Dear Valued Partner:
On August 1st 2018, 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (hereinafter refers to NDAA) was passed by both Chambers of U.S. Congress. This bill was quickly drafted and passed, resulting in ambiguous interpretations of various definitions within the provisions relevant to Hikvision. The ban on U.S. federal agency procurement of Hikvision video surveillance products may or may not extend to other areas unrelated to U.S. Government contracts.
The decision by Congress to approve this provision was not based on any evidence, review, or investigation of potential security risks. It represents a rejection of the U.S. government’s obligation to use a standards-based approach when evaluating security risks in federal procurement.
It also ignores Hikvision’s commitments to comply with all applicable laws and regulations and the company’s efforts to ensure the security of its products go beyond what is mandated by the U.S. government, including the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2, which is a U.S. government standard established by the Computer Security Resource Center of the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
To further exemplify our commitment to transparency and compliance, Hikvision opened the Source Code Transparency Center (SCTC) in February 2018, the industry’s first-of-its-kind lab that makes available the company’s source code for law enforcement authorities and government agencies in the U.S. and Canada for review.
Moreover, we want to be clear: security and transparency are our top priorities and part of our long-standing commitment to you. Hikvision has engaged external legal counsel to analyze the NDAA language. That analysis is currently underway. As soon as we can provide guidance, we will get that information out to you.
The provisions within the NDAA will come into effect in either one or two years from being signed into law, which we expect to occur this month. Hikvision is deploying the necessary resources to mitigate any potential negative impact.
Meanwhile, we will work with you, our partners, to ensure proper compliance. We will also work with the U.S. Government on the implementation of this legislation to minimize the impact it may have on our partners.
Finally, we would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to all of you for trusting, understanding and supporting Hikvision.
Kind Regards,
Jeffrey He
Vice President
Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co., Ltd.
President
Hikvision USA Inc., Hikvision Canada Inc.
