Cisco Probing Possible Source Code Theft
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq:CSCO -
news) is investigating the possible theft of the
source code that powers its networking equipment, the
company said on Monday.
"Cisco is aware that a potential compromise of its
proprietary information occurred and was reported on a
public Web site," said a statement from the world's
largest maker of equipment that directs Internet
traffic. "The Cisco Information Security team is
looking into this matter and investigating."
A spokeswoman for the San Jose, California-based
company would not say whether or how much of its code
may have been stolen.
Source code, the underlying blueprint of computer
software, determines how programs work. Companies like
Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) zealously guard
their source code because they consider it the
lifeblood of their business.
Numerous versions exist of Cisco's operating system –
called IOS (Internetworking Operating System). That
means a theft may not affect all of its gear, but some
industry officials said it could hurt Cisco depending
on how the code was written and structured, as well as
what part of it was stolen.
Russian Web site SecurityLab.ru reported on Saturday
that the code was stolen from Cisco's corporate
network, with some leaked onto the Internet, according
to industry Web site LightReading.com. The Russian
site estimated about 800 megabytes of source code was
taken, LightReading said.
The possible theft would be the second time this year
that a major vendor's source code has leaked to the
public. In February, code underlying Microsoft's
Windows NT and Windows 2000 (news - web sites)
operating systems was released onto the Web,
apparently via a smaller software company working with
the software giant, although no security breaches were
reported as a result.
Last year, Cisco in a lawsuit accused Huawei
Technologies, China's largest telecom equipment maker,
of unlawfully copying its operating software. That
lawsuit was suspended last October after the two
companies reached an agreement.
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Cisco Probing Possible Source Code Theft
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Type: discussion