IOS Rookit: the sky isn't falling (yet)

Tue May 27 19:46:34 UTC 2008

On Tue, 27 May 2008, goemon at anime.net wrote:
> Are you buying directly from cisco or from resellers? If you are getting 
> counterfeit hardware directly from cisco then I guess we have real problems.

According to the FBI presentation, which may not be a reliable source
for this topic, Cisco has very few "direct" customers.

Even if you think you are ordering "direct" from Cisco, e.g. 
www.cisco.com, the order seems to get forwarded to several primary Cisco 
resellers and the hardware shipped via a reseller.  Even most resellers 
buy their Cisco products from a primary reseller or a secondary reseller, 
not direct from Cisco.

The FBI presentation did note that a few US Cisco customers, such as some 
unnamed large US telcos and unnamed intelligence agencies, do order and 
ship directly from Cisco.