Camera data is 'circling' from Vietnam to China

In the Vietnamese market today, most surveillance cameras (installed in homes, businesses, and public places) are of Chinese origin. Statistics from domestic businesses show that about 90% of surveillance camera products in Vietnam are imported from China, through official and unofficial channels.

Notably, many modern cameras have a cloud data connection mechanism, saving information to servers located in China. Therefore, even though they are installed in Vietnamese apartments, this data still "takes a detour" through Chinese servers before connecting to the camera and application on the user's device.

Cameras monitor many private activities but do not pay attention to information security factors.

According to experts, cameras are sensitive products with many potential risks of information leakage. Therefore, data recorded by cameras must go through cloud servers of companies located abroad, leading to information security risks. Sensitive personal data and private behavior can be made public when the transmission channel is blocked or the server is attacked. In addition, it is not excluded that personal information will be exploited without permission.

Speaking at the seminar "Basic network information security standards for surveillance cameras" held on the morning of May 22 in Hanoi , Mr. Vu Ngoc Son - Head of Technology Department - National Cyber ​​Security Association (NCA) assessed that from the perspective of network security, cameras can be considered as computers, even "special" because they can listen, see, think (if integrated with AI), detect and analyze objects appearing in the field of view. These devices are almost never turned off, rarely patched and rarely have patches or anti-virus software installed.

"Therefore, if attacked, there will be no one to protect them," Mr. Son said. According to the NCA leader, although the potential risks are extremely high, cameras are not treated like computers when there are no clear standards or origins.

Sharing the same opinion, Mr. Nguyen Viet Bang, Deputy General Director of VNPT Technology, said that cameras can become devices to collect information. "A camera placed in the house will be like a computer with an operating system, recording sound, images and almost having an extra person in the place of residence, running silently. Therefore, if there is a vulnerability, the camera device can completely send information out. Also because it uses network equipment, it is capable of collecting all information about the network in the house or office," Mr. Bang explained.

Mr. Vu Ngoc Son believes that cameras can be seen as special computers in homes, offices or public places.

In the world , there have been many attacks on large camera systems. For example, in 2023, many Hikvision customers, when viewing cameras, received hacker attack warning messages on the screen. Hundreds of thousands of the company's cameras were attacked through an old vulnerability from 2021. Although the manufacturer had released a patch, users still did not update. The attack surprised many people because an important system like cameras was not patched.

Another incident was the attack on 150,000 cameras from the US company Verkada, installed in gyms, prisons, hospitals, Tesla factories... in 2021. Hackers did not attack directly but through the camera management server - a common form with IT systems. Then, they had privileged access to the company's cameras, bypassing authentication layers.

In Vietnam, there have been no major incidents, but the situation is alarming. In 2014, a website advertised the ability to view 730,000 different cameras around the world online without a password, including more than 1,000 cameras in Vietnam. The cameras were placed in public areas, rarely noticed, in organizations, on the streets. This website still exists and is constantly updated.

In 2020, according to a survey in Vietnam, the number of cameras with unupdated passwords reached 70%. "In 2023, some hackers sold access to cameras in Vietnam, with systems of up to 100,000 cameras. The amount of money spent to view was also modest, only about 800,000 VND to access 15 cameras," Mr. Vu Ngoc Son shared.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/du-lieu-camera-dang-di-vong-tu-viet-nam-sang-trung-quoc-185240522151802059.htm