http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/37100/108/
By Humphrey Cheung
TG Daily
April 24, 2008
Washington DC - An unclassified government PowerPoint presentation
documenting Chinese counterfeiting of Cisco routers has been published
on the net. The Federal Bureau of Investigation document was produced
on January 11, 2008 and discusses how counterfeit routers, switches and
interface cards make it inside of American companies and government
organizations.
While contractors are supposed to use genuine Cisco parts, the low price
of counterfeits – in some cases one-fifth the price of a genuine Cisco
part – is just too irresistible to many companies. The FBI says the
government procurement process which uses layers of contractors and
subcontractors adds to the problem.
The bureau says it has raided several companies around the nation which
sold and installed counterfeit Cisco gear. In many cases, the equipment
can cause network failures because of shoddy wiring and workmanship,
according to the FBI. The power point presentation outlines several
cases where the counterfeit networking gear caused duplicate MAC
addresses and one case where a router caught fire because of a faulty
power supply.
In addition to counterfeit gear being purchased through subcontractors,
the FBI says Chinese gear is making its way to online auction sites like
eBay. Cash strapped companies needing Cisco gear will often purchase
these components for their network closets. Of course, shifty
government contractors can also purchase the same gear and profit
handsomely by charging full genuine Cisco prices.
You can view the PowerPoint presentation on AboveTopSecret.com here [1].
[1] http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread350381/pg1
_______________________________________________
Subscribe to the InfoSec News RSS Feed
http://www.infosecnews.org/isn.rss
Comments