# Cloak-And-Dagger Router Routing **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 18, 2015, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloak-and-dagger-router-routing/715317 "2015-03-18T18:04:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2015, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloak-and-dagger-router-routing/715317/1 "2015-03-18T18:04:18Z")
The latest development in the cold war between the tech industry and the US government – [Cisco will now ship routers to fake drop addresses to prevent the government from intercepting and bugging them](http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/03/18/want_to_dodge_nsa_supply_chain_taps_ask_cisco_for_a_dead_drop/): > [@](#): > > Cisco will ship boxes to vacant addresses in a bid to foil the NSA, security chief John Stewart says. > > The dead drop shipments help to foil a Snowden-revealed operation whereby the NSA would intercept networking kit and install backdoors before boxen reached customers… Sometimes I suspect that Poe’s Law is the real reason Jon Stewart decided to call it quits. ---
**Author:** ![Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cabin_fever_1/32/2908_2.png) [@Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabin_Fever_1)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2015, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloak-and-dagger-router-routing/715317/2 "2015-03-18T18:45:28Z")
Who is Daren Pauli and if attributed to him, his editors are even bigger idiots than he is. Since this is MPSIMS … Cisco, et al, have been co-hooting with “back doors” for some time now. Nothing new here, carry on. ---
**Author:** ![Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cabin_fever_1/32/2908_2.png) [@Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabin_Fever_1)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2015, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloak-and-dagger-router-routing/715317/3 "2015-03-18T18:57:42Z")
> [@](#): > > Cisco will ship boxes to vacant addresses in a bid to foil the NSA, security chief John Stewart says LOL. > [@](#): > > The dead drop shipments help to foil a Snowden-revealed operation whereby the NSA would intercept networking kit and install backdoors before boxen reached customers… I like the Spy/Action Hero newsletter you subscribe to. May I join? ---
**Author:** ![Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cabin_fever_1/32/2908_2.png) [@Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabin_Fever_1)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2015, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloak-and-dagger-router-routing/715317/4 "2015-03-18T19:41:30Z")
“If a truly dedicated team is coming after you for a very long period of time, then the probability of them succeeding goes up,” Yeppers. But can you tell me what I had for lunch today and where? And which Visa card I expensed? Bring it on. Routers? BTDT. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2015, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloak-and-dagger-router-routing/715317/5 "2015-03-18T21:24:20Z")
You can tell an article was written by a tech nerd when the plural of “box” is “boxen”. ---
**Author:** ![Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cabin_fever_1/32/2908_2.png) [@Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabin_Fever_1)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2015, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloak-and-dagger-router-routing/715317/6 "2015-03-18T22:03:23Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > You can tell an article was written by a tech nerd when the plural of “box” is “boxen”. LOL But you know, I truly have to apologize to \*\*Steve MB \*\*and the rest of you here for the snark. I want to fight ignorance, be a mentor if possible, and learn as much as I can from my silly questions and life observations. But yeppers…boxen…:smack: ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2015, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloak-and-dagger-router-routing/715317/7 "2015-03-18T22:30:54Z")
So why isn’t “the government” simply intercepting the shipments once they leave Cisco’s dock? That way, the address on the shipping label is meaningless. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloak-and-dagger-router-routing/715317/8 "2015-03-19T10:35:17Z")
What intercept? I would imagine that the government has people working on the assembly line installing the backdoors when they build the routers [or it is on the chip, or however they are claiming it is done…] well before they go out the damned door. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2015, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloak-and-dagger-router-routing/715317/9 "2015-03-19T13:27:05Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > So why isn’t “the government” simply intercepting the shipments once they leave Cisco’s dock? That way, the address on the shipping label is meaningless. The Feds aren’t tampering with _all_ boxen, only those going to certain targets. If the target is using a fake name/address, then the Feds don’t know which one is the target’s box. There is a related problem with NSA malware embedding itself in the firmware of HDs. Format and reinstall doesn’t make it go away. In both cases, the vendors need to make available open source firmware verification tools with MD5 hashes. (Assuming the Feds don’t force them to post hashes of the Feds malware code, too. In which case more openness is required.)