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Feds Seize $78M of Bogus Chinese Cisco Gear

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the perfect-for-man-in-the-middle dept.

Ian Lamont writes "The IDG News Service is reporting that US and Canadian authorities have made more than 400 seizures of counterfeit Cisco hardware from China in an ongoing investigation that started in 2005. The most recent seizure was last Friday in Toronto, where the RCMP charged two people and a company with distributing large quantities of counterfeit network components to companies in the US through the Internet. The RCMP seized approximately 1,600 pieces of counterfeit network hardware with an estimated value of $2 million, says the report. According to another source, bogus Cisco gear from China typically includes network modules, WAN interface cards, gigabit interface converters, and less expensive routers."

10 of 197 comments (clear)

  1. Not really counterfeit by seanadams.com · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I rather doubt that much of this equipment is truly "counterfeit", at least in the usual sense of a cloned design such as the iClone. Rather, what happens is that the contract manufacturer will buy extra parts and make more units than Cisco actually ordered, and then those units go out the back door after hours. They might have illegitimate serial numbers or might be missing the authenticity stickers on some internal chips, but they are otherwise identical.

    It's a very difficult problem to manage unless you have trusted people overseeing the entire manufacturing operation. The amount of gross margin in Cisco gear makes this activity extremely profitable.

    1. Re:Not really counterfeit by Brian+Gordon · · Score: 5, Informative

      Yeah that confused me too.. it's apparently perfectly good equipment, but they're not licensed to use the Cisco name. And of course they stole the design (I don't mean in an IP sense, I mean that I suspect that there was actual theivery involved in obtaining it).

    2. Re:Not really counterfeit by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Or it could be a '3rd shift' operation. Same factory, same 'workers' but what they do after the 1st and 2nd "authentic" shifts are finished is swap out all 'good' electronics for cheap replacements.

      Say Cisco specified a 1 ohm SMT resistor that has a .09% failure rate and costs $1/per (yes, it's just an example). When the '3rd shift' comes on board, they swap those out for 1 ohm resistors with a 5% failure rate but that only cost $.50/per. So it may even be the same assembly line but the components are much cheaper and not to Cisco specification, which is why Cisco doesn't stamp them as 'authorized'. And also why they may fail down the line long after the seller has disappeared.

    3. Re:Not really counterfeit by jmorris42 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      > The amount of gross margin in Cisco gear makes this activity extremely profitable.

      It isn't just that. In any other tech industry you would see 'legit' clones, i.e. ones that were sold AS clones, with someone else's name on it. But you can't do that with Cisco gear. If you put any non-cisco stuff in one it voids the service contract. No service contract no bug fixes. Unpatched gear is an accident waiting to happen.

      Personally I'm happy as hell. We don't have much Cisco gear and I didn't buy it (donated) but it has been enough of a PITA that I absolutely HATE Cisco. When I had to scrounge up some extra ports I certainly hope I managed to get the knockoffs and avoid giving those rat bastards one cent more than absoluteley required. Had to put the unit back under a service contract before I could get a IOS with device drivers. Tell me, who still charges for (basically) device drivers and security fixes?

      Adn their hardware is so pathetic. Open one up sometimes and check out just how little is inside one. Ponder just how little they are paying those Chinese contract manufacturers for the hardware they then jackup to such stupid prices. And don't tell me it is the software either, they used to just be running BSD with the serial numbers filed off and with the volume they do they can afford some software devels. As for support it ain't in the price of the product, they sell that as a extra and for all intents and purposes only to those who have also paid em a crapload to get their people certified.

      By being able to milk hardware, software and support they probably make Gates & Balmer jealous.

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      Democrat delenda est
    4. Re:Not really counterfeit by jellomizer · · Score: 5, Funny

      Sorney, MagnetBox? I know a Genuine Peniphonics when I see one.

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      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    5. Re:Not really counterfeit by Feyr · · Score: 5, Insightful

      have you checked the cisco price list for a standard power cable? do it sometimes, you'll get a kick :)

      (hint: it's around 80$. same cable that comes with every power supply)

    6. Re:Not really counterfeit by Quixotic · · Score: 5, Informative

      i found it for $40, but still pretty expensive... http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=105365

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  2. Just so you know by spun · · Score: 5, Funny

    No wonder their economy is booming when they can make a killing of counterfeit hardware and bogus harry potter books! "Hairy Pooter and the Sorcerer's Bone" is not actually a counterfeit Harry Potter book, it is something quite different.
    --
    - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
  3. Re:Makes one wonder ... by networkBoy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Actually I wonder if this was genuinely counterfeit, or was it "unlicenced" Ala Disney DVD factories that are only "open" 10 hours per day, but run 24 hours per day...

    -nB

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    whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
  4. Some gear doesnt work by Gadgit · · Score: 5, Informative

    Had actually received some of this gear unknowingly and while some of it does work...there were a few cases where that when a switch that would lose power the GBIC would not come back up in a 'no shut' state. Instead you had to console into the switch and issue a 'shut > no shut' on the interdace to get the port to come back. So while the technically do kind of work, it is not something I would recommend deploying in a mission critical switch/router.