Cisco Confirms Arrest In Theft Of Its Code

spafbnerf writes "Informationweek is reporting on Cisco Systems' confirmation of an arrest in connection with the theft of its IOS 12.3 source code last year. On Tuesday, The New York Times reported that federal officials and security experts have acknowledged that the theft of the Cisco source code was part of a wider pattern of thousands of attacks on military and research computers perpetrated by an unknown number of individuals." From the article: "The FBI fully recognizes the inherent sophistication and global nature of intrusion investigations...As such, we have worked hard to develop strong partnerships within the international law-enforcement community. In this case, we have been working closely with our international partners to include Sweden, Great Britain, and others. As a result of recent actions, the criminal activity appears to have stopped."

Appears to have stopped - for now!

[PacketScan]

They. Who ever they are, will be back if indeed it's more than a few people. When it comes down to it nothing is secure. There is always going to be a way for the smart/crafty to cercumvent anything put in place.
Then again we could just write rock solid code. but that apparently is cost prohibitive.

Someone Better Talk to Bush

[geomon]

As such, we have worked hard to develop strong partnerships within the international law-enforcement community.

Had Bush known that this was occurring, he would have stepped in and stopped this attack on US sovereignty.

We all know that the US will always choose the unilateralist role in defeating enemies of the State.

(chill... It is a joke.)

Re:do they believe it themselves?

[DarthVain]

"As a result of recent actions, the criminal activity appears to have stopped."

I read that as: "As a result, the criminals have already gotten all the code they were looking for, and now have moved on. This is why there doesn't appear to be any more activity."

Re:Light on evidence?

[EvilTwinSkippy]

The fact that every report says "since the arrest, the intrusions have stopped" ought to tell us something...

Mainly that the folks who are behind the break ins read the same news articles we do.

Re:Light on evidence?

[Veinor]

Or maybe they're not really bothering to verify it, but instead quoting each other, since if one of them says it, it must be true!

Decentralized Networking...

[Anonymous Coward]

The more and more I hear about these types of hacks, attacks, and thefts, it makes me wonder why many big companies still choose to remain 'online.'

We all know that the internet can be a very dangerous place, so why would any company in their right mind choose to have computers with potentially sensitive source code or database information remaining on a publicly facing network?!

Very few machines in a given development or database office should have Internet access, and these machines should not be directly connected to the rest of the company. The reason you spend all of that cash on networking equipment is for private closed intranets, it's not to get you online!

Plugging into the internet is just like going public, no matter how many basements with feline guards at the doors you have in place, you can never be 100% secure.

God Bless Amerika

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah, another police victory in defense of a faceless, helpless anonymous $5.6 Billion global dominator. It's sure good to know that all of us Fortune 25 corporations can count on the swift hand of justice.

Slashdot editors: more human interest stories like this one, please!

Re:Phew!

[noidentity]

Thank goodness Cisco finally got its source code back! Now the source code is safe and sound, never to be seen again by anyone outside Cisco.

At least they can continue development on it. It must have been costly to have to put development on hold while the source code was missing.

Or maybe the code wasn't stolen, rather copied.