Pinebrook 12
n3wb
Not safe to by Hikvision equipment since banned?
Not safe to by Hikvision equipment since banned in US?
- Thread starter Pinebrook 12
- Start date
Not any more safe or dangerous than it was BEFORE the ban frankly. And this applies to Dahua and many other China-made brands. You should isolate ALL IP cameras and IoT devices from the Internet.
Lastly, the ban applies only to cameras used on government-owned sites or sites of government funded entities. You are free to use if you like on your private property or business as long as it complies with below:
Excerpt:
Section 889 of the 2019 NDAA prohibits federal agencies, grant recipients, and contractors from using products or equipment that are banned by the United States.
What is NDAA Compliance? Guide to NDAA & Section 889
Read our guide to NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act) compliance. See how organizations can be NDAA compliant with our list of requirements.
The Automation Guy
Known around here
I've said it before, but while I use these brands of cameras on my personal network and don't have anything to fear by doing so, I am also 100% in support of the ban.
Regardless of the political motivations for passing this ban, it actually does help improve our national security. I know a lot of people would argue that a properly set up network would prevent any harm from using these cameras (which is why I use them on my personal network), but that is a short sighted concept of the level of network security that our government and other sensitive faculties needs to be applying. Just look into the Stuxnet virus to see how advanced electronic warfare can be - especially from state sponsored groups that have the money to accomplish almost anything. Stuxnet was a single purpose virus that worked it's way into a secure facility and onto a completely isolated network (ie zero outside connections) without the hackers having physical access to the facility. Imagine how much easier it would have been to accomplish if the hackers could have loaded the virus on a device that was going to be installed in the facility - by the very people who ran the facility! By allowing these cameras into government and other sensitive facilities, we are potentially installing a real trojan horse that would make the hackers job that much easier. The hackers are state sponsored and the companies are (at least partially) state owned - it absolutely could happen and the ban is designed to be just one more layer of a very complex security scheme.
But in case I wasn't clear in the first part of the post, I have no problem using these brands in personal/private networks. This use is not going to be the intended target of a Stuxnet type attack and therefore there is no real risk as long as the devices are isolated on your network (ie they have no access to the internet of the rest of of your network).
Regardless of the political motivations for passing this ban, it actually does help improve our national security. I know a lot of people would argue that a properly set up network would prevent any harm from using these cameras (which is why I use them on my personal network), but that is a short sighted concept of the level of network security that our government and other sensitive faculties needs to be applying. Just look into the Stuxnet virus to see how advanced electronic warfare can be - especially from state sponsored groups that have the money to accomplish almost anything. Stuxnet was a single purpose virus that worked it's way into a secure facility and onto a completely isolated network (ie zero outside connections) without the hackers having physical access to the facility. Imagine how much easier it would have been to accomplish if the hackers could have loaded the virus on a device that was going to be installed in the facility - by the very people who ran the facility! By allowing these cameras into government and other sensitive facilities, we are potentially installing a real trojan horse that would make the hackers job that much easier. The hackers are state sponsored and the companies are (at least partially) state owned - it absolutely could happen and the ban is designed to be just one more layer of a very complex security scheme.
But in case I wasn't clear in the first part of the post, I have no problem using these brands in personal/private networks. This use is not going to be the intended target of a Stuxnet type attack and therefore there is no real risk as long as the devices are isolated on your network (ie they have no access to the internet of the rest of of your network).
Last edited:
trempa92
Getting comfortable
Regardless of my avatar im not employee of hikvision, just distributer of hikvision equipment among other brands.
There's nothing online thats actually safe. This is more of an USA-China espionage prevention.
Its like saying, lets ban everything in Europe that NSA has hands on. And they have hands on anything.
But we are often taught USA are good guys and China are bad guys, so there's that.
There was a backdoor on hikvision cams around 2017 and yes alot of them are still in use, that is indeed concerning as well watchfull_IP disclosed web attack at 2021. But new equipment is as exploitable as anything else that have access to internet.
Some exploits are disclosed some are not, same goes for any other brand there is. No matter how expensive it is. It just happens to be that hikvision hold biggest market around the globe and by statistics it will be found sooner rather than later.
Thats my 2 cents about it.
There's nothing online thats actually safe. This is more of an USA-China espionage prevention.
Its like saying, lets ban everything in Europe that NSA has hands on. And they have hands on anything.
But we are often taught USA are good guys and China are bad guys, so there's that.
There was a backdoor on hikvision cams around 2017 and yes alot of them are still in use, that is indeed concerning as well watchfull_IP disclosed web attack at 2021. But new equipment is as exploitable as anything else that have access to internet.
Some exploits are disclosed some are not, same goes for any other brand there is. No matter how expensive it is. It just happens to be that hikvision hold biggest market around the globe and by statistics it will be found sooner rather than later.
Thats my 2 cents about it.