cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/4231811
The UK Government has made substantial progress in removing China’s Hikvision surveillance cameras from sensitive sites, with over 50% of these devices already replaced, according to a report by the UK Defense Journal.
Efforts are ongoing to ensure full removal by April 2025 amid growing concerns about the security risks posed by Chinese-made technology in government buildings, the report by the UK Defense Journal said.
[…]
However, the security concerns extend beyond surveillance equipment. Lord Coaker’s letter also addressed potential risks posed by electric and connected vehicles, particularly those manufactured in China.
He clarified that while the focus has often been on Chinese-made technology, the security risks apply to specific on-board systems found in a variety of vehicles, not solely Chinese or electric models.
“The potential national security risks apply to specific on-board systems, and therefore, these risks are not exclusive to Chinese-made vehicles or electric vehicles,” on lawmaker said.
[…]
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This is happening everywhere in the NATO sphere, not just the UK. I’m a security technician in the US. I’ve been ripping out Hikvision cams for the last five years. It makes complete sense that a government does not want to watch over its facilities with cameras that another government can potentially access.
Private businesses and individuals that don’t interact or contract with their government are still fully allowed to install Hikvision products if they wish. My own house has nine Hikvision cams I got for free from this whole debacle, because I don’t give a shit about China.
That’s very interesting, are the security concerns warranted or just a “better safe than sorry” overcompensation? I recall when the Trump admin started their war on Huawei (for protectionist purposes), the US government suddenly treated all Huawei infrastructure near military sites as suspect despite okay’ing it during the Obama years.
China is an enemy state of the entire free world, with an authoritarian government that directly controls the behavior of any business that operates in China.
Any software controlled by China is a very real security threat.
China is a global tech competitor and any major incident relating to espionage via its commercial devices would kill the golden goose. The CCP also know this. In fact they more and more follow the US model of approaching their tech firms in more roundabout legal ways in order to get their way. It turns out having market access to the US and EU is more useful than knowing whatever some NCO at Port Hadlock is babbling about at any given moment.
The fear appears to be that Chinese tech could become a security threat in the case of very high tensions or war. As for “free world”, that’s not a particularly meaningful term to me.
If you live in a country where a woman is allowed to have an opinion without immediately being rounded up, China is your enemy.
I’d say that if you live in literally any nation that doesn’t directly border them or isnt married to the Pentagon, they haven’t proven to be much of a concern at all. Except maybe to your exports. As far as “free world” gibberish goes, they aren’t the ones defending the Saudi monarch from his own people.
Mostly better safe than sorry, but not over compensating IMO. All these large companies in China are partially government owned and many of them have known bad security and backdoors that have been exploited (e.g. to create botnets) and could potentially be exploited by the Chinese government who is less friendly with the West these days.
That is not overcompensation, that is risk management 101.