The Ezviz security camera manufacturer company – HikVision, part 3

In part 1 the traffic analysis of the EZVIZ in home security camera was introduced. Part 2 is about the traffic analysis between the camera and the internet, connections, protocols and IP addresses.

This third part is on the camera manufacturer, Hikvision.

The home security camera would initially broadcast itself on the home network as Hangzhou Ezviz Software Co.,Ltd. and be identified on the network for lan view RTSP streaming as: Hikvision 7513 POE IP camera.

Hikvision devices deliver value for the technical need they satisfy.

Hikvision, headquartered as well in Hangzhou 310051, China, provides, among thousands of other AI assisted products, both its IP wireless security cameras and whitelabel ones(ie no branding or logo) cameras to other manufacturers to brand and resell, as is the case for Ezviz.

Hikvision provides products in white label to these companies:

As another example of HikVision control over EZIVZ is HikVision ownership of the majority of shares also in these companies (non exhaustive list).

HikVision majority control of some Ezviz companies
Hangzhou EZVIZ Software Co., Ltd. Hangzhou Hangzhou Zhejiang Technology development
EZVIZ Technology (Note 5) Hangzhou Hangzhou Zhejiang Sale
Ezviz Inc. USA Los Angeles Sales
EZVIZ International Limited Hongkong Hongkong China Sales
EZVIZ Europe B.V. Netherland Netherland Sales

EZVIZ is Hikvision

Hikvision is owned by the Chinese government, which has high controlling stakes into it. As per the Hikvision site:

As of June 30, 2016, 41.88% of Hikvision’s shares are jointly owned by China Electronics Technology HIK Group Co., Ltd. (CETHIK) and CETC No. 52 Research Institute, both are part of CETC, a state-owned enterprise;

https://us.hikvision.com/en/about/hikvision-global

The Chinese Government control of HikVision as the majority shareholder is organized as follows:

The Chinese government’s […] fairly strict control and regulation perhaps reflect the protection and care for them and the public due to the high-risk and unclear nature of the newly emerged sectors.

Equalocean report on another company, uCloud which Hikvision uses as the cloud backend video feed server

https://equalocean.com/analysis/201901221333

The CEO of Hikvision is Chen Zongnian who has been from 2008 and will remain until 2024.

Mr. Zongnian is also a member of the Congress of the Chinese Communist Party since 2018. The first time for a security camera system manufacturer director. As video camera research institute, IPVM writes.

Considering the growth of Hikvision and its state ownership, this would make sense for such an important company of smart consumer manufacturers devices.

Since 2019 Hikvision products are banned in the United States from being sold to US government and since 2021 to US in general, and US companies cannot sell their components to Hikvision, in terms of US dual use export control:

The ERC determined that seventeen entities, China Electronic Technology Group Corporation (CETC) 13, and twelve of its subordinate institutions; CETC-55, and two of its subordinate institutions; and Hebei Far East Communication System Engineering, all located in China, be added to the Entity List for actions contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States. These seventeen entities are being added to the Entity List on the basis of their involvement in the procurement of U.S.-origin items for activities contrary to the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States. Specifically, the ERC determined that there is reasonable cause to believe, based on specific and articulable facts, that all of these entities are involved in the illicit procurement of commodities and technologies for unauthorized military end-use in China.

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/06/24/2021-13395/addition-of-certain-entities-to-the-entity-list

Also Hikvision has been the target of sanctions in UK & EU.

In Italy there are at least 95,450 Hikvision IP cameras,

best case scenario 60%+ does not have HTTPS.

https://www.shodan.io/search/report?query=product%3A%22hikvision+ip+camera%22+country%3A%22IT%22

In 2021 EZVIZ was also removed from major US retailers according to this Techcrunch article.

In 2022 HikVision products, including the security camera system it produces, have been banned in UK public offices.

There are more than 56000 Hikvision employees in the world, with 20000 doing research and development, 100 employees in Italy dedicated mostly to sales.

In the last part of the analysis an example of the capabilities of Hikvision remote video cloud management software will be shown.

In part 4, The iVMS with corresponding units, can be used in a worse case scenario for private users if done without oversight: where the in home security camera feed is used for deep analysis of facial identification and urban violations.