A 2011 lawsuit unsealed on Wednesday alleged that Cisco knowingly sold VSM to customers even after learning of a critical vulnerability. This vulnerability allowed hackers to spy on video footage in real-time, turn cameras on or off, delete footage, and tamper with locks and other physical security systems connected on the same network. The lawsuit was filed under the False Claims Act in the US District Court for the Western District of New York. The act allows individuals with inside knowledge to bring suits on behalf of the government when they believe a contractor is committing fraud.
Point is we can’t just assume one networking company is secure whilst we assume another is not. No hardware or software is immune to bugs or backdoors. In the past (I hope it is in the past and not still practised) a different US company was found not to patch some security vulnerabilities for a while which gave their spy agency a window to exploit these against foreign governments using that OS. Open source is just looking more and more attractive where you can have the source code inspected and compile it yourself (if you are really worried).
#cisco #security #vulnerabilities
#^Cisco pays $8.6 million for selling surveillance system it knew was vulnerable
Whistleblower said Cisco waited more than 4 years to fix serious flaw.