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Cisco secure about source code theft

Spinsters say company is secure and so is the net
Mon May 24 2004, 09:28
NETWORKING GIANT Cisco says that the theft of top-secret proprietary code and its publication on the net do not mean the Interweb is a lot less safer place to be.

The company, which makes most of the routers that connect the net, said that publication of some of its proprietary software blueprints does not create an increased security risk.

In a press release, Cisco said it took information security very seriously and continues to take active measures to protect its proprietary information as well as employee, customer and partner information.

In other words Cisco has shut the door after the horse has bolted and published the combination of the stable safe on the net.

Cisco added that since the pilfered code has been removed from the foreign Web site where it had been available for several days all was well.

However, the code was spotted by several in Her Majesty's loyal press and if hackers had not copied it themselves, they certainly would known a spotty Herbert mate who would have done it for them.

Security experts say it's possible that the source code could be used by hackers to find and exploit vulnerabilities in the software. However the hacking community has been a little slow to find any weaknesses.

Cisco also went out of its way to point out that the theft "was not the result of vulnerability in any product or service offered by Cisco". Nor did Cisco spinsters think that the leak was an inside job.

OK, so either Cisco has kit on site that is not made by its good selves or something something else is rotten in the state of Denmark. The FBI is also investigating. µ

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