Kaizenlog

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| FBI Says Military Had Counterfeit Cisco Routers                    |
|   from the who-do-you-trust dept.                                  |
|   posted by kdawson on Friday May 09, @13:06 (Security)            |
|   http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/09/164201 |
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There are new developments in the case of the counterfeit Cisco routers,
which we [0]have [1]been [2]discussing for some time. The NYTimes
[3]updates the story after an [4]FBI PowerPoint presentation made its way
onto the Web. It seems that experts at Cisco have examined some of the
counterfeit routers in detail and proclaimed that they contain no back
doors. Others don’t believe we can be so sure. “Last month, [DARPA]
[5]began distributing chips with hidden Trojan horse circuitry to
military contractors who are participating in the agency’s Trusted
Integrated Circuits program. The goal is to test forensic techniques for
finding hidden electronic trap doors, which can be maddeningly elusive…
The threat was demonstrated in April when a team of computer scientists
from the University of Illinois presented a paper at a technical
conference in San Francisco detailing how they had modified a Sun
Microsystems SPARC microprocessor… The researchers were able to create
a stealth system that would allow them to automatically log in to a
computer and steal passwords.”

Discuss this story at:
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/05/09/164201

Links:
0. http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/24/1819200&tid=230
1. http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/04/22/1317212&tid=172
2. http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/02/29/1642221&tid=230
3. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/09/technology/09cisco.html?_r=2&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
4. http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread350381/pg1
5. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080502-pentagon-fears-manchurian-chips.html