HIKVISION, DAHUA, AND THE NEW GAME. “A Securities issue, not a Security Issue.” This was a comment I received from a friend regarding the recent HIKVision news reported by news agencies.
You may be wondering, “what does this mean for me?” We don’t have all the answers for this issue at the moment, but what we DO know, bans on the importation of these products haven’t happened yet. Even still, HIK Products absolutely CAN be secured on existing network infrastructure. It appears as though this argument has been lost in Washington.
Unfortunately for HIK, it seems far greater things are at play here. Anybody who lived through the porous days of operating systems based on DOS understand this irrefutable FACT: any device connected to a remote network is vulnerable; especially to the adept hacker. Case-in-point – AXIS cameras and existing head-end architectures were compromised during the 2016 presidential inauguration. We certainly didn’t hear about it, why not?
For the person wondering: what can be done? We have a lot of options at Arlenco. One important thing happened with the advent of HIKVision; the competition improved, dramatically. Our recommendations [in no particular order]?
- UNV: of course (for both price and tech).
- Speco (highly recommended for complete solutions).
- ACTi (very good if you’ve already chosen your VMS).
- Digital Watchdog (solid, reliable, and compatible).
- Bolide (NDAA Compliant – affordable solutions for all purposes).
If you’d like to download current pricing for any of these, simple! Follow the instructions posted HERE.
Cheers!
Arm Yourself Team