2024-01-18 05:00:00

A controversial manufacturer of Chinese cameras banned in the United States and recently banned from Quebec is transferring its assets to another company in the hope of continuing to do business in North America, our Bureau of Investigation has learned. But Quebec promises not to be fooled.

• Read also: Disturbing Chinese cameras in around fifty Quebec cities, ministries and hospitals

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Last December, following our report, the Ministry of Cybersecurity and Digital Affairs announced that all public institutions might no longer obtain video surveillance equipment from Chinese companies Hikvision and Dahua for reasons of national security.

Quebec is following in the footsteps of the United States, which issued the same ban last year.

However, on January 4, Dahua wrote to its “star” customers and dealers in Quebec to announce that it had found a way to “secure its sales”. The company said it had transferred the assets of its North American subsidiary to a Taiwanese manufacturer, Luminys Systems Corp.

“The change itself will have no impact […] Your sales team at Dahua will not change, and all contact points and sales channels will remain the same,” wrote Dahua Technology USA director Lin Kun-Huang in an email, a copy of which we obtained.

Email provided to our Investigation Office

Dahua was also delighted to be able to “expand” its distribution channel for its North American users.

Quebec on its guard

“It’s a strategy to be able to access the market. […] They are facing a ban, they are realigning themselves and have found this solution,” summarizes Steve Waterhouse, security expert and lecturer at the University of Sherbrooke.

Asked to comment on this email, the Ministry of Cybersecurity and Digital Affairs (MCN) indicated that it would undertake verifications to identify “links and dependencies” between Dahua and Luminys, in order to update its instructions if necessary.

“In the event that the equipment remains produced [fabriqué] by Dahua, the ministerial decree would apply to Luminys. […] If a manufacturer of equipment targeted by mitigation measures changes its name, the MCN will make the necessary changes to [son] ministerial decree,” indicated the MCN by email.

“The email says nothing changes. They are the same representatives. The same products. This is where I hang on. If they are the same products, it doesn’t change anything. From a security point of view, it’s a challenge,” analyzes Éric Parent, former soldier and president of the cybersecurity firm EVA Technologies.

“And even if the company says that these will be new products, the safety issue remains. How do we know for sure? Even if the name changes, the box changes, it takes a technical analysis to ensure that it is not the same software inside, the same chips,” says Mr. Parent.

It was impossible to learn more regarding the intentions of Dahua, which did not respond to our interview requests, as did its business partner Luminys Systems Corp.

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