U.S. cybersecurity company F5 fell 12% on Thursday after disclosing a system breach in which a “highly sophisticated nation-state threat actor” gained long-term access to some systems.

F5 shares were pacing for the worst day since April 27, 2022, when the stock fell 12.8%.

The company disclosed the breach in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Wednesday and said the hack affected its BIG-IP product development environment. F5 said the attacker infiltrated files containing some source code and information on “undisclosed vulnerabilities” in BIG-IP.

The breach was later attributed to state-backed hackers from China, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

F5, which was made aware of the attack in August, said they have not seen evidence of any new unauthorized activity.

“We have no knowledge of undisclosed critical or remote code vulnerabilities, and we are not aware of active exploitation of any undisclosed F5 vulnerabilities,” F5 said in a statement.

The cybersecurity giant told customers that hackers were in the network for at least 12 months and that the breach used a malware called Brickstorm, according to Bloomberg.

F5 would not confirm the information.

Brickstorm is attributed to a suspected China-nexus threat dubbed UNC5221, Google Threat Intelligence Group said in a blog post. The malware is used for maintaining “long-term stealthy access” and can remain undetected in victim systems for an average of 393 days, according to Mandiant.

The attack prompted an emergency directive from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on Wednesday, telling all agencies using F5 software or products to apply the latest update.

“The alarming ease with which these vulnerabilities can be exploited by malicious actors demands immediate and decisive action from all federal agencies,” CISA Acting Director Madhu Gottumukkala said. “These same risks extend to any organization using this technology, potentially leading to a catastrophic compromise of critical information systems.”

The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre also issued guidance for the F5 attack, advising customers to install security updates and continue monitoring for threats.

Amazon’s Ring security cameras are moving deeper into law enforcement work in a new deal with Flock Safety that will allow citizens who own Ring cameras to share footage that can assist in crime investigations, making the video available to law enforcement that use Flock’s software.

It’s the second recent deal bringing the Amazon Ring security tech into the law enforcement market in new ways, with Ring also recently announcing a similar effort with Axon Enterprise.

Flock, a direct Axon competitor, works with an estimated 6,000 communities and 5,000 law enforcement agencies, and sees a “long tail” for the tech in the public safety sector with an estimated 17,000 cities across the U.S., according to its CEO and founder Garrett Langley.

Flock Safety ranked No. 7 on the 2025 CNBC Disruptor 50 list.

The Ring Community Requests feature will be available for use with the FlockOS and Flock Nova platforms that are contracted by local public safety agencies. That will enable law enforcement officers to directly request video evidence from Ring cameras, but citizens will make the decision whether to share video. Police requests will go into what is called the Ring Neighbors feed, which pings camera users within an area identified as relevant to the crime, and camera owners can then share video, which is kept in a secure environment and can only be used for the single crime investigation.

“For me, it is clear and obvious we have a crime problem in America,” Langley said. “We are focused on businesses and cities, and Ring is definitely a leader in home security. Being able to partner with them will lead to much safer communities, and doing it in a way that allows the public to opt in,” he said, adding that it was Ring that first reached out to Flock Safety about a potential deal.

The law enforcement technology market, and surveillance cameras in particular, are by their nature controversial, with concerns about privacy, racial profiling, use of surveillance information for unapproved purposes, and weak security protocols. This is not the first attempt by Ring to more broadly distribute video footage. A previous incarnation of this type of technology, Ring Request for Assistance, was shut down in 2024. According to Consumer Reports, that tool was used by at least 2,500 police agencies. Ring has also worked directly with law enforcement in the past to distribute cameras in communities.

Langley said there is a key difference between RFA and the new Community Requests feature. “RFA was inside the Ring data app. There was no chain of custody,” he said. “In this case, while the request goes out in the Ring app, any footage shared by users goes into the Flock platform, which is fully secure,” he said. “This is what we do every day for businesses and municipalities,” he added. In addition to public agency work, Flock has contracts with an estimated 1,000 private sector organizations for its technology.

While Ring does not release precise data on the number of cameras in use, Langley said it is a major advantage to law enforcement to have this option in crime investigations, and law agencies have been asking for it, given the fact that there can be tens of thousands of Ring cameras in communities across the country.

A 2023 report from Politico estimated 10 million Americans with Ring cameras for their homes.

Ring could not be immediately reached for comment.

Langley says he sees the development as a better option for both the police and the public compared to the current way crime work is conducted. “It’s about helping law enforcement be more efficient and conduct faster investigations,” he said. And for citizens, he said, “If there’s a shooting in my neighborhood today and police go door-to-door asking if you have camera footage, it can create an environment where it is hard to say no.” 

“This is an environment where people will have control. They don’t have to participate in any specific request and that level of control didn’t exist beforehand,” Langley said. “The alternative is a cop shows up at your front door and people feel quite compelled, and now law enforcement has a more efficient way and we as citizens are able to say ‘no, we don’t want to help,’ for whatever reason.” 

The partnership has no direct revenue impact on Flock Safety, with Langley saying it will be offered for free to every law enforcement customer. “If we achieve the mission of helping communities, we will find ways to make money. We won’t monetize this partnership, but we believe it will drive adoption of core products,” he said. “It will be turned on for free for every customer, and I think all of them will use it,” he added.

Flock Safety currently supports law enforcement in making close to one million arrests a year, and “this will help that number go up,” Langley said. 

An exact date for the rollout on the Flock platform is not set, but Flock Safety says it is imminent.

Surveillance technology and public debate over crime and safety

It’s sure to attract scrutiny. In addition to controversies involving Ring, including an FTC settlement over allegations of lax security, communities across the U.S. continue to debate the use of technology like Flock’s, with some contracts being canceled amid public debate even as the business is growing.

Langley says for some critics, such as privacy focused organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which have long criticized Ring and similar technologies, there is no reasonable debate left to hold. “There is a certain part of the country that just doesn’t prioritize safety, and like us, Jamie [Ring founder Jamie Siminoff, who recently returned to active leadership of the company] does, and I believe everyone has a right to be safe and people should be held accountable if they commit a crime,” Langley said.

For critics of use of surveillance technology in law enforcement, “There is nothing we can do other than shut down our business,” Langley said. “They live in a world of hypotheticals and I live in a world of realities, and we have to do something about it.”

EFF argues that the reality of surveillance technology is uncovering abuses.

“Of course people have a right to be safe, but what companies like Flock and Ring fail to acknowledge is that their technology doesn’t make people safer, it just subjects them to a round-the-clock warrantless digital dragnet that keeps tabs on everyone whether or not they’re suspected of any crime,” said Electronic Frontier Foundation senior staff attorney Jennifer Pinsof. “That’s an affront to our freedoms, and a recipe for abuse and real harm especially in increasingly authoritarian times. Privacy isn’t dangerous, but giving privacy up for a false sense of security is very dangerous,” she added.

The market has certainly sent a signal that it sees the business as a good one, with Axon’s stock price up 500% over the past five years and 50% this year alone.

Public sentiment over crime levels remains elevated, though subject to partisan leanings, at a time when both leading tech CEOs and President Trump are weighing in on having federal troops police cities.

A recent AP poll found that two-thirds of the public think crime in the U.S. is a major problem, a feeling that is even higher within cities (81%). There is more support for this view among Republicans (96%), but a majority of Democrats (68%) feel similarly about cities. A 2024 Pew Research poll found more Americans prioritizing crime as an issue versus when Joe Biden first took office, across both parties, but it also found Americans tend to view crime as being worse nationally than in their own local communities. Gallup research from 2024 found a decline from a 2023 reading on public concern about crime, which had reached the highest in its polling history.

Langley says political momentum is on the side of Flock Safety and increased use of technology in law enforcement. “Look at the political tides. We tried the social experiment of being soft on crime and it didn’t end well,” he said.