Pardon me for being in a security industry bubble but, do other industries (HVAC, fire, wifi) face this challenge (i.e. Chinese products compromising cybersecurity and driving prices down) or are we unique?
If so, what are these other industries doing to fight the price whores like Hik?
NOTICE: This comment was moved from an existing discussion: Chinese 'attacking Us From Every Direction', Says US FBI
It's a fair bet other industries are. For example, steel has for quite some time. For several years our #1 export was scrap metal going to China. That scrap metal comes back here in various forms. A recent example is the Keystone Pipeline. For that one some regulation (sort of - executive orders) was attempted but based on the articles I read that essentially failed.
I know copper cabling was another example. Some attempts were made to fight back because the quality of the product coming from overseas wasn't up to snuff, for the most part. A lot of copper clad aluminum snuck in and likely still sneaks in. Important lesson on this one - validate the UL marking on your cabling. If it's "Joe's non-descript Cat6" it's not likely to be quality product.
Yes, absolutely. I went to college for manufacturing engineering. I interned at a local water faucet manufacturer owned by a multinational corporation, and initially it appeared as if my internship would end up being hired as a full-time engineer.
One engineering group I worked with spent most of a year developing an installation feature that would greatly enhance product value and justify higher price compared to low-end overseas alternatives. Once that feature hit production models, it was a huge success, and all of a sudden the 200X price difference was not too much for plumbers to pay since it greatly lowered installation costs.
But then six months later, those ultra-cheap knock off faucets started showing up with that very same reverse engineered feature, but at a fraction of the cost in part because of inexpensive manufacturing labor. US Patents are very difficult to enforce overseas, I learned.
Not too long afterward that manufacturing plant shut down and offloaded work to some of those same suppliers it previously competed with.
TL; DR: "Race to the Bottom" is not a term coined in surveillance, but has been used in many industries for decades.
One engineering group I worked with spent most of a year developing an installation feature that would greatly enhance product value and justify higher price compared to low-end overseas alternatives...But then six months later, those ultra-cheap knock off faucets started showing up...
Pity, all that work down the drain :)
I used to be in the office equipment industry and Chinese compatible toners were a huge issue. They were selling new compatible toners for less than what it cost us to remanufacture a cartridge. Quality was a big problem but I believe it has gotten better over the years.
Let's keep this focused on devices that have the ability to record sound and or video that can be pirated through a deliberate or accidental flaw in the device.. Cheap steel and copper wiring, not getting us there. Having some experience in the high security environment, the cell phone is the most dangerous device that we have. Every electronic device that enters that environment must be tested, approved and certified for use in that space.
In the corporate world, cell phones again may be the highest risk device but what about VOIP systems? How many confidential conversations occur over a VOIP system?
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