Arunachal MLA Chinese

Itanagar, March 06: Congress MLA from Arunachal Pradesh Ninong Ering has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting him to ban Chinese CCTV cameras as he believes that “they can be used as “eyes and ears of Beijing”.

Ninong Ering, MLA from Pasighat West and former Union minister of state for minority affairs, shared the letter on Twitter and said, “Wrote a letter to Hon’ble PM Sh. @narendramodi Ji to ban the installation of Chinese CCTV systems in Indian Govt offices. These installed CCTVs in use across India can be used as “eyes and ears of Beijing.”

He also highlighted a major threat to India’s national security, “due to the lack of existing legislation and awareness to counter this threat.”

“In the present state of affairs, when China has repeatedly shown hostility not just on our LACS but also by attacking India’s IT infrastructure, it is evident that India must take decisive action to curb this looming Chinese threat,” Ninong Ering’s letter read.

The Arunachal MLA also highlighted how Internet Protocol (IP) cameras, often used in CCTV networks, and internet-operated Digital Video Recording (DVR) devices were compromised in the operation by the Chinese hackers.

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He further noted that a report by a US-based threat intelligence firm had claimed an apparent cyber-espionage campaign by suspected state-sponsored Chinese hackers.

The report, published in June 2022, revealed that the hackers focused on at least seven “load dispatch” centers in northern India. These were responsible for carrying out real-time operations for grid control and electricity dispersal near the India-China border in Ladakh.

“An estimate by the centre showed that there were over 2 million CCTVs installed across India, with over 90% of them made by companies that are partially owned by the Chinese government. Even more worrisome is the fact that more than half of these are installed in India’s government departments,” he said.

“Hence, I will request that you immediately direct a ban on the installation of Chinese CCTV systems in Indian government offices. This can be followed by a launch of a public awareness campaign educating people against using Chinese CCTVs in their homes,” he added.

He suggested that the government can consider the launch of a swadeshi cloud-based server solution to safely keep the CCTV data wherever it is required.