Now I have always said that the government does not attract the cream of the crop in terms of personnel. The private sector offers much more money and that pretty much sums up the argument. Yet again, it seems that US Government incompetence (not a surprise with the current administration) has possibly allowed counterfeit Cisco networking hardware in government installations. The original article goes into more detail about how the government process for bidding (lowest price) has raised the odds of getting counterfeit hardware and how the FBI is concerned that these counterfeit electronics are a threat to national security.
As you can see, the FBI is concerned about critical infrastructure damage, AND, the potential of access to secure government systems. Many online IT circles have been speculating that the counterfeit hardware will provide backdoor capabilities and access into compromised networks for the originators of the equipment. In fact, some areas of speculation regarding the counterfeit Cisco equipment has focused on the possibility that the hardware is being manufactured expressly to deploy exploitable systems far and wide into the wild. The rationale being that the likely "wholesale" price of the counterfeit routers and switches are so low and profit margins likely very thin, that the only real advantage may be gained from downstream system exploits in the future.At this point, I have several questions. How is the FBI going to investigate this matter? Is there any way for customers who own Cisco gear to verify that their gear is legitimate? How will Cisco respond to this issue both internally and externally? How high is the risk that other network hardware manufacturers have been the victims of counterfeit hardware vendors? What other electronic devices that may be attached to sensitive networks or systems are possible counterfeit products? Just how deep does this rabbit hole go? Is this a wakeup call not to buy products from China? Sphere: Related Content
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