Faking Your Way To Victory

[TalkingDog]

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htintel/articles/20100925.aspx


September 25, 2010: The U.S. government shut down yet another company, and arrested the owners, for selling fake computer chips to firms that use them in American military electronics. In this case, nearly 60,000 micropchips were involved. The fake chips were manufactured in China, then mislabeled as coming from a reputable manufacturer. There are numerous cases a year of counterfeit items, mostly from China, being sold to American military suppliers.

China refuses to crack down on this sort of thing, and one reason they tolerate the widespread manufacture of counterfeit products is because some of them have some military benefit for China's Cyber War effort. This came to light two years ago when the FBI arrested two Americans for running a computer parts company that was selling counterfeit Cisco router components, manufactured in China. The phony parts had counterfeit labels, and were delivered in counterfeit boxes. The two brothers had a contract to sell these parts to the Department of Defense and other government agencies.


And to further expound on this (pdf download)
http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf&AD=ADA497905

One particular example of counterfeit IT hardware, and the threat that it harbors, was summarized in a recent Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) report concerning counterfeit Cisco products. A variety of individuals and companies were involved in selling counterfeit routers, switches, gigabit interface converters, and wide area network (WAN) interface cards to military agencies, military contractors, and electric power companies in the U.S.


China now crooning about being a "backdoor man"

[Ozymanithrax]

1. For many years we have run our country for the benefit of China...

and not Americans, or so it appears.

So I am not surprised.

[TalkingDog]

2. When Stuxnet decides to invade all those Cisco routers

and then NOBODY has the intertubes, then maybe this will get some attention.

Of course all of the military equipment breakdowns might have the same effect.....

[Ozymanithrax]

4. I was on the Enterprise in the 80's on liberty in Hong Kong.

We were told not to buy an Apple Computer there because they were copies, right down to the apple logo on the circuit board, all made in China. This isn't new. China does this because they can, and because big American Manufacturers condone it. And from what I understand, they are made in the same Chinese companies that build the "official" computers.

From what I've read, Stuxnet was most likely aimed at Iran. Yes, it could be a plot against the western world, but I'm retired from the military and no longer need to be concerned with stopping the threat of communist aggression in the free world. Twenty years of my life dedicated to that purpose on big gray ships was enough.

I would rather see our economy run for the benefit of American citizens. At this time, baby blankets impregnated with formaldehyde, and toys with lead paint are a bigger hazard than Cisco routers. The military should not buy equipment from any company that does not have a factory on American soil making that product.

[TalkingDog]

5. Hear, hear!

Solves two problems: Jobs and security.

[Greyhound]

3. Not as important as the current firestorm, but worth a K&R.

:eyes:
:kick: & R