Seoul [South Korea], September 14: South Korean officials said that in late July, during equipment inspections, military and intelligence agencies discovered that surveillance cameras supplied by a South Korean company were actually made in China.
The military removed all of the cameras and replaced them with domestically produced equipment due to security concerns. To date, about 100 new cameras have been installed.
In a statement to AFP, the South Korean Defense Ministry said the problem was discovered during an inspection of foreign equipment in the first half of this year, aimed at identifying security vulnerabilities in equipment put into use in the military.
A South Korean official said the surveillance cameras were found to be capable of transmitting recorded images outside by connecting to a specific Chinese server . However, he insisted that no data was actually leaked.
The dismantled surveillance cameras were not used to monitor the border with North Korea , but were instead used to monitor military training areas and base fences, the official said. Some of the cameras were installed as early as 2014.
The company that supplied the cameras is suspected of falsifying the origin of the equipment. The military is considering taking legal action and demanding compensation from the company.
A similar move took place in Australia, where officials said last year that the Australian Department of Defense and Department of Foreign Affairs had removed surveillance cameras supplied by Chinese-run companies, after reports that the cameras posed a security risk, according to Reuters.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper