Australia to remove China-linked security cameras from defence offices over spying concerns
- Defence Minister Richard Marles said he will order an assessment of the surveillance technology made by Hikvision and Dahua in his department
- The national war memorial in Canberra announced it would remove several Chinese-made cameras installed on the premises over concerns of spying
The Australian government will examine surveillance technology used in offices of the defence department, Defence Minister Richard Marles said on Thursday, amid reports the Chinese-made cameras installed there raised security risks.
The move comes after Britain in November asked its departments to stop installing Chinese-linked surveillance cameras at sensitive buildings. Some US states have banned vendors and products from several Chinese technology companies.
“This is an issue and … we’re doing an assessment of all the technology for surveillance within the defence [department] and where those particular cameras are found, they are going to be removed,” Marles told ABC Radio in an interview.
Opposition lawmaker James Paterson said on Thursday his own audit had revealed almost 1,000 units of equipment by Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology and Dahua Technology Co – two partly state-owned Chinese firms – were installed across more than 250 Australian government offices.
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Paterson, the shadow minister for cybersecurity and countering foreign interference, urged the government to urgently come up with a plan to remove all such cameras.
Marles said the issue was significant but “I don’t think we should overstate it.”
Hikvision said it was “categorically false” to represent the company as a threat to Australia’s national security as it could not access the video data of end users, manage end-user databases or sell cloud storage in the country.
“Our cameras are compliant with all applicable Australian laws and regulations and are subject to strict security requirements,” a spokesperson said in an emailed response.
Dahua Technology did not immediately respond to request seeking comment.
China’s foreign ministry urged Australia to provide “a fair environment” for Chinese companies, in response to a question at a regular briefing about the government’s review of the cameras.
Nigel Phair, an expert on cybersecurity at the University of New South Wales, said the government was taking a cautious approach.
“The concern is that these are Chinese manufactured cameras and there’s data being collected which is going back to the Chinese state,” he said.
“They are being very cautious and that’s not a bad thing in the online environment. We should take a measured approach and we should be looking at where the risks are, where the vulnerabilities are and then produce appropriate controls around that.”
Australian media reported on Wednesday that the national war memorial in Canberra would remove several Chinese-made security cameras installed on the premises over concerns of spying.
Australia to remove Chinese cameras from war memorial for ‘national security’
China responded with tariffs on several Australian commodities.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he was not concerned about how Beijing might react to the removal of cameras.
“We act in accordance with Australia’s national interest. We do so transparently and that’s what we will continue to do,” Albanese told reporters.
