Angering the Wrong Party - Operation "Cisco Raider"

Here is an interesting chat with Mike Sheldon, CEO of Network Hardware Resale and President of UNEDA.

Sheldon makes several interesting points regarding the sale of counterfeit networking product, and specifically, Cisco networking equipment. With Cisco the market leader in an industry where components can easily cost thousands of dollars and counterfeits are difficult to spot, counterfeiting has proven to be a big problem for Cisco.

The problem of counterfeit Cisco equipment attracted the attention of the FBI and other government agencies after Cisco counterfeiters sold fake Cisco equipment to GSA-approved vendors, who then turned around and sold the counterfeit equipment to the government. Big mistake. The government started an investigation dubbed "Operation Cisco Raider", leading to over 400 seizures of equipment valued at over $76 million. And considering some of the implications of counterfeit equipment in government computers, including embedded hardware in sensitive military equipment, one can understand the concern.

The initial transaction came thru eBay, and Sheldon discusses why the secondary market for Cisco equipment is so attractive - for example, vastly lower prices and quicker turnaround. Cisco is aware of its counterfeiting challenge, and has taken a variety of steps to combat this problem, primarily through its used equipment operation.

In a time of uncertain economic prospects, IT purchasing managers can be tempted to purchase gray market Cisco and other OED equipment through non-authorized channels. And as Cisco Raider has shown, the opportunity to "flip" the gray market purchases and essentially launder the equipment for profit can be lucrative. However, the US government has taken notice. While certainly having his own motivations for doing so, people like Sheldon do a good job in sounding an alarm over the risks of purchasing out-of-channel equipment.

June 12 is World Day Against Child Labor

The Authentics Foundation
Partners with
CARE USA
Supporting the Global Launch of the
Pasty Collins Trust Fund Initiative
Advocacy Grants Program

Quality Education: Unlocking the Power Within
Liberated from Exploitation, Empowered to End Poverty

World Day Against Child Labor
12 June 2008

In observance of World Day Against Child Labor (WDACL), the Authentics Foundation is pleased to announce its partnership with CARE USA’s global launch of the Pasty Collins Trust Fund Initiative (PCTFI) Global Advocacy Grants Program (AGP) focused on increasing the educational attainment for girls marginalized by hazardous and exploitative child labor.

The Authentics Foundation recognizes CARE’s leadership and efforts in combating hazardous and exploitative children labor around the world and is pleased to be a part of this year’s WDACL observances. CARE is staging and participating in global observances in Indonesia, Tanzania, NW Balkans & Serbia, Togo, Ghana, Mali, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and the United States supporting this year’s WDACL theme “Education, the Right Response to Child Labor.”

Along with the financial support of the Authentics Foundation, CARE USA, the International Labor Organization-International Program for the Elimination of Child Labor (ILO-IPEC), and its national partners are working in tandem hosting national public awareness events around the world focusing on the importance of a quality education for children engaged in hazardous and exploitative child labor, especially girls. This advocacy initiative being launched today will give a voice to girls who are hidden, often along the margins of society quietly toiling away in isolation, never having the chance to realize the promise of an education-much less ever seeing the inside of a classroom for themselves. No longer will their voices go unheard. Central to their struggle of lifting themselves out of poverty is unlocking the power within through the provisions of a quality education.

The Authentics Foundation will be funding a four-year policy and advocacy program aimed at bring about lasting change for adolescent girl child laborers. By working towards a more conducive policy environment in favor of specific policies that liberate girls trapped by hazardous and exploitative child labor and that ensure the promise of a quality education, the Authentics Foundation envisions a world free from the exploitation of children, empowering the end of global poverty. Through specific interventions targeting sustainable change will this vision become a reality for 216 million child laborers around the world.

For more information on the Authentics Foundation, please visit www.myauthentics.com and to learn more about CARE’s efforts to eliminate hazardous and exploitative child labor please visit www.care.org and do your part by making a contribution today.