Is the World’s Biggest Surveillance Camera Maker Sending Footage to China?

Spreading The Word
Edward Long, a former employee of a video surveillance equipment company in Florida, recently petitioned the U.S. government with a letter warning that Hikvision cameras are sending information back to China.

“Over the past year, [Hikvision has] … flooded the United States with their equipment,” he wrote. “Every time one of their machines is plugged into the internet, it sends all your data to three servers in China. With that information, the Chinese government can log in to any camera system, anytime they want.”

Frank Fisherman, a general manager for Long’s former employer, IC Realtime Security Solutions, tells VOA that Hikvision devices are engineered for effortless hacking.

“They have their encrypted information set up so they can access even if you change the admin [passwords] and the firewall,” he said, adding that Hikvision may have set aside a “back door” in the production process, such that the manufacturer can monitor devices remotely without the users being aware.

Taking that much effort to engineer robust anti-security processes (internal encryption, hackable ADMIN, and secret ‘Back Doors’, shows an intention to deceive and deny control to the end-user (the customer).  What was it about “three times is enemy action”?

I have a personal interest in the shenanigans of the Government sponsored Chinese hackers…