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Originally posted by fievel3782
Originally posted by jankopernik
Counterfeit products from China is not new, and is not the point in this thread. The point is the 'backdoor' which isn't there... From my 19+ years in the IT field I would be much more concerned with a fire risk in my data center from one of these knock-off devices than the security breach potential.
This guy is correct. I'm in the IT industry as well...
The only thing being compromised here would be Cisco's profit, and the ripping off of innocent and unsuspecting customers thinking they're getting a real Cisco router, instead they're data center catches on fire.. lol
Originally posted by elendal
Originally posted by fievel3782
Originally posted by jankopernik
Counterfeit products from China is not new, and is not the point in this thread. The point is the 'backdoor' which isn't there... From my 19+ years in the IT field I would be much more concerned with a fire risk in my data center from one of these knock-off devices than the security breach potential.
This guy is correct. I'm in the IT industry as well...
The only thing being compromised here would be Cisco's profit, and the ripping off of innocent and unsuspecting customers thinking they're getting a real Cisco router, instead they're data center catches on fire.. lol
Well, if we're gonna be throwing our credentials and expertise around the place, I've been in the IT "industry" (not that we have any serious enough around here) for 3 years, plus my 5+ years of university education (both software and hardware design) which gave me a well all-round knowledge of microprocessor design, data encryption, database programming, computer network design and communication, etc...
On top of all that, I'm also very interested in psychology and warfare. Does that make me a better expert than other people around here? Not really. These concepts (spying and disruption of communication lines) are so universal that anyone can grasp them, regardless of educational level.
What people (I certainly do) usually think of when they hear of "fixed" hardware, is network sniffing and password collecting (encryptions are implemented on several different levels, but some information cannot be completely protected - like network topology if router is "fixed"). While these are important parts of network spying (a good example would be those optical underwater cables that were cut recently, and most probably "equipped" with U.S. sponsored "enhancements"), what is more important is the communication line itself.
Ask any site owner how they felt when they were hit with DoS attack... Or, heaven forbid, with DDoS one (Distributed Denial of Service - absolutely no chance of stopping that one... short of cutting all connections to the outisde world, which is kind of the point of attack, isn't it?).
As far as I know, all military communication lines are backed up by at least 2 or 3 spare lines, but... has anyone tested them recently? What would happen if some of them went dead, and others started transmitting "echo" data? My guess would be that there would be total chaos in the system. There is no software smart enough to deal with that kind of disruption. False data would be taken as genuine, and genuine would be taken as false. All kinds of interesting mis-communications would take place...
Simply put, the whole system is so big that it would be virtually impossible to test it against such a scenario.
On a side note, there's an interesting tendency I've noticed recently. People are more ready to place their trust in computer systems. Actually, they go as far as to demand that software does every possible job people now do, and even track all human activities in the process. What I've seen personally is that this tendency leads to software systems so big and cumbersome that they end up beating their own purpose. The work that has to be put in maintaining such system, and feeding it with information, far surpasses its value as a tool.
Examples? How about U.S. robotic warriors? Haven't I read somewhere that those U.S. warrior robots recently tested in Iraq turned against U.S. troops? Ah... Maybe I just dreamt about it.