Scramble underway to replace Chinese-made security systems in dozens of electoral offices

The Department of Finance has admitted it is scrambling in the electorate offices of federal politicians to rip out and replace around 120 “systems” made by Chinese firms Hikvision and Dahua, which have been banned at the Department of Defence.

In a rapidly escalating sweep of federal assets potentially compromised by the untrusted hardware, finance department officials confirmed at least 65 different electoral office sites had been identified as using the defence-blacklisted CCTV equipment, with a replacement program now underway.

Aside from video surveillance and intercoms relying on the suspect technology, finance officials also revealed they are replacing electronic locks at some of the sites as part of the refit now underway.

The big security refit was revealed at Senate estimates on Tuesday as finance officials faced more questions as to whether they had pro-actively informed elected representatives of the Hikvision and Dahua issue as part of their purge of the equipment.

Finance appears to have taken the approach that it would replace the systems as part of its regular upgrade cycle for such products as opposed to moving specifically to replace the systems.

The estimates committee was told by finance executives that Ministerial and Parliamentary Services “reached out to parliamentarians in July last year [2022] to notify them of that project”, although a request for a specific start date was taken on notice.

Of the 65 electorate offices identified in the defence blacklisted kit, just 20 had been refitted.

Senator Claire Chandler, who before politics was a senior analyst at Deloitte Risk Advisory, wanted to know what finance had told elected representatives in terms of details and the context around why the refresh was being undertaken.

“There is a difference between saying to MPs and senators, ‘There is an almost run-of-the-mill update to your security devices occurring at some point in the next financial year’, which, from recollection was the intention of the email from July last year,” Chandler pursued.

“And then them saying, ‘We’re specifically changing this device because of security concerns’ … that would be information that I think senators and members of parliament would like to know.”

Finance gave evidence that the move to replace the systems in question was “more of a precautionary measure”.

The estimates committee heard that there was a range of factors driving how replacements were prioritised and that finance expected to replacement of CCTV cameras to be completed by April this year.

This article first appeared in The Mandarin.