Dahua was founded in 2001 by former defense industry technician Fu Liquan, who serves as the company's chairman and theSecretary of its Communist Party committee.[5][6][7] As of 2021,[update] Dahua is the second-largest video surveillance company in the world in terms of revenue, afterHikvision.[8][9]
Dahua was founded in 2001 by Fu Liquan and some of his former colleagues from a state-owned electronics equipment factory.[6] The company initially focused on manufacturingdigital video recorders.[6] In 2008, Dahua Technology undertook itsinitial public offering on theShenzhen Stock Exchange.[10] In 2018, Dahua acquired security video camera company Lorex.[11][12] By 2019, following the rollout of theChinese government's "Sharp Eyes"surveillance program, Dahua had grown to become the second largest video surveillance company in the world.[5]
Dahua is a provider of a suite of digitalSmart City products which are marketed for "Safe Cities."[13]: 80 In November 2020, Dahua won a US$9 million, 1,900-camera smart city project with thepublic security bureau ofJiexiu.[14] In April 2021,Motorola Solutions announced thatIndigoVision, a Motorola Solutions-owned company, would no longer relabel Dahua cameras, citing U.S.NDAA and supply-chain concerns.[15]
In 2021,Best Buy,Home Depot, andLowe's stopped selling cameras from Dahua brand Lorex due to concerns about Dahua's complicity in surveillance and human rights violations in Xinjiang.[16] TheSecurity Industry Association, a U.S.-based trade organization representing electronic and physical security solutions providers the United States, terminated Dahua Technology's membership on 1 June 2021, citing unnamed violations of its code of ethics.[17][18] In November 2021, Dahua was named in the Secure Equipment Act as one of several entities prohibited from receiving U.S. telecommunication equipment licenses due to national security reasons.[19] During the same month, Dahua provided an electronic security system to processed food company Empresa Panamena de Alimentos (EPA) in Panama.[20] At the end of 2022, Dahua Technology entered into an agreement to sell Lorex to Taiwan-based Skywatch for $72 million. In February 2023, the company announced that the sale had been completed.[21][22][23][24]
In July 2023, Dahua Technology signed an agreement with the Semper Altius School Network and the Anáhuac High School Network in Mexico.[27]
Dahua was a sponsor of the 2023Tour de Langkawi.[28] It was one of the providers of the main security systems for the2023 Pan American Games.[29] In April 2023, Dahua designed a security project forIbagué.[30] In November 2023, Dahua sold 90 million of itsLeapmotor shares toStellantis, ending their equity affiliation.[31]
In 2024, Dahua sold its shares in its U.S. subsidiary, Dahua Technology USA, to a unit ofCentral Motion Picture Corporation.[32] The same year, Taiwan'sMinistry of Justice Investigation Bureau announced an investigation into Dahua for allegedly obfuscating its presence on the island by setting up "two private locations" and listing its employees as working for another company.[33][34]
In March 2021, theFederal Communications Commission (FCC) declared that Dahua services and equipment "pose an unacceptable risk to U.S. national security.”[42] That same year,Sam Biddle ofThe Intercept reported that the U.S. government continued to purchase Dahua-manufactured equipment post-NDAA, raising questions about the effectiveness of the sanctions.[43]
After PresidentJoe Biden signed into law theSecure Equipment Act of 2021, in November 2022, the FCC imposed an "Interim Freeze Order" on Dahua Technology for national security reasons,[45]: 106 effectively barring the sale or import of new equipment made by the company.[46][47] Dahua Technology has stated that this "Interim Freeze Order" does not impact any of its existing products, nor does not prohibit it from introducing new products in the U.S.[48] Dahua Technology has remained ambiguous about whether or not it will issue a legal challenge to the FCC in the wake of its order.[48] In the wake of Dahua Technology's statement, surveillance industry publicationIPVM issued a report accusing Dahua Technology of "misleading" the American public through its use of the phrase "interim freeze".[49]
Dahua Technology is majority owned by Fu Liquan and his wife Chen Ailing.[50][51] As of 31 December 2020[update], Fu owned 34.18% shares as the largest shareholder, while Chen owned 2.38%.[52]
In March 2023, Dahua sold $740 million in new stock toChina Mobile, closing a deal which had been announced two years earlier.[56] As a result, China Mobile holds a minority stake of 8.8% in Dahua.[57] Combined, the three state interests amount to 11.67% state ownership of Dahua.
In 2019,Allianz Parque contracted Dahua for the arena's security and surveillance systems.[61] Later that year, Dahua began to provide video surveillance to theVatican Museums over a 5-year period.[62]
In August 2022, Dahua partnered with ABCOM Distribution LLC for a distribution partnership in MENA.[63] In February 2023, Dahua Technology and Al-Futtaim Engineering and Technologies, part ofAl-Futtaim Group, partnered to bring security technology to Saudi Arabia.[64]
In May 2024, Dahua announced a partnership with the Dutchesports organization andEAFC academy Team Gullit, in which Dahua will supply Team Gullit staff and players with gaming monitors.[65]
In September 2016, the largestDDoS attack to date, onKrebsOnSecurity.com, was traced back to abotnet. According to internet providerLevel 3 Communications, the most commonly infected devices in this botnet were Dahua and Dahua OEM cameras and DVRs.[66][67][68] Nearly one million Dahua devices were infected with theBASHLITE malware.[66][69][70] Avulnerability in most of Dahua's cameras allowed "anyone to take full control of the devices' underlying Linux operating system just by typing a random username with too many characters."[66] This was exploited, and malware installed on devices that allowed them to be used in "both DDoS attacks as well as for extortion campaigns using ransomware."[66]
In March 2017 abackdoor into many Dahua cameras and DVRs was discovered by security researchers working for aFortune 500 company.[71] The vulnerability had been activated on cameras within theFortune 500 company's network, and the data trafficked to China through the company's firewall.[72] Using a web browser, the vulnerability allowed unauthorized people to remotely download a device's database of usernames andpassword hashes and subsequently gain access to it.[73][74] By exploiting it, attackers could potentially see live feed from the camera or even turn the camera into a tool for launching cyberattacks.[75] Dahua issued afirmware update to fix the vulnerability in 11 of its products.[76] Security researchers discovered that the updated firmware contained the same vulnerability but that the vulnerability had been relocated to a different part of the code. This was characterized by the security researchers as deliberate deception.[72]
In September 2021, Dahua acknowledged an identityauthentication bypass vulnerability affecting over 30 device models that, if exploited, can allow attackers to "bypass device identity authentication by constructing malicious data packets."[77] In October 2021,TechCrunch reported thatThe Home Depot andBest Buy stopped selling Lorex-branded Dahua andEzviz products.[78]
A BBCPanorama investigation reported in 2023 revealedIPVM were able to gain access to Dahua's surveillance cameras by exploiting a vulnerability in its software in a live demo, and were able to wiretap the room via the connected camera. Dahua patched the exploit via firmware updates once it was reported to them.[79][80]
As of at least 2024, Dahua Technology and its competitorHikvision supply a combined 40% of the global market for surveillance cameras.[81]: 81
Dahua has played a role in themass surveillance of Uyghurs in Xinjiang.[82][83] In November 2020, after security researchers identified facial identification software code with designations by ethnicity, Dahua removed the code in question fromGitHub.[84] In February 2021, theLos Angeles Times published an investigation of Dahua's technology for the purpose of Uyghur surveillance.[85] According to the investigation, Dahua provided a surveillance system that included "real-time Uyghur warnings" with the ability to sort people by ethnicity and skin color.[86]
In May 2023, IPVM reported that Dahua developed a technology that "automatically detects and reports protest signs and protestors' faces to PRC police."[87]
^Curtis, Simon; Klaus, Ian (2024).The Belt and Road City: Geopolitics, Urbanization, and China's Search for a New International Order. New Haven and London:Yale University Press.ISBN9780300266900.
^Curtis, Simon; Klaus, Ian (2024).The Belt and Road City: Geopolitics, Urbanization, and China's Search for a New International Order. New Haven and London:Yale University Press.ISBN9780300266900.
