US Embassy Requires Hikvision Cameras
The US Embassy in Kabul Afghanistan has required only Hikvision cameras in a new US federal government bid.
However:
- Hikvision was founded from a Chinese government research institute
- To this day, the Chinese government is the 'controlling shareholder' of Hikvision
- Hikvision is overseen by a China Communist Party Committee and Hikvision has pledged to comply with China Communist Party's leadership
- Hikvision has a poor cybersecurity track record including Hikvision Chinese government installations being hacked
- The Chinese government has authorized $6 billion in funding to Hikvision in the past year
Quiz: See how well you know the relationship between Hikvision and the Chinese government with this 5 question quiz.
Bid Requirement Hikvision
The US federal bid calls for:
And only Hikvision will be accepted:
bids containing substitutions will be viewed as UNACCEPTABLE. If you are not able to deliver the line item as requested, DO NOT BID.
The cameras required are $100 - $150 commercial EXIR models:
Those cameras are solid commercial offerings (see our Hikvision EXIR test results) common in small to medium sized businesses but, even without the Chinese government ownership, are a strange choice for the high standards of sole source justification for federal facilities.
But the US government has filed a request for that with no meaningful visible defense:
On the positive side for Hikvision, it is a great endorsement for them and their massively growing US sales and marketing organization to get locked in to US federal installations.
On the other hand, it is a risk for the US government to be deploying Chinese government controlled surveillance cameras into high security federal facilities.
UPDATE Nov 2016
The State Department has cancelled this procurement and removed Hikvision cameras from this US embassy.
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