Nebraska AG Sues Security Camera Company Alleging CCP Backdoors

Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers on Sept. 23 sued security camera company Lorex, alleging ties to the Chinese communist regime and deceptive practices.

Lorex was previously owned by Dahua, a blacklisted Chinese tech company that the U.S. government determined was aiding the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) suppression and mass surveillance of Uyghurs in Xinjiang.

Dahua sold off the subsidiary in 2022, one day before the Federal Communications Commission restricted sales of Dahua equipment based on security concerns. This meant the order did not restrict sales of Lorex cameras.

Hilgers says that though Lorex changed owners, it retains the same technology components—and security concerns—it had under Dahua ownership. Federal lawmakers have raised similar concerns over the years.

He said Lorex’s statements that its products are safe and the company protects user privacy are “deceptive.”

“These are cameras that are being placed in people’s nurseries. They’re cameras that are watching the most intimate parts of people’s homes or places surrounding their homes,” Hilgers said at a press briefing.

“We know that they have back doors to the Chinese government, the Chinese Communist Party,” he said, adding that Dahua devices contain security vulnerabilities known to malicious cyberactors.

He indicated the threat was not just cyberespionage, but potential exploitation by human traffickers.

“Cameras of this type, that have these types of security concerns, have been exploited by predators … to gain access to young children,” Hilgers said.

The complaint filed by the attorney general indicates sellers of Lorex products may also be liable for misleading claims.

Lorex said in a statement provided to The Epoch Times that it was aware of and would contest the lawsuit.

“We fully intend to contest the allegations made by the Attorney General, and we are confident that a fair hearing will determine that Lorex has taken the appropriate steps to safeguard customer privacy,” the statement read.

Dahua Security Concerns

China-based Dahua is a major security equipment company and at one time supplied 180 countries and territories, with Vatican City, the Rio Olympics, and a London smart city project among its clients.

In 2019, the Commerce Department put it on the entity list over its role in the mass surveillance of Uyghurs, and the Pentagon designated it a Chinese military company in fiscal year 2021. Congress in 2021 passed a law to require the FCC to ban equipment on these lists.

Other countries have made similar determinations and restricted use of Dahua equipment.

As documented in a Congressional-Executive Commission on China report, Dahua and its executives have marketed surveillance capabilities of its technology. That includes scanning facial features to identify people by ethnicity and conducting “social governance” monitoring, which reportedly includes a feature that “can alert public security officers if a banner is unfurled in public for too long.”

The Nebraska lawsuit cites an Internet Protocol Video Market (IPVM) report which found that millions of Dahua cameras could be used as wiretaps, even if users had turned off the audio.

These “backdoors” are intentional, according to IVPM experts, as they are “‘placed into the product by the vendor’ by using hard-coded credentials in firmware for cameras.”

“Dahua cybersecurity history has numerous vulnerabilities, many rated as critical, and it regularly fails to provide complete lists of affected models or firmware versions,” IVPM researchers said.