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Comment on Counterfeit Cisco gear ended up in US military bases, used in combat operations

tal@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

This sounds like a lot of things were going wrong. Okay, first you had the guy committing fraud.

But why is the military sourcing its network hardware from random small resellers off Amazon? Like, even if the hardware were authentic, that seems like a route for potential trouble.

And it sounds like questionable stuff is getting into Cisco’s official supply chains, too:

That same year, Al Palladin, Cisco’s legal director of global brand protection, told CRN that even authentic Cisco channel partners were acquiring products outside of Cisco-authorized means because it was faster.

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RobotToaster@mander.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
There are often companies that specialise in sourcing obsolete hardware, who just buy shit off Amazon/eBay and issue the correct paperwork.

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- Transporter_Room_3@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  It’s insane to me all the different ways the government procures things.
  
  Just get it straight from the manufacturer. Then if anything ever goes wrong there isn’t the “who is REALLY to blame on this long chain of people” it’s “hey this shit is broken, YOU are responsible for it”
  
  Of course sometimes they do it as a form of opsec, if you distribute parts across many small time sellers it’s easier to hide something than one big order from the primary source.
  
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  - RobotToaster@mander.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    I suspect the plausible deniability of responsibility is a feature not a bug to many of the bureaucrats.
    
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    CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    The beurocracy must expand to meet the increasing needs of the growing beurocracy.
    
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    rottingleaf@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    And more complexity is always good for corruption, since every additional kind of complexity introduces gray areas where it’s unclear who’s to blame.
    
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  - catloaf@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    Did you not read the comment you’re replying to? They mentioned obsolete hardware. Cisco does not sell obsolete hardware.
    
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- kent_eh@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  
  but it can create situations like this.
  
  Only if proper vetting of the contractor isn’t done. That part of the process should happen regardless of who the contractor is.
  
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- rottingleaf@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  I’m sorry, but such things happen in countries with no preference to small businesses and veterans etc.
  
  I’m almost confident that somebody involved in choosing that supplier got a cut.
  
  After all, US military budget is so ridiculously big that not having such kinds of corruption would be weird.
  
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JJROKCZ@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
I’ve bought Cisco equipment from verified vendor partners before, put in legit Cisco SFPs, route bricked itself and when I opened the TAC case they said it was mimic device and sent me a new one to arrive within 4 hours since it had been ordered from an approved partner. This shit happens somehow

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just_another_person@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
Probably a fairly sophisticated espionage operation.

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No_Eponym@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

Al Palladin https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIG1.7cEYdPvidZaH_4UVJ2ge?dpr=3&pid=ImgDetMain

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