Dangerous Fakes

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: dewayne () warpspeed com (Dewayne Hendricks)
Date: November 15, 2008 7:18:44 AM EST
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Dangerous Fakes

[Note:  This item comes from friend Tim Pozar.  Been sitting on this  
item for a bit and am in the process of working thru my backlog.  DLH]

October 2, 2008, 5:00PM EST text size: TT
Dangerous Fakes
How counterfeit, defective computer components from China are getting  
into U.S. warplanes and ships

by Brian Grow, Chi-Chu Tschang, Cliff Edwards and Brian Burnsed
<http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/08_41/b4103034193886.htm 
>

The American military faces a growing threat of potentially fatal  
equipment failure—and even foreign espionage—because of counterfeit  
computer components used in warplanes, ships, and communication  
networks. Fake microchips flow from unruly bazaars in rural China to  
dubious kitchen-table brokers in the U.S. and into complex weapons.  
Senior Pentagon officials publicly play down the danger, but  
government documents, as well as interviews with insiders, suggest  
possible connections between phony parts and breakdowns.

In November 2005, a confidential Pentagon-industry program that tracks  
counterfeits issued an alert that "BAE Systems experienced field  
failures," meaning military equipment malfunctions, which the large  
defense contractor traced to fake microchips. Chips are the tiny  
electronic circuits found in computers and other gear.

The alert from the Government-Industry Data Exchange Program (GIDEP),  
reviewed by BusinessWeek (MHP), said two batches of chips "were never  
shipped" by their supposed manufacturer, Maxim Integrated Products in  
Sunnyvale, Calif. "Maxim considers these parts to be counterfeit," the  
alert states. (In response to BusinessWeek's questions, BAE said the  
alert had referred erroneously to field failures. The company denied  
there were any malfunctions.)

In a separate incident last January, a chip falsely identified as  
having been made by Xicor, now a unit of Intersil in Milpitas, Calif.,  
was discovered in the flight computer of an F-15 fighter jet at Robins  
Air Force Base in Warner Robins, Ga. People familiar with the  
situation say technicians were repairing the F-15 at the time. Special  
Agent Terry Mosher of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations  
confirms that the 409th Supply Chain Management Squadron eventually  
found four counterfeit Xicor chips.

THREAT OF ESPIONAGE

Potentially more alarming than either of the two aircraft episodes are  
hundreds of counterfeit routers made in China and sold to the Army,  
Navy, Air Force, and Marines over the past four years. These fakes  
could facilitate foreign espionage, as well as cause accidents. The  
U.S. Justice Dept. is prosecuting the operators of an electronics  
distributor in Texas—and last year obtained guilty pleas from the  
proprietors of a company in Washington State—for allegedly selling the  
military dozens of falsely labeled routers, devices that direct data  
through digital networks. The routers were marked as having been made  
by the San Jose technology giant Cisco Systems (CSCO).

Referring to the seizure of more than 400 fake routers so far, Melissa  
E. Hathaway, head of cyber security in the Office of the Director of  
National Intelligence, says: "Counterfeit products have been linked to  
the crash of mission-critical networks, and may also contain hidden  
'back doors' enabling network security to be bypassed and sensitive  
data accessed [by hackers, thieves, and spies]." She declines to  
elaborate. In a 50-page presentation for industry audiences, the FBI  
concurs that the routers could allow Chinese operatives to "gain  
access to otherwise secure systems" (page 38).

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