ome months ago, my contacts in the defense industry had alerted me to a startling development that has escalated to the point of near-panick in nearly all corners of Government Security and IT infrastructure. The very-real concern, being investigated by the FBI, is that either the Chinese government or Chinese hackers (or both) have had the benefit of undetectable back-doors into highly secure government and military Computer Networks for months, perhaps years. The cause: a high-number of counterfeit Cisco routers and switches installed in nearly all government networks that experienced upgrades and/or new units within the past 18 months.

News of the counterfeit Cisco equipment has been in the mainstream for some time:
Co llaborative Current Event: Counterfeit Cisco Network Hardware Imported From China Seized
Chinese Counterfeit Cisco Network Routers Targeted In North America
Counterfeit Cisco Gear Showing Up In US
But the US government has been attempting to avoid these issues by only using higher-end Cisco partners/suppliers for the gear. However, the highly-competitive lowest-bid environment of government procurement has inspired several vendors to look for cheap alternatives for hardware… resulting in a catastrophic meltdown of security.

A few weeks ago, my sources have been providing information on a scathing investigation summary by the FBI. They’ve indicated that a critical Powerpoint document has been quietly circulating after a few internal presentations. While the Powerpoint presentation has been labeled unclassified, it is an official FBI publication and has been hard to track down. Thanks to key clues provided last week by two sources (both of which do not have the presentation, but have seen it), specific searches on the content of the document have turned up an online source, and I’ve provided all pages of the document below, along with the link to the discovered source. (The ATS upload would not allow a PPT file)

As you can see, the FBI is concerned about critical infrastructure damage, AND, the potential of access to secure government systems. Many online IT circles have been speculating that the counterfeit hardware will provide backdoor capabilities and access into compromised networks for the originators of the equipment. In fact, some areas of speculation regarding the counterfeit Cisco equipment has focused on the possibility that the hardware is being manufactured expressly to deploy exploitable systems far and wide into the wild. The rationale being that the likely “wholesale” price of the counterfeit routers and switches are so low and profit margins likely very thin, that the only real advantage may be gained from downstream system exploits in the future.

The threat is real. Compromised hardware of potentially hostile foreign origin sits within secure networks of the US government, military, and intelligence services. And as you now see, the FBI has been concerned about it.

Graphic file export of the FBI’s Powerpoint document slides.

Google Search that found the FBI Powerpoint document:
“FBI Criminal Investigation: Cisco Routers”
Link to PPT file