Just to throw my two cents into the discussion:
I am a Dahua dealer. If I am to believe what my reps say, my small company (<10 employees) is one of the more successful dealers in so cal (+/- 100K worth of Dahua products sold this year). I have become friends with one of my reps, even invited him and his family to our baby shower back in June.
With all of that being said, I honestly feel the gag graphic was, and still is, hilarious! However I am also one of those people who can, and often has reason to, laugh at their own mistakes. Screw ups happen, and if you get too caught up in damage control, pr, and excusing your mistakes then that makes you a person/company not deserving of my respect. Look at all the dealers who get bent out of shape when some report comes out showing the errors their manufacturer made. Why? Do they think that proverbial crying and yelling is going to make the problem go away?
The Dahua hack sucked. It is not their first time having these kinds of issues. I wish they had taken a more direct and stand up approach (which they did a much better job of earlier in the year with the backdoor issues). So in the midst of all their promoting and patting themselves on the back, a little well deserved satire is fitting and when I woke up and saw that picture and headline it made me feel better about the situation.
Am I still using Dahua? Yes but I will be honest and say I am keeping an open mind and reconsidering how I want to structure my camera sales. Maybe put in another brand or two into the product mix, so I am not solely relying on one manufacturer and feeling joined at the hip to them.
Are these thoughts I am having the fault of IPVM? No, actually looking at the quality/price ratio, which IPVM has honestly and fairly reported on through the shootouts and product reviews, reaffirmed my product choice. Also IPVM has hundreds, if not thousands, of other product reviews that I can use to research the next player in my lineup.
Anyways rant is over. Go IPVM for being criticized the security industry over! Know that you are doing something right when the best your critics can do is accuse you of "cyberbullying"... that term makes me just imagine some poor C-suite exec probably crying under their over priced desk right now, having to dry their tears with hundred dollar bills because of being terrorized by John Honavich the cyberbully!!!