Counterfeit Cisco Routers…make your network’s day!

At ZDNet, Michael Krigsman's blog today talks about an FBI presentation posted on AboveTopSecret.com. He abstracts some slides from the original posting...but the original posting appears to be the entire Powerpoint presentation, including naming names of counterfeiters and clearly showing how the counterfeit Cisco routers entered the US Government procurement cycle. The most interesting part is the story of how they were used in a rehab of a weather data installation, which promptly failed on startup. Coupling this with the discussions lately about chips designed with fatal flaw back doors, and you might begin to get really paranoid about making sure you have the right components in your network. You can have all the cyber security you want, but if the physical devices of the network itself are compromised, look out!