FBI enquiring if Counterfeit Computer Hardware Products Could Cause Major Breach of Security.
The FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) is conducting an enquiry to find whether counterfeit computer hardware and routers from China installed in the U.S. government computer networks may render a secret gateway for hackers to exploit into the secure government databases.

According to sources, the counterfeit hardware could correspond a major offend to US national security. An FBI PowerPoint presentation that in some manner ended up on a Website, expresses the fears and the depth of what has been a far-reaching investigation.

After the PowerPoint presentation became public, a somewhat annoyed FBI released a statement that read: "At the request of another federal government agency, on Jan. 11, 2008, the FBI's Cyber Division provided an unclassified PowerPoint presentation and briefing on efforts to counter the production and distribution of counterfeit network hardware," said Assistant Director of FBI Cyber Division James Finch. "This unclassified briefing was never intended for broad distribution or posting to the Internet."

Finch turns on to talk about Operation Cisco Raider that "targeted illegal distributors of counterfeit network hardware manufactured in China and included 15 investigations across nine FBI field offices and the execution of 39 search warrants."

Finch said that, the FBI "disrupted a big distribution network and regained around 3,500 counterfeit network components with an approximated retail value of over $3.5 million."
In totality, authorities across the world, including in the US, Canada and China, made more than 400 captures with an approximated value of $76 million. In one case, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police captured 1,600 pieces of fake Cisco routers.

Otherwise stated, the government officials, defense contractors and universities believed they were receiving top-notch products from Cisco, a well-known American company. Rather, they were buying counterfeit products, which originated in China and traveled a circuitous route to their final destination.

Those fake Chinese routers, converters, switches, and interface cards were sold to the U.S. Naval Academy, U.S. Naval Undersea Warfare Center, U.S. Naval Air Warfare Center, the General Services Administration, the U.S. air base in Spangdahlem, Germany that is home to the Air Force's 52nd Fighter Wing, and defense contractor Raytheon.

Some parts were used up in networks catering the Marine Corps, Federal Aviation Administration, Air Force and the FBI.

The cheap, poor-quality hardware products resulted in some system failures and other troubles. The major worry, however, is whether this computer hardware represents some form of Trojan horse, which can be controlled by hackers to steal sensitive information.

According to a company spokesman John Noh, Cisco has extensively tested counterfeit products purporting to be made by the company, and though not "technically inconceivable," the company's tests "have not found a single instance of software or hardware that was modified to make them more vulnerable to security threats."
Noh admitted that faking of computer technology is "an industry-wide issue," but that Cisco has an internal team committed to prevent damage from counterfeiting and that the company exercises with law enforcement in its investigations.

The FBI PowerPoint presentation reveals that, Cisco controls 80 % of the computer router technology market. The FBI and a several other government authorities are now probing the hardware attempting to determine if there has been a massive breach of security.

The People's Republic of China has not been charged of organizing the counterfeit sales, however for many years, U.S. officials have been enquiring a wave of government computer breaches thought to have initiated in China.

Cisco has been involved in works with the U.S. investigators and representatives from China's Technical Service and Public Security bureaus since 2003 to fight the counterfeiting of its networking equipment.