Feds seize $143m worth of bogus networking gear

[Modelworks]

Please tell me the fed is not buying networking gear like routers and firewalls off the guy with a van full of gear.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/07/operation_network_raider/

Federal authorities over the past fives year have seized more than $143m worth of counterfeit Cisco hardware and labels in a coordinated operation that's netted more than 700 seizures and 30 felony convictions, the Justice Department said Thursday.

Operation Network Raider is an enforcement initiative involving the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection agencies working to crack down on the bogus routers, switches and other networking gear. In addition to costing Cisco and other US businesses millions of dollars, the scams could threaten national security by infusing critical networks with gear that's unreliable or, worse, riddled with backdoors.

As part of the operation, Ehab Ashoor, 49, a Saudi citizen residing in Sugarland, Texas, was sentenced this week to 51 months in prison and ordered to pay Cisco $119,400 in restitution after being found guilty of trying to sell counterfeit gear to the US Department of Defense. In 2008, he attempted to traffic 100 gigabit interface converters that were bought in China and contained labels fraudulently indicating they were genuine Cisco equipment, according to court documents. The kit was to be used by the US Marine Corps for communications in Iraq.

In January, 33-year-old Chinese resident Yongcai Li was ordered to serve 30 months in prison and pay restitution of $790,683 for trafficking counterfeit Cisco gear, officials said.

The prospect that government and business networks may have deployed bogus gear has raised national security concerns, since much of the counterfeit equipment originates in China. Similar espionage fears were raised by research from University of Illinois researchers, who in 2008 showed how they were able to modify a Sun Microsystems SPARC microprocessor to effectively create a hardwired backdoor capable of logging passwords or other sensitive data.

In May of 2008, Cisco officials said they had no evidence that any of the counterfeit networking gear contained backdoors.

Since late 2007, US authorities have made more than 1,300 seizures of 5.6 million bogus semiconductors. More than 50 shipments were falsely marked as military or aerospace grade devices

 

[mb]

I expected a story about Killer network cards.

 

[destrekor]

lol. trying to sell such equipment to the government. Damn that's ballsy.

I'll have to be on the lookout for this, didn't expect it was a potential issue. Considering that, presumably, I'll be in charge of soldiers setting up such communications equipment, it'll be pretty vital that it's legit equipment. Don't expect anyone really needs the reasons why in a list...

 

[spidey07]

There's been a very real problem of counterfeit Cisco gear from china being in the market for quite some time now, like a decade. At one time the amount of counterfeit optics was crazy and they infected every supply chain.

 

[PottedMeat]

hey feds, i can get you a fabulous deal on some powered hubs - just like this:

once you plug your equipment in there, wired security is guaranteed.

http://www.fiftythree.org/etherkiller/

 

[KeithTalent]

I expected a story about Killer network cards.

Haha, the Killer NIC!! :awe:

KT

 

[rpanic]

Just like Fry's returned computer parts for resale.

 

[her209]

If its counterfeit then is it really worth $143m?

 

[Kadarin]

The potential for Chinese espionage aspect of this story is pretty scary.

 

[Cogman]

lol. trying to sell such equipment to the government. Damn that's ballsy...

not really. They are probably the best agency out there to sell things to. Super bureaucracy + highly variable skill sets = sitting duck.

A different customer would have spotted the difference and reported asap.

 

[God Mode]

Dealing with these problems is probably cheaper than having shit built here for 5-10 times the cost.

 

[mb]

I expected a story about Killer network cards.

Haha, the Killer NIC!! :awe:

KT

LOL Only 5 days off! http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/12/bigfoot-networks-trounces-ping-times-with-killer-2100-network-ca/

 

[daishi5]

I know of someone who got hit by this. He thought he was getting great deals on his "Cisco" gear, until he had a problem and called Cisco. None of his stuff was legit.

 

[Vette73]

Bad thing is these cheap knockoffs perform at a level where the ADmins did not even notice the differance between a cheap $20 part and some $XXXX cisco part.

Also if Cisco was really worried about this why not have a way to type in something online and see if its legit or call in?

 

[SpatiallyAware]

Lots of misinformed people in this thread;

To recap (as others have posted)


This has been going on for at least 10 years. The fakes can be very difficult to identify even if you know there are fakes around.. You really have to look at side by side pics and compare crap like how far the ethernet port sticks out, that sorta crap.

It also isn't stuff being bought out of white vans - even supposed certified vendors have (supposedly) unknowingly bought counterfeit hardware.

 

[0roo0roo]

goes to show some of ciscos stuff is way overpriced.

hard to knock off something actually cutting edge like a processor

 

[azev]

I really think, most of these knock off are actually stolen from the manufacture factory overseas.

 

[spidey07]

I really think, most of these knock off are actually stolen from the manufacture factory overseas.

Nope. They are true counterfeits. The cisco devices will actually identify them as not a cisco part. Cisco had to put a special routine and chip on their optics specifically to address the counterfeit stuff that was floating around.

 

[imagoon]

goes to show some of ciscos stuff is way overpriced.

hard to knock off something actually cutting edge like a processor

Actually it is dirt simple. Same factory making the processor decides to run a few extra plates on the night shift using the Cisco designs. They use these chips to run a few extra night shifts at the board makers then more night shifts at the assembly plant and you have a counterfeit Cisco switch.

Other sources of CPUs could be the ones that Cisco rejected but work "enough." These chips are 'free' since they should be destroyed. Put in some poor quality caps and PSU's to save a few bucks and the equipment becomes cheap. Remember R&D costs money and you want to recover it on your product sales. The Chinese/Taiwanese knock off crew doesn't have that overhead and can price accordingly.

 

[halik]

hey feds, i can get you a fabulous deal on some powered hubs - just like this:

once you plug your equipment in there, wired security is guaranteed.

http://www.fiftythree.org/etherkiller/

couple amps @110v on those wire gauges looks totally safe