I work in the field of live video surveillance for commercial customers (why I came across this) and I have no idea why someone would put up any sort of cloud solution where privacy was a concern. Every time an article comes out in regard to these cloud solutions it’s about massive security flaws or from the people managing the cloud solution itself abusing access. Also in general cloud cameras are becoming Hostage As A Service where the cameras are nearly useless without paying subscriptions to these services. In general I would warn people against cloud solutions unless there happened to be a very specific instance where the tradeoff was worth it. None of those situations come to mind though.

Fortunately, IPVM (research group that made the discovery) is cooperating with the FBI. Unfortunately, a lot of this may depend on cooperation from Hikvision and the Chinese government. It seems Hikvision’s initial response is to discredit IPVM rather than comply with an investigation. There has been a longstanding feud between IPVM and Hikvision because of multiple reports about their security vulnerabilities among other things. I’m worried this may lead them to be even more defensive and less helpful than usual.