Crackdown On Counterfeit Networking Gear 115
Posted
by
Soulskill
from the do-not-pass-go dept.
from the do-not-pass-go dept.
angry tapir writes "US agencies targeting the sale of counterfeit networking hardware have gotten 30 felony convictions, including a man attempting to sell fake networking equipment to the US Marine Corps, and seized $143 million worth of fake Cisco hardware. The agencies have conducted Operation Network Raider, which has made 700 separate seizures of networking equipment since 2005, the DOJ said. In addition to the convictions and seizures, nine people are facing trial and another eight defendants are awaiting sentencing."
Cisco=Finisar+Cisco tax (Score:4, Informative)
From my understanding, Cisco uses Finisar GBICs but burns a custom serial number that IOS looks for before bringing up the port. I've made the mistake of putting a Finisar SFP in a Cisco switch and not realizing it until the port doesn't come up.
Of course, you can put a Cisco SFP in just about anything and it will work.
Not saying it makes what this guy did right, but still, if you're that sort of person who'd try to counterfeit, it would be pretty tempting.
Re:Good news, I suppose (Score:5, Informative)
Still, it's better they target actual criminals than wasting our tax dollars supporting the likes of the RIAA.
Actually, this is not too far off. The devices in question are GBICs, which are available from various sources and are as close to a commodity items as it gets in this area of networking. However, the big network equipment suppliers (such as Cisco, but they aren't the only ones doing this) order modified GBICs (with device IDs) and restrict their hardware to run only with those, and not the much, much cheaper commodity ones. It turns out that some of these manufactures produce a surplus of those special GBICs and sell them through other channels, as compatible GBICs. It's still fraud if you sell them as originals (especially if you attach stickers with logos of the relevant router maker), but it's hard to see any national security implications. More often than not, these devices are the real thing, just not rubber-stamped by the respective router vendor.
And "counterfeit networking gear" makes it sound rather dramatic. It's more like fake ink cartridges.
Re:What's really scary.... (Score:2, Informative)
To die is the soldier's job.
Spoken like someone who knows not the first thing about warfare.
Re:The Questions Never Answered (Score:2, Informative)
the stuff is basically finisar GBICs which cisco uses. these are modded with a flash to change the serial number so IOS can recognize them as genuine and a sticker saying cisco slapped on them. the performance is identical to cisco at a tenth of the price.
Re:The Questions Never Answered (Score:3, Informative)
the stuff is basically finisar GBICs which cisco uses.
"Basically" covers a lot of ground. Suppose Cisco wants to guarantee 99.995 uptime/reliability. If the underlying equipment is insufficiently precise, Cisco's support engineers have to be sent out more often, which costs more than engineering that extra bit of reliability in hardware. Perhaps Cisco buys Finisar parts in bulk and bins those that don't pass some internal Cisco benchmark/quality inspection.
But that "generic" Finisar GBIC could well be a counterfeit.
Jerry Rawls, President and CEO of Finisar, remarked on the problems Finisar is having with fake GBIC fiber optic transceivers they have discovered at their customers’ premises. Photos were shown of two GBIC transceivers that looked identical from the outside, but only one was manufactured by Finisar. It would seem that the Rolex and Gucci phenomenon of low cost replicas has now reached the photonics community. The concern is that this may be the tip of the iceberg and many companies in the photonics business may be suffering revenue loss from exact ‘fakes.’
source [oida.org]
Re:Get em (Score:3, Informative)
Actually no, not in the United States or EU. Cognac is one of the few AC-style protections that you'll find in America:
"""
Cognac’s name is fiercely guarded and protected on multiple levels...Furthermore, Cognac A.O.C. fulfills the requirements under Article 23 of the Agreement of Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) of the World Trade Organization (WTO)...each member of the WTO has the obligation to protect the geographical indication of wines and spirits by preventing the use of a name for a spirit if that spirit does not originate from the location indicated by the geographical indication. Article 23 is ruthless in terms of protection because it states that a geographic indication cannot be used even in translation or if it is accompanied by “expressions such as ‘kind,’ ‘type,’ ‘style,’ and ‘imitation.” To be sure, the Cognac industry has done everything in its power to make sure that the members of the WTO abide by the rules and protect Cognac from imitations and homonyms.
"""
--http://www1.american.edu/ted/cognac.htm