How Cisco is trying to keep NSA spies out of its gear

Cisco is working to build the confidence of prospective customers in its products, two years after disclosures of spying by the U.S. National Security Agency seeded doubt, particularly in China.

It is increasingly putting more stringent security requirements on its suppliers and has launched a beta program that allows customers to analyze its products in a highly secure environment before buying.

The efforts are intended to introduce more transparency to allay growing concerns over how supply chains could be opportunistically used by spies and cybercriminals.

“I worry about manipulation, espionage and disruption,” said Edna Conway, chief security officer of Cisco’s global value chain, in a recent interview. “We worry about tainted solutions, counterfeit solutions and the misuse of intellectual property.”

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