Australia Orders Checks On Chinese-Made Cameras In Defense Offices

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: The Australian government will examine surveillance technology used in offices of the defense department, Defense Minister Richard Marles said on Thursday, amid reports that Chinese-made cameras installed there posed a security risk. 'This is an issue and... we're doing an assessment of all the technology for surveillance within the defense (department) and where those particular cameras are found, they are going to be removed,' Marles told ABC Radio in an interview. Opposition lawmaker James Paterson said his own audit had revealed almost 1,000 units of equipment by Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology and Dahua Technology Co -- two partly state-owned Chinese firms -- were installed across more than 250 Australian government offices.

Paterson, the shadow minister for cyber security and countering foreign interference, urged the government to urgently come up with a plan to remove all such cameras. Marles said the issue was significant though adding: 'I don't think we should overstate it.' Hikvision said it was 'categorically false' to represent the company as a threat to Australia's national security as it could not access the video data of end users, manage end-user databases or sell cloud storage in Australia. 'Our cameras are compliant with all applicable Australian laws and regulations and are subject to strict security requirements,' a spokesperson said in an emailed response.

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