- A review conducted by the UK government has concluded that video surveillance equipment from China has no place in government offices.
- Departments are instructed to cease deployment of cameras from Chinese manufacturers and replace existing cameras immediately.
- Hikvision has challenged this call saying no reputable body has reached the same conclusion as the UK government.
Video surveillance equipment coming out of China will find no home in UK government buildings or sites according to a new instruction.
This instruction comes from the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Oliver Dowden following a review of the potential security risks government offices face when installing surveillance systems.
“The review has concluded that, in light of the threat to the UK and the increasing capability and connectivity of these systems, additional controls are required,” the chancellor said in a statement.
“Departments have therefore been instructed to cease deployment of such equipment onto sensitive sites, where it is produced by companies subject to the National Intelligence Law of the People’s Republic of China. Since security considerations are always paramount around these sites, we are taking action now to prevent any security risks materialising,” added Dowden.
This instruction implores those in charge of this equipment and its deployment to rip any Chinese made cameras from their premises rather than waiting for scheduled upgrades. Government departments should also “consider whether there are sites outside the definition of sensitive sites to which they would wish to extend the same risk mitigation”.
The instruction doesn’t point to any specific brands of video surveillance equipment.
The UK government also doesn’t outline what risks Chinese-made video surveillance equipment presents to the government. However, in the past we’ve seen CCTV camera being corralled into massive botnets. A large number of the cameras that were captured when Mirai first entered the threat landscape were from Chinese manufacturers.
One Chinese manufacturer, Hikvision, told the BBC that it’s false to represent it as a national security threat
“It is categorically false to represent Hikvision as a threat to national security,” a spokesperson said. “No respected technical institution or assessment has come to this conclusion.”
Earlier this year, the US banned tech firms from the country from constructing advanced technology facilities in China for a decade. This was done in a bit to unseat China as the dominant force in semi-conductor manufacturing sector.
[Image – CC 0 Pixabay]
