Korea Land & Housing Corporation (LH) will replace all 10,000 closed-circuit (CC)TV units installed in rental housing. The move comes after CCTV models registered as excellent procurement products with the Public Procurement Service were found to be Chinese-made disguised as domestic, prompting concerns about the security of residents' video footage.
According to the National Assembly and LH on the 9th, LH recently conducted a full inspection of CCTVs applied to rental housing and found that a total of 10,584 units were Chinese-made CCTVs disguised as domestic products. The replacements cover 7,030 units installed across 81 construction rental housing complexes and 3,554 units installed in 354 buildings of purchased rental housing. The CCTVs installed in LH's rental housing were procured through the Public Procurement Service process and installed at complex entrances, underground parking lots, common entrances, playgrounds, day care centers, and other locations.
While LH assesses that, given the nature of closed-circuit systems, the likelihood of CCTV footage leaking externally is slim, it decided to replace the Chinese-made CCTVs identified in this full inspection. An LH official said, "We conducted a full inspection of the Chinese-made CCTVs installed in rental housing, and we plan to replace all units identified in the inspection."
The allegation that Chinese-made CCTVs disguised as domestic products were installed in LH's rental housing was raised during last year's National Assembly audit. According to materials released last year by lawmaker Eom Tae-young's office, more than 10,000 Chinese-made CCTVs were disguised as domestic products and installed in rental housing complexes and other sites. Chinese-made CCTVs themselves are not the issue. However, these CCTVs, disguised as domestic products, received domestic security certification (TTA certification), yet the process to check for a backdoor (an unauthorized data exfiltration channel) was reportedly omitted. In that case, there remains the possibility that a backdoor could be added during firmware or software updates, which could undermine the security of the CCTVs.
The company that supplied the CCTVs to LH is said to have imported Chinese surveillance cameras between 2016 and 2021 and delivered the products by "label switching" (changing the country of origin). After these products were registered as excellent procurement products with the Public Procurement Service, large-scale supply to LH became possible.
LH plans to establish this month the standards for replacing CCTVs with reinforced security and proceed with phased replacement work. For public sale or conversion-to-sale public rental housing, where ownership has shifted to residents, LH will review follow-up measures through consultations with relevant agencies.
However, given that concerns about Chinese-made CCTVs disguised as domestic have been raised consistently for years, LH is unlikely to avoid criticism that it took some time before responding with a replacement timetable. In 2024, there were also allegations that Chinese-made CCTVs with weak security were installed at key national facilities, public enterprises, and military units, and LH was included among the institutions that had installed the CCTVs at that time.