The People's Republic Of America

What is the point in having the largest military budget in the world if, while defending market forces and awarding contracts to the lowest bidder, you buy compromised gear?

This is a lesson for anybody still labouring under the illusion that computer networks can ever be safe. Despite what your government tells you and irrespective of any assurances as to the security of a network or database, they can be hacked. As you will see, it may not even require a concerted effort - just the West's Capitalist approach to doing business.

The FBI are increasingly concerned about the prevalence of counterfeit Cisco kit being deployed in, what should be, secure US computer networks. We are talking about cheap copies of switches and routers, the very building blocks of networks, being used in places such as the US Naval Air and Undersea Warfare Centres, the Marine Corps, the Air Force and the Federal Aviation Administration. The cut-price world of government IT procurement has resulted in a selection of, both authorised and unauthorised, Cisco resellers using creative new methods (that'll be buying cheap alternatives) of making money.

The result has been the discovery that the counterfeit kit is Chinese in origin - not necessarily a big surprise (cheap labour after all) - but what is of more concern is the suggestion that this production-line may actually be sponsored by the Chinese government. The implication being that all this Cisco kit the US is hooking up to its networks is not only sub-standard but it might actually contain, as yet undetected, back-doors into the very networks it is connected to. The consequences of Chinese agents or hackers having access to US networks are, and excuse my under-statement, far-reaching. As the article says, "Compromised hardware of potentially hostile foreign origin sits within secure networks of the US government, military, and intelligence services."

Still, when the bottom-line is your only concern and making big money your only aspiration, you get what you pay for.

And thanks to Rab C for pointing me at this story.