[c-nsp] Fake Cisco Equipment News Articles - very interesting

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: cisco-nsp-bounces at puck.nether.net
> [mailto:cisco-nsp-bounces at puck.nether.net]On Behalf Of Skeeve Stevens
> Sent: Monday, May 12, 2008 9:30 AM
> To: isp-australia at isp-australia.com
> Cc: ausnog at ausnog.net; aussie-isp at taz.net.au; cisco-nsp at puck.nether.net;
> 2600-list at wiretapped.net
> Subject: [c-nsp] Fake Cisco Equipment News Articles - very interesting
> 
> 
> This is an article which should be VERY interesting to ALL ISP's and
> businesses using Cisco equipment.
> 

After the initial reaction of laughing, I have this to say about it.

It is clearly rediculous that Chinese crackers are going to steal
national security secrets by using counterfeit WIC-1DSU-T1 cards.
I think the majority of counterfeit gear they picked up was probably
along those lines.

It is a bit more of a national security concern when the counterfeit
gear is firewalls.

I also am somewhat neutral on the issue of the government buying
Cisco routers for $250 that normally sold for $2500, which was also
metioned in the article.  On one hand I don't like to see my tax dollars
enriching some Chinese criminals pocket, on the other hand I would
rather not have my taxes go up 90% to pay full price.

I am mostly concerned with the following, however:

1) Purchase of networking equipment on credit cards rather than through
the authorized government purchasing system.

2) Counterfeit gear getting into the government offices through the
regular distributors.

In case #1, that is clearly the case of network admins getting denied
approval for a project and saying "fuck you" and going ahead with it
anyway.  While I'm sure lots of people can relate stories of dumb
government decisions that required people to make end-runs around them,
(ie: the $500 hammer, $2000 toilet seat, etc.) the fact is that we
know about those stories precisely because the people in the government
who were forced to go through some overcharging scamming vendor,
complained to the press about it, rather than secretly slipping some
hammer purchases though on a personal expense report.  I don't want
my civil servants making an end run around some beaurucrat that has
his head up his ass, with a credit card and Ebay.  I want them going
to the press so the resultant citizen outrage gets the anally-inserted
beaurucrat fired, or promoted into a harmless little office where
he supervises staplers (which is how the government usually deal with
embarassingly incompetent civil servants) 

In case #2, the middlemen/distributors/etc. that the government normally
is buying from are selling Chinese counterfeit stuff for full price.
Thus, they are buying the counterfeit gear for pennies and selling it
for millions, and making a killing doing so.  Well, the FBI discovered it,
where are the stories of such distributors getting arrested for fraud?

All in all, a very disturbing article.  Not about the counterfeiting -
we all know it happens.  But the fact that the stuff got into the
government networks in the first place.

Ted