In a newly released statement Mobotix makes its stance very clear on cyber security and confirms that all Mobotix video systems comply with the requirements of the NDAA and are 100 percent NDAA compliant.
The company stresses that it does not use SoC (System on Chip) or other components that can process software from Chinese companies. In addition, Mobotix also confirms that products purchased from OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturers) partners are also 100% NDAA compliant. The company has also taken steps to clearly demonstrate in a defined 3-step self-certification process that its video surveillance cameras do not contain any Chinese components.
The United States made the first move with the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a specific move to protect against Chinese espionage, which lists specific components and companies that may not be used for telecommunications equipment (including security products) or services to sell the end products to U.S. federal agencies, their contractors, and grant or loan recipients and related entities. More countries followed suit with the U.K. and Australia, and the EU launched the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) late last year. These companies and components of Chinese origin listed in the NDAA are suspected of being used for spying and espionage by the Chinese government.
Mobotix is keen to confirm its video systems undergo regular penetration tests, for example, by the French Centre national de prévention et de protection (CNPP) and SySS GmbH, Germany’s leading institute for penetration tests. All Mobotix products and solutions are integrated into the comprehensive cyber security strategy, whose overall measures are bundled in the Mobotix Cactus Concept.
“We very much welcome the growing sensitivity of governments in particular, and companies have long since recognised the danger of industrial espionage,” said Christian Cabirol, CTO of Mobotix AG. “For many years now, we have been using only high-performance industrial FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays) for our hardware and image generation chains, thus offering reliable protection for the user.”
An FPGA is used for continuously processing digital signals such as audio and video, neural networks and deep learning algorithms, and artificial intelligence, making a system far less vulnerable to hacking and spyware. “Proprietary Mobotix software ‘Made in Germany’ is used on these processors – giving us full control over what the entire system does and can do,” explains Cabirol.
The decentralised architecture of the Mobotix video systems is designed to ensure the highest level of security, as all image processing processes, such as the pixelation of persons, take place directly on the camera, and no transmission of unpixelated data takes place. In general, data protection and DSGVO-compliant applications are the focus of Mobotix. For example, apps from the Mobotix 7 platform can even dynamically pixelate images by recognising and automatically anonymising people. This can be important when monitoring sensitive areas, public places, or schools.
Thermal applications also offer the best opportunities for DSGVO-compliant perimeter and object protection, as people can be seen in the thermal image but cannot be identified. The decentralised architecture also does not require a permanent stream to a server or control centre, as image data is only transmitted when an event occurs. And this dialogue is always encrypted.
