NDAA 2019 Sec. 889 Bans Sale of Hikvision Products to U.S. Government
Recently, the U.S. government passed the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 (NDAA). This particular act has components affecting many different issues with regard to national security. Part of its focus is to increase electronic and network security to protect federal government agencies from the growing risk of foreign cyber-attacks and information gathering. Namely, NDAA prohibits the purchase and use of certain video surveillance products that are manufactured by specific companies based in China. Among the identified manufacturers is Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Company.Are DMP’s Government Contracts or Products Affected?
By Mark Hillenburg
Vice President of Marketing
June 25, 2020
DMP is one of the few security companies that continues to design, engineer and manufacture all of our control panels in the U.S. Since our founding in 1975, our commitment to the highest level of quality with encrypted and scalable solutions has allowed us to meet the security needs of numerous U.S. government agencies. DMP has also developed a trusted national network for installation and service, as well as a division of our company that is solely dedicated to serving our important government customers. In light of the NDAA 2019 however, some have questioned if DMP's business with the U.S. government would be affected. In response to this question, DMP legal counsel Joe Hurst explains:
“A review of the DMP GSA lists, present and historical, indicates that products from Hikvision, including any OEM derivatives, have never been offered for sale to any U.S. government agency by DMP.”
While DMP, together with our dealers, is honored to manufacture products that meet the needs of our U.S. government agencies, we have not resourced a video integration that is designed and intended for our government’s use. Hurst goes on to add:
“Section 1655 of NDAA 2019 refers to ‘Industrial Control’ products where companies that have provided their source code to Countries listed in Section 1654, which includes China, will need to report this fact to the Secretary of Defense. DMP has chosen not to enter the Chinese market due to the requirement that products must have the CCC mark, which is administered by the CNCA, an approval agency within the Chinese government that requires the source code be provided as part of the review process. In our effort to protect the security of our many high-level financial and government users, we have chosen not to provide this vital information, and as a result, we have not been allowed to sell DMP products into China.”
As such, Hurst concludes, our authorized dealers, integration partners, and government security directors can rest assured that DMP is in full compliance with all sections of the NDAA. And, while we sell a limited number of video surveillance products into home and small retail markets, DMP takes extra measures to protect these customers' data. In fact, DMP is one of the only security companies that leverages a Virtual Private Network (VPN) in its video product offerings.
Using a VPN ensures that live video sent to SecureCom™ servers via the internet remains private — that’s because it encapsulates and encrypts the traffic before it’s sent over the internet to another network, thus keeping the user data secure and private. Data from the client’s camera or NVR is not decrypted until it’s received by SecureCom’s servers.
DMP’s exclusive EASYconnectVPN™ firmware is standard protocol, not only for all SecureCom and Hikvision cameras and NVRs, but also some compatible Digital Watchdog cameras. To learn about other cloud-based solutions that DMP employs, click here for a related White Paper, “Network Security is Serious Business.”
This content above, as well as a related white paper were published in 2019. Updated information is provided in this white paper, published in 2021.