Hikvision
Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co., Ltd., often shortened to Hikvision, is a Chinese state-owned manufacturer and supplier of video surveillance equipment for civilian and military purposes, headquartered in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. Its controlling shares are owned by the Chinese government. Due to its involvement in alleged human rights violation and national security concerns, the company has been placed under sanctions from the U.S. government and is prevented from receiving U.S. government contracts. History. Hikvision was founded in 2001 by Zhejiang HIK Information Technology Co., Ltd. () with the company having a 51% stake and Gong Hongjia () a 13.4% stake. Hikvision  is an IoT solution provider with video surveillance market as its core competency. It devotes 8% of its annual revenue to research and development with 40,403 employees. Hikvision has been listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange since 2010. The company provides surveillance products to the global market. In October 2016, the company concluded a deal to use Movidius' computer vision technology. In May 2017, Hikvision established Hikstorage, a subsidiary focused on the production of storage devices. In January 2021, the company won a US$33 million, 1,900-camera smart city project in Shanghe County, Shandong province that includes cameras with  facial recognition and license plate recognition technologies. In 2021, Best Buy, Home Depot, and Lowe's stopped selling cameras from Hikvision brand Ezviz due to concerns about Hikvision’s complicity in surveillance and human rights violations in Xinjiang. U.S. investment prohibition. In November 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order prohibiting any American company or individual from owning shares in companies that the United States Department of Defense has listed as having links to the People's Liberation Army, which included Hikvision. In December 2020, Hikvision was removed from FTSE Russell. On January 12, 2021, the Joe Biden  inaugural committee returned a $500 donation to former U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) after she registered as a foreign agent for Hikvision. In March 2021, the Federal Communications Commission declared that Hikvision services and equipment "pose an unacceptable risk to U.S. national security.” Market. In June 2019, Hikvision was ranked 800th in the 2019 edition of Forbes Global 2000. As of 16 November 2016, Hikvision was also a constituent of the SZSE 100 Index, a blue chip index of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, as well as the pan-China indexes CSI 300 Index, FTSE China A50 Index and  Hang Seng China 50 Index. Ownership. Hikvision was owned by China Electronics Technology HIK Group Co., Ltd. (HIK Group, ), a wholly owned subsidiary of China Electronics Technology Group, which has a 39.59% stake. China Electronics Technology Group is a state-run enterprise that is owned and supervised by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council. China Electronics Technology Group holds an additional 1.96% stake of Hikvision via its 52nd research institute (). The Chairman of Hikvision, Chen Zongnian (), is also the chairman and the Party Committee Secretary of HIK Group, and Head of the aforementioned research  institute. As of 12 2019 Fidelity International was also a major investor in Hikvision. In 2017, the third largest shareholder was a private equity fund () which had a 7% stake, which is associated with then Hikvision general manager Hu Yangzhong. According to previous filing, "Xinjian Weixun" was also associated with Liu Xiang (), former director (from 2015 to March 2018) and former deputy general manager of Hikvision, then deputy general manager of HIK Group, chairman of sister listed company Phenix Optical. In 2017, the fourth largest shareholder was another private equity fund () which had a 2% stake. The fund was partly  owned by Gong's wife Chen Chunmei () and aforementioned Hu Yangzhong. Hu Yangzhong also owned an additional 1.33% stake personally. To sum up, those shareholders owned a combined 65.71% stake. Lastly, Hong Kong Securities Clearing Company owned 9.77%, which was the nominees of the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect and Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect. In 2021, IPVM alleged that Hikvision was created and controlled by the Chinese government. Alleged attempts to conceal government ownership. In 2015, IPVM criticized Hikvision for allegedly obscuring its Chinese government ownership. Jeffrey He, president of Hikvision North America, had criticized the online blogger site  for allegedly seeking financial gain. Alan West, in a 2016 interview published by "The Times" (and re-published by "The Australian"), suggested that Hikvision's ownership raised ethical and security concerns when it came to the usage of Hikvision's products by the British government. Controversies. Cybersecurity vulnerabilities. In May 2017, seven series of Hikvision cameras were affected by an improper authentication vulnerability which, if exploited, could allow "a malicious attacker [to] escalat[e] his or her privileges or assum[e] the identity of an authenticated user and [obtain] sensitive data," according to the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. In May  2021, Italian public broadcaster RAI reported that Hikvision cameras automatically "opened communication channels with addresses registered in China" once connected to the internet. Hikvision declined to comment on the RAI investigation. In September 2021, Hikvision announced a command injection vulnerability with the CVE-ID CVE-2021-36260. "Forbes" reported that the vulnerability, which has a CVSS base score of 9.8 out of 10, left dozens of Hikvision camera models "susceptible to remote hijacking" without requiring a username or password. In 2022, "Axios" reported that Hikvision had hired FTI Consulting to conduct cybersecurity audits of its products. Involvement in Xinjiang internment camps . In January 2019, the U.S. government began considering whether it should sanction Hikvision, which "The Nation" described as having "provided thousands of cameras that monitor mosques, schools, and concentration camps in Xinjiang." The U.S. government banned Hikvision from receiving federal government contracts in August 2019 due to security concerns. In October 2019, Hikvision was formally placed on the Entity List by the U.S. government for its role in surveillance of Uyghurs in Xinjiang and of other ethnic and religious minorities in China. In response to the bans and sanctions, Hikvision has hired former U.S. ambassador Pierre-Richard Prosper "to advise  the company regarding human rights compliance" as well as numerous lobbyists, including former U.S. senators David Vitter and Barbara Boxer, former U.S. congressman Toby Moffett, and a former senior OFAC official. In April 2021, the European Parliament confirmed that it had removed Hikvision thermal cameras from its premises following the approval of an amendment sponsored by Dutch MEP Lara Wolters calling for the removal of "all of Hikvision’s thermal cameras from Parliament’s premises" due to "an unacceptable risk that Hikvision, through its operations in Xinjiang, is contributing to serious human rights abuses." In July 2021, the UK Foreign  Affairs Select Committee published a report stating that Hikvision cameras "have been deployed throughout Xinjiang, and provide the primary camera technology used in the internment camps". Bans. In January 2021, the United States of America banned government installations of information communication equipment from brands based in the People's Republic of China, including Hikvision, which was of particular concern due to its use by over 300 government agencies. In June 2021, 224 Hikvision products were banned for one year by South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT over forged test reports. In September 2021, the Indian Navy's headquarters  asked its all formations to 'discontinue' procurement of CCTV cameras and surveillance systems from Hikvision, according to "The Week". "The Week" also reported that the Indian Navy had ordered the replacement and destruction of its existing Hikvision cameras. In April 2022, the UK Department of Health and Social Care banned the purchase of Hikvision cameras.