Security News > 2022 > November > UK bans Chinese CCTV cameras on 'sensitive' government sites

The United Kingdom has decided Chinese video cameras have no place in government facilities.

Government departments have also been "Advised that no such equipment should be connected to departmental core networks" and told to consider whether they should remove and replace Chinese video cameras "Deployed on sensitive sites" - and do so before planned upgrades.

The advice does not name companies it feels represent a risk, but politicians have campaigned to ban cameras from partly Chinese state-owned CCTV manufacturers Hikvision and Dahua, on grounds that they have been used as instruments of repression of the Muslim Uighur people in China's Xinjiang province.

80,000 internet-connected cameras still vulnerable after critical patch offered Calls for bans on Chinese CCTV makers Hikvision, Dahua expand Kaspersky, China Telecom, China Mobile named 'threats to US national security' UK.gov finds billions in cash for big data contracts.

China denies it's abused human rights in Xinjiang, and Chinese tech firms consistently assert that while Chinese law technically requires them to do anything Beijing asks - including surveillance - they have no ambitions beyond delivering excellent products to customers.

Worries persist around the world that the mere presence of Chinese products creates the chance to map networks, which is very useful intelligence, or that workers at Chinese vendors could be members of the Communist Party.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2022/11/25/uk_government_china_cctv_ban_/