Installing CCTVs in homes and offices is something that many people are interested in today. They are also used in strategic government offices. However, it should be known that strong allegations are being made against the company that manufactures 31 percent of the CCTVs sold globally. Chinese company Hikvision has sold 3.6 crore cameras worldwide as of 2020. The sale of CCTVs is through the companies that cooperate with them in other countries. It is alleged that the Chinese Communist Party knows what is happening in other countries through CCTVs sold in this way. Let’s find out if it will happen and if so, how it can be done.
∙ How did Hikvision spy on China?
Discussions about security and privacy of CCTVs have not yet begun. There have been concerns over the years about how CCTVs, especially those made in China, work. Allegedly, Hikvision is an old snake. It is alleged that China is conducting many experiments on the Uyghur, a Chinese Muslim group. Hi-vision cameras are placed all over the area where the Uighurs live. In addition, Hi-Vision cameras are also deployed in Chinese prisons. All inquiries are recorded through the company’s system. They contain software developed jointly by Hikvision and the Chinese Communist Party and use them to create data points on Uyghurs. It is also alleged that this is to clarify the behavior of Uyghurs.
∙ Let it go, outside of China?
What is happening in China may be human rights destruction. But the outside world can’t do much about it. However, Hi-Vision presents a big problem to the world. It is alleged that the company is preparing a global surveillance system for China. They are present outside government offices etc. to capture scenes. China is even arming Hikvision to monitor people outside its jurisdiction. Even the national policy makers of various nations are being monitored. But how will this happen?
∙ A secret
There are two types of CCTV systems available in the market today. First, footage from CCTVs is written onto the owner’s memory cards or hard disk. These are generally not dangerous. Only the primary recording capability of the camera and the storage of the video from it takes place here. These may not have smart connected features.
∙ Smart Connections
Its success lies in ‘educating’ the user that CCTV footage is best stored in the cloud for viewing anywhere. Such a system will be less prone to damage in the future, etc., and the latest cameras are being held up. These are smart CCTVs. These include a powerful computing system. When these cameras record something, they save a copy on the hard disk of the person who bought the camera, etc. Another copy is also saved in the cloud for the owner to view from anywhere in the world. A separate log-in etc. will be provided to the owner for this purpose.
∙ The problem
The important thing is where the service provider has placed the servers of the smart CCTV camera system. If these are in China, don’t look at anything, the footage from them can be inspected by Chinese Communist Party officials at will. What if the service provider only collects footage from smart CCTV cameras locally? Two things can happen there. One is that China’s army of hackers can access the footage if they want. As for what could happen beyond that, the company that deployed the camera itself could hand over the footage from it to China and show loyalty. All this can be done without speaking a single word to the user.
∙ Genetic defect of smart CCTVs
Smart CCTV cameras have a ‘birth’ defect. The history of such surveillance cameras sending data to other places is familiar. If you look at the history of Hikvision alone, you can see it. Rai Italia reported that a security camera system from an airport in Rome was found to be sending large amounts of data to an IP address in China. More than 100 CCTVs were installed here. The video footage was leaked to China.
∙ Highvision says they are not like that
When this incident came to light, Hivision came forward saying that they had not received any such data. However, they have admitted that strange and illegal data requests have reached their systems. They said it was due to a code error when a routine software update was remotely issued to the system at the airport. However, the Italian airport authorities responded that they had no knowledge of such an update.
∙ Britain responded immediately
After news of this incident came, they ordered to evaluate the functioning of the security cameras installed by them. The findings of the inquiry by Biometrics and Surveillance Cameras Commissioner Professor Fraser Samson were shocking. It was discovered that there were 1 million HiVision CCTV cameras in and around London and thousands of the company’s own CCTV systems. Fraser also found that many top government intelligence agencies fall under their purview.
∙ Think twice before connecting to the Internet
CCTV systems that need to be connected to the Internet, no matter what, may invite danger. With this in mind, all countries should require companies to have servers within the country’s borders. Can also be local servers. Or it would be better for the user to set up his own server and receive the footage from the security camera into it. Although this is good to a certain extent, the truth is that hackers can penetrate there if they want to.
∙ The role of Chinese hackers
China is leading in number and strength of cyber warriors. There have also been cases of massive distributed denial of service attacks being launched with the cooperation of the Chinese government. Attacks on private and government networks can be used to exfiltrate data or breach critical security systems. Having a security camera doesn’t mean that your service provider hasn’t run into trouble yet, or that they haven’t shared your data with anyone. It can happen anytime. Especially when Chinese companies are all government owned.
∙ You can pretend to have done things you didn’t do
There have been several incidents of Chinese hackers breaking into local online storage systems as well. Attacks have been carried out targeting the embassies of countries that do not take a favorable stance towards them, offices where foreign policy makers work, etc. In modern times, footage from a security camera can also be used to create deepfake videos if it falls into the hands of malicious actors. Don’t be surprised if they blackmail you with videos.
∙ This is how the safety net can be done
In this context where data storage is all digital, there are only a few things that can be done. Store data locally and protect it with strong firewalls. Do special networking for this. Do not connect it to other networks you use. In short, don’t share CCTV footage with the internet you use. Take advantage of your security camera provider’s security system if it has a system to monitor what data packets are going out and so on.
English Summary: China’s tech invasion: How the CCP uses CCTV camera systems to spy
