Morten Tor Nielsen Defends Hikvision

Sean, thank you for your spirited response!

Your statement here is different from what we said:

IPVM finally admits that the Chinese Government doesnt want to initiate Cyber Warfare with the USA through Hikvision devices

Does the Chinese government want to initiate cyber warfare (or simply cyber espionage) through Hikvision devices? There is no direct evidence to say either way but given the Chinese government's track record on cyber warfare / spying, it is hard for us to believe the Chinese government would rule it out.

Is the Chinese government telling Hikvision to recommend port forwarding Linksys routers or not verifying who tries to reset admin passwords? This is the type of 'basic issues with cybersecurity' we are saying makes no sense for the Chinese government to be driving.

Nielsen is conflating our criticisms of the Chinese government's economic impact with our reporting of various basic Hikvision cybersecurity problems.

As for the economic side:

But what do you expect integrators to do? Start quoting more expensive stuff from other manufacturers

As we have discussed before, your approach of prioritizing short-term money making over longer term and bigger issues is, in itself, a very American thing to do. That noted, I do think quite a lot of buyers are reconsidering their approach here as Hikvision's escalating anti-IPVM marketing campaign implicitly acknowledges.

I took the 

Indeed, IPVM strongly doubts the Chinese government is encouraging Hikvision to have so many basic issues with cybersecurity.

comment to mean that the government would be encouraging Hikvision to be a little more sneaky or savvy about it and not to present such amateurish flaws. 

Breaking news

To be clear, he posted that prior to us releasing this post. Indeed, that post is quoted in this post's introduction about 'bullshit' and 'assholery'.

Man oh man, those anonymous sources are everywhere! Nobody's safe! Psst...a friend's sister's cousin's ex-boyfriend told me from a very trusted anonymous source that John dyes his hair.

Say it ain't so, John! Counter my irrefutable proof! :)

I have no doubt that China, like most countries (including ours), have stepped over the line on their allies when it comes to gathering intel. But you think Conducting espionage helps build their economy? I think what builds their economy for the most part are all the goods the USA purchases from them.

But has anyone ever stopped and thought about how incredibly dumb it would be for China to launch any type of large scale attack, cyber or military wise on the USA? China's economy would completely collapse without us and more than likely vice versa. China is very much business oriented, and to cause harm to the USA would cause more harm to China. Why would they shoot themselves in the foot? A similar comparison would be like taking your number one customer and punching them in the face for no reason, it just doesnt make sense. Even though we dont agree with everything they do economically or otherwise, they are still one of our greatest partners. This is why I think the conspiracy theory of using Hikvision devices to initiate a large scare cyber attack on the USA is completely bananas insane and laughable.