for the first time.
Was there anything that kind of surprised you about the way that this network was used?
AS: What always surprises me, and continues to, is that when you set up your own kind of collaboration with the subjects, and then you exit, you’re not asking those leading questions of, “Tell me about your life,” or “Which village do you come from?” And poetry happens. I think, what was very affirmative for me, was just the confidence with which people sat and looked at their TV sets. You sit and look at your TV set all the time, but the TV set now had a hole in it, and it was looking back at you.
Another of your videos in the show, Bombay Tilts Down, uses a CCTV camera. Can you talk more about your work utilizing surveillance?
SA: CCTV, in a way, changes how we behave. It sort of infects, depending on who is watching us and how.
In Bombay Tilts Down, it was the simple idea that this gaze of the camera is already there. In the city, there are 5,000 of exactly the same kind of camera, and probably many more.
They’re all at least 4K, and now they’re 8K, but they are robotic controllable cameras that are designed to do facial recognition at a distance. Instead of being a guard, waiting for something to happen, we used it to film the city. And the range is incredible; it goes way beyond the property line of the thing it’s trying to protect. You can see 15 kilometers away with it, from the 35th floor.
So you installed the camera yourself.
SA: This one, yes. The people you see in Bombay Tilts Down are looking up at the camera because people could see the stream downstairs, and some of them were moving the camera around, calling the shots.
In 2023, what was then still called Twitter, open-sourced at least portions of the code that decided what it served up in your feed. But that GitHub repository is hopelessly out of date, with the vast majority of the files appearing to be from the initial upload three years ago. Elon Musk says that in seven days, he will open-source X’s new algorithm and finally give people a peek behind the curtain and possibly a technical explanation as to why your feed is 90 percent rage bait.
Elon has always made promises to open-source parts of X, and has followed through to at least some degree, including Grok-1 in 2024. But xAI is now on Grok-3, and the Grok GitHub repository hasn’t been updated in two years. The timing of the announcement open-sourcing the X algorithm is also likely to be met with some suspicion, as Musk is fending off criticism from across the globe and the political spectrum regarding Grok’s willingness to make deepfake nudes.
Musk says this release of the X algorithm will include “all code used to determine what organic and advertising posts are recommended to users.” He also says this will be just the first, with updates coming every four weeks, and that those will include developer notes highlighting any changes. Of course, considering how things played out in 2023, you’ll have to forgive us for taking that promise with a grain of salt.
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When a healthcare data breach is first disclosed, the number of people affected is often far lower than the final tally. That figure frequently climbs as investigations continue.
That’s exactly what happened with Andover, Massachusetts-based Covenant Health. The Catholic healthcare provider has confirmed a cyberattack discovered last May may have affected nearly 500,000 patients, a sharp increase from the fewer than 8,000 people it initially reported earlier this year.
A ransomware group later claimed responsibility for the incident, though Covenant Health has not publicly confirmed the use of ransomware. The attackers accessed names, addresses, Social Security numbers and health information, among other sensitive data that could put patients at serious risk.
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UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX DATA BREACH HITS 3.5M PEOPLE
Covenant Health detected suspicious activity in late May 2025, but investigators later confirmed attackers had already accessed systems days earlier. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
What happened in the Covenant Health breach
Covenant Health says it detected unusual activity in its IT environment May 26, 2025. A later investigation revealed that an attacker had actually gained access eight days earlier, on May 18, and was able to access patient data during that window.
In July, Covenant Health told regulators that the breach affected 7,864 individuals. After completing what it describes as extensive data analysis, the organization now says that up to 478,188 individuals may have been affected.
Covenant Health operates hospitals, nursing and rehabilitation centers, assisted living residences and elder care organizations across New England and parts of Pennsylvania. That wide footprint means the breach potentially touched patients across multiple states and care settings.
In late June, the Qilin ransomware group claimed responsibility for the attack, Bleeping Computer reported. The group alleged it stole 852 GB of data, totaling nearly 1.35 million files. Covenant Health has not confirmed those figures, but it did acknowledge that patient information was accessed.
According to the organization, the exposed data may have included names, addresses, dates of birth, medical record numbers, Social Security numbers, health insurance details and treatment information such as diagnoses, dates of treatment and types of care received.
700CREDIT DATA BREACH EXPOSES SSNS OF 5.8M CONSUMERS
Qilin ransomware lists Covenant Health on its data leak site. (Bleeping Computer)
What Covenant Health is telling patients
In a notice sent to regulators and patients, Covenant Health says it engaged third-party forensic specialists to investigate the incident and determine what data was involved. The organization says its data analysis is ongoing as it continues identifying individuals whose information may have been involved.
Then there are the familiar statements every company makes after a breach, claiming they’ve strengthened the security of their IT systems to help prevent similar incidents in the future. Covenant Health says it has also set up a dedicated toll-free call center to handle questions related to the breach.
Beginning Dec. 31, 2025, the organization started mailing notification letters to patients whose information may have been compromised. For individuals whose Social Security numbers may have been involved, Covenant Health is offering complimentary credit monitoring and identity theft protection services.
We reached out to Covenant Health, and the company confirmed the expanded scope of the incident and outlined steps being taken to notify patients and enhance security safeguards.
DATA BREACH EXPOSES 400K BANK CUSTOMERS’ INFO
The breach exposed highly sensitive information, including names, Social Security numbers, medical records and treatment details tied to nearly half a million patients. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
7 steps you can take to protect yourself after the Covenant Health breach
If you received a notice from Covenant Health, or if your data has been exposed in any healthcare breach, these steps can help reduce the risk of misuse.
1) Enroll in the free identity protection offered
If the organization offers you credit monitoring or identity protection, take it. These services can alert you to suspicious activity tied to your Social Security number, credit file or identity details before real damage is done. If you’re not offered one and want to be on the safer side, you might consider getting one yourself.
Identity theft companies can monitor personal information like your Social Security number, phone number and email address and alert you if it is being sold on the dark web or being used to open an account. They can also assist you in freezing your bank and credit card accounts to prevent further unauthorized use by criminals.
See my tips and best picks on how to protect yourself from identity theft at Cyberguy.com
2) Monitor medical and insurance statements closely
Medical identity theft often shows up quietly. Review an explanation of benefits (EOBs), insurance claims and billing statements for services you don’t recognize. If something looks off, report it to your insurer immediately.
3) Place a fraud alert or credit freeze
A fraud alert tells lenders to take extra steps to verify your identity before approving credit. A credit freeze goes further by blocking new accounts entirely unless you lift it. If Social Security numbers were exposed, a freeze is usually the safer option.
To learn more about how to do this, go to Cyberguy.com and search “How to freeze your credit.”
4) Use a password manager
Healthcare breaches often lead to credential-stuffing attacks elsewhere. A password manager ensures every account uses a unique password, so one exposed dataset can’t unlock everything else. It also makes it easier to update passwords quickly after a breach.
Next, see if your email has been exposed in past breaches. Our No. 1 password manager pick includes a built-in breach scanner that checks whether your email address or passwords have appeared in known leaks. If you discover a match, immediately change any reused passwords and secure those accounts with new, unique credentials.
Check out the best expert-reviewed password managers of 2025 at Cyberguy.com.
5) Be cautious of phishing scams and use strong antivirus software
Breaches are frequently followed by phishing emails, texts or calls that reference the incident to sound legitimate. Attackers may pose as the healthcare provider, an insurer or a credit bureau. Don’t click links or share information unless you verify the source independently.
The best way to safeguard yourself from malicious links that install malware, potentially accessing your private information, is to have antivirus software installed on all your devices. This protection can also alert you to phishing emails and ransomware scams, keeping your personal information and digital assets safe.
Get my picks for the best 2025 antivirus protection winners for your Windows, Mac, Android and iOS devices at Cyberguy.com.
6) Consider a personal data removal service
Once your data leaks, it often spreads across data broker sites. Personal data removal services help reduce your digital footprint by requesting takedowns from these databases. While they can’t erase everything, they lower your exposure and make targeted fraud harder.
While no service can guarantee the complete removal of your data from the internet, a data removal service is really a smart choice. They aren’t cheap, and neither is your privacy. These services do all the work for you by actively monitoring and systematically erasing your personal information from hundreds of websites. It’s what gives me peace of mind and has proven to be the most effective way to erase your personal data from the internet. By limiting the information available, you reduce the risk of scammers cross-referencing data from breaches with information they might find on the dark web, making it harder for them to target you.
Check out my top picks for data removal services and get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web by visiting Cyberguy.com.
Get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web: Cyberguy.com.
7) Review your credit reports regularly
You’re entitled to free credit reports from all major bureaus. Check them for unfamiliar accounts, hard inquiries or address changes. Catching fraud early makes it far easier to contain.
Kurt’s key takeaway
Healthcare organizations remain prime targets for cybercriminal groups because of the volume and sensitivity of the data they store. Medical records contain a mix of personal, financial and health information that is difficult to change once exposed. Unlike a password, you cannot reset a diagnosis or treatment history. This breach also shows how early disclosures often underestimate impact. Large healthcare networks rely on complex systems and third-party vendors, which can slow forensic analysis in the early stages. As investigations continue, the number of affected individuals often climbs.
Do you think healthcare organizations do enough to protect user data? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com.
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The start of the year is typically a great time to snag deals on health and fitness gear, including trackers and wireless earbuds, and this week was no exception. We found plenty on sale and highlighted the best picks below. Not all of the deals are related to New Year’s resolutions, though; there are also a number of other worthwhile deals worth checking out. Despite the Consumer Electronics Show wrapping up earlier this week, we’re already seeing deals roll in, for example. And if your main goal is to unwind this weekend, we’ve spotted solid deals on Blu-rays to help you relax. Below, you’ll find all of our favorite deals from this week.
Of fitness trackers on sale right now, the deal on the Amazfit Active 2 is ideal, especially if you’re on a budget. It’s currently on sale for just $84.99 ($15 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target, which is just $5 shy of its lowest price to date.
We think the Active 2 is one of the best fitness tracker you can currently buy, namely because it offers a feature set you don’t typically don’t find at this price point. It covers most of the health and fitness features people need and then some, with continuous heart rate and blood oxygen tracking, in addition to menstrual cycle tracking. You also get offline maps with turn-by-turn navigation and up to nine days of battery life — far longer than most smartwatches. It looks stylish, too, thanks to its stainless steel case and 2,000-nit OLED display that makes it seem more expensive than it is.
What makes the latest Nano Charger stand out from previous models its built-in display, which shows real-time charging details like power flow, charge level, and temperature at a glance. If you have an iPhone 15 or newer — or an iPad Pro released in 2020 or later — it can also adjust charging based on the device’s power needs. What’s more, it delivers up to 45W of power in a compact design with folding prongs that rotate 180 degrees, allowing you to squeeze it into smaller spaces.
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