FBI discovers fake Chinese hardware in US gov
The FBI announced Friday that an investigation into counterfeit network components made in China and sold to the U.S. government has recovered about 3,500 fake devices with a value of $3.5 million. The criminal probe, code-named Operation Cisco Raider, was prompted by concerns that counterfeit network components could give hackers access to government databases. But one U.S. official told Reuters that the components discovered by the FBI are not believed to have made government computer systems more vulnerable. The existence of the probe came to light after an unclassified FBI PowerPoint presentation in January on the agency’s efforts to counter the production and distribution of counterfeit network hardware showed up on Abovetopsecret.com.
“This unclassified briefing was never intended for broad distribution or posting to the Internet,” James Finch, assistant director of the FBI’s Cyber Division, said in a statement. Operation Cisco Raider involved 15 investigations at nine FBI field offices and the execution of 39 search warrants, the bureau said. The FBI release did not mention if any arrests had been made. Components included pirated versions of Cisco Systems routers as well as switches, interface converters and wide area network interface cards, Reuters reported. The People’s Republic of China has not been accused of orchestrating the counterfeit sales, but for several years, U.S. officials have been investigating a wave of government computer breaches thought to have originated in China.
Source: ABC, Cnet
Chineese fakers…
Nothing will be done because they enjoy the cheap trade too much :/
Let me guess, they bought them from ebay.
my router is counterfeit, isn’t yours?
haha gotta love it
hahaha means chinese are genius than “LOSER” cisco programs…
Probably the same HW in the fake stuff, as in the real hah
what gets me the way that amerikans seem to accept in their ersatz free enterprise culture that it is fine for their taxes to be wasted on propping up private corporations by policing their intellectual property, something which should be the responsibility of cisco themselves.
state capitalist techniques ie old school communism courtesy of the fbi
I don’t care if it’s fake as long as it can do its job or more.
The chinese save millions of dollars in research and development by stealing the work and plans of american and european companies. the same happened in my company when they hired a chinese for the team and he left after 2 weeks with a lot of confidencial documents.
But as long as I can get the equipment cheaper I don’t care who makes it.
Whats the big deal?
Everyting is fake, including the FBI!
JFK, 9/11, Vietnam, WW1, WW2, Falklands etc etc etc etc…
I bet they blame the Pirate Bay for this.
Apparently it’s not all fake fake, the local factory will overrun production by a few hours or overnight and sell them through dodgy resellers. The genuine ones are the same.
It cost very little to make a cisco router in labour and materials, if Cisco are paying you enough to produce during the day then staying open one night could make you a few million $ in cash.
the chinese are always a useless bunch, never innovating, always immitating.
a chinese is way better than any american
Americans rock douche bag. Either you don’t know any Americans or you are just jealous of our big shlongs.
actually all people are self centered a$$holes like me and are just trying to survive
“the chinese are always a useless bunch, never innovating, always immitating.”
if a misspelling counts as originality, i’d rather imitate correctness.
i love how you can call 1,321,851,888 people a “bunch”. shows what you know.
The current Tibet conflict does not threaten the government domestically. But it shows how quickly events can get out of control in a globally linked media world and when there are no opportunities in China for democratic participation to absorb the energy of the dissatisfied. More threatening to the regime in this situation is public unhappiness with internal economic decisions. Though less publicized internationally, recent events like the unauthorized rallies in Shanghai in opposition to a new rail line in a middle class residential neighborhood, organized through Internet and cell phone messaging, and the demand for public hearings about the PX chemical plant in Xiamen, show the risks of decision-making without mechanisms for public participation.
The popular “emerging superpower” picture in our media mostly takes at face value the central government’s assertions about the success of its governance. The government claims primary credit for the “economic miracle” and the dramatic transformation of Beijing, Shanghai, and other major cities. It asserts that all of the country’s environmental, social, and economic problems are manageable, and that it controls everything that happens in China. The government may indeed be able to lock up or kill off several thousand dissidents (a comparatively easy task logistically, though recent events in Tibet have shown that there is still a significant domestic and international cost). But that is a much easier task than designing and implementing necessary modern economic, regulatory, and social welfare institutions and programs in a society that has almost none. So far it has not demonstrated real success in those arenas.
China is big in almost every dimension, and its international influence has been increasing, as one would expect of a society comprising one-quarter of the world’s people. But does that make it a “superpower”? Or even a “power”? What exactly is the “power” of 500 million near-subsistence farmers who mostly lack substantial electricity, safe drinking water, and indoor plumbing, and whose education consists largely of the ability to write and read a few prescribed texts? How much “power” is gained by adding in another 500 million educated city-dwellers with Western consumer aspirations who may well be living in economically and ecologically unsustainable Potemkin Villages? Balanced against its very real difficulties, China’s capabilities are certainly not as great as they are often portrayed.
What if…
On 16.02.2010 23:00h. All computer equipment made in China stops working (isn’t that all equipment, where is your notebook made?), Backdoor on all Cisco routers in military networks becomes open and… they strike!
Plot for nice movie or…
Cheers
LOL americans are DUMB!!! and FULL of criminals!!!!!!!
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