Operation "Cisco Raider": $76M in Counterfeits

Here's an interesting story I ran into today from the AFP:

"US authorities announced Thursday they had seized more than 76 million dollars' worth of counterfeit Cisco Systems computer equipment manufactured in China over the past three years".

Wow. That's quite a haul. The probe dubbed "Operation Cisco Raider" was carried out by US and Canadian agencies. The culprit? China. The unfortunate issue is that for the end user it's not that easy to tell apart counterfeit from working product by inspection. Could the security of network architectures built around these (faulty) products be compromised?

This just begs the question: how serious of a problem are we looking at here? To what extent have these goods sourced from "gray markets" or otherwise counterfeit equipment penetrated the 'legit' market?

Cisco's response to their customers is buy from authorized channel partners only. If you need to go for a less expensive alternative, consider the Cisco Refurbished Equipment program, available through authorized dealers.
This is not just a Cisco problem. In Fakes: Can you tell the difference it is estimated that the IT industry loses about $100 billion annually to counterfeit products.

Now that's big business.