FBI worried as DoD sold counterfeit networking gear

[seemslikeadream]

http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=D02F38A4-17A4-0F78-310931FBC2C841B8



The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation is taking the issue of counterfeit Cisco equipment very seriously, according to a leaked FBI presentation that underscores problems in the Cisco supply chain.

The presentation gives an overview of the FBI Cyber Division's effort to crack down on counterfeit network hardware, the FBI said Friday in a statement. "It was never intended for broad distribution across the Internet."

In late February the FBI broke up a counterfeit distribution network, seizing an estimated US$3.5 million worth of components manufactured in China. This two-year FBI effort, called Operation Cisco Raider, involved 15 investigations run out of nine FBI field offices.

According to the FBI presentation, the fake Cisco routers, switches and cards were sold to the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Marine Corps., the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, and even the FBI itself.

One slide refers to the problem as a "critical infrastructure threat."

[Snarkoleptic]

1. Frightening stuff.

Makes me think about how virus loaded trojan-horse printers that were supplied to the Iraqis in advance of gulf war #1.

[Richard Steele]

2. Yup. You can bet that equipment arrived with some custom "extra features".

That's just the kind of security problem you get when
living in a 3rd-world nation that can't manufacture
its own high-tech hardware.

[douglas9]

3. FBI bought $3.5 million in counterfeit networking parts

The FBI recently discovered it had been duped into buying about 3,500 parts that were not genuine Cisco products.

Among the fake parts purchased were routers, switches, interface converters, and WAN cards. There was some concern initially that these parts could pose a potential security risk, allowing hackers access to sensitive data.

Those concerns were later alleviated when further research showed that there was no reason to believe the components put computer systems at risk, sources told Reuters on Friday.

FBI officials apparently never intended to make the issue public -- discovery of the existence of any investigation only came recently when a FBI slide presentation made it onto the website abovetopsecret.com


http://www.betanews.com/article/FBI_bought_35_million_in_counterfeit_networking_parts/1210606843