Cisco Systems pulled out of Russia: destroyed $23.42M worth of equipment (opens in new tab)

No.

Cisco IOS/IOS-XE routers and switches will complain that you haven't licensed them correctly, but it doesn't impact functionality.

Cisco shot both it's feet years ago with an unpopular "SMART Licensing" scheme. One of my proudest moments as a net tech was the shocked silence when I told a room of Cisco employees that we weren't upgrading our 3850s past 16.6 (or something) because we refused to deal with their SMART licensing. They came up with a solution and we ended up upgrading (there was a feature in a later version that we wanted).

In the past, there were different software images for different feature sets. If you could get ahold of an image you didn't pay for, it would just work and you'd have functionality that wasn't licensed.

In the really distant past, this worked but not well because you'd need specialized hardware for things like fast encryption for VPN. So, if you didn't pay for the securityk9 license and used the 2811 without a VPN module, it would work but not well.

Anyways, I'm not aware of Cisco having any ability to brick customer equipment. I read this article as saying they destroyed their own property in branches and warehouses within the Russian Federation.

But that's like saying if you don't pay your mortgage the bank isn't allowed to repossess your house. You think banks are going to keep providing mortgages?

The ability to remotely disable equipment is essential in order to allow for cheaper financing plans, to make sure customers don't steal stuff they haven't finished paying for, or that they've only been leasing.

Sure, you could pass a law prohibiting that. But then customers have to pay a whole lot more in financing/leasing because there's much more incentive to stop payment but keep the equipment, and repossessing the equipment gets messy. (You can move/hide a tractor or a router much more easily than you can move a house.)

"Cisco Systems decided to physically destroy spare parts, product demonstrations, equipment and even furniture"

Not your production -- not your coins^W hardware. In peacetime, it doesn't matter too much, because nearly nothing can outweigh the reputation loss if there is a case of remote equipment sabotage. In wartime, however, all bets are off.

Not that I have any pity towards Russia, but, say, China can also do this in the case of war.

Part of the point of sanctions is to reduce Russia's options, it's understood that some products will just get replaced by ones from outside the geopolitical "West".

Presumably they weren't already using those other options before because they were worse for some reason or another, and so it still hurts to have to switch. Plus, having fewer options may mean it's harder to negotiate a good deal.

Until they are replaced they will not get updates, leaving them open for possible intrusions. Let them have Chinese equipment, starving them of western technology to reverse engineer, steal or sell to competitors isn’t a bad thing either.

Fair point. I don't think we've thought through all the implications of this.

It's obviously bad when Western countries use Huawei products, but I don't immediately see why it's bad when Russia does.

Because you're not getting that hardware out of Russia through normal channels.

In the best of times, in the best of places, you'd be able to do that. Decommission the hardware in use, pack it all up, ship it wherever.

It is not the best of times in Russia and it was never the best of places.

In the best of times while operating in an adversarial market (to put it diplomatically), you have to know you're doing this well in advance and slowly phase out the equipment. Some of it is likely physically installed in the locations. And you have to do this while essentially receiving no new equipment. Which you could do by just faking shipments and manifests. But you're effectively smuggling at this point.

Now, with everything going on. You have to worry about Russia just sort of claiming your hardware/business/people and daring you to come get it. You get your people out and torch everything you can on your way out.

That assumes that Russian officials would let the items leave.

They probably had special NSA implants inside of them and didn't want it getting out. [1]

[1] https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/05/photos-of-an-nsa...

A few things.

1- That involves added costs that you may or may not recoup (read sibling comment about Russia "not allowing it" which doesn't seem out of hand). So if you don't want it in the current State's hands, and you can't reliably export them, destruction might be the right choice. 2- Part of the goal may be the headline. Either good press for Cisco or bad press for Russia, but visibility can be a goal as well.

I like the idea of scorched earth when you are forced to leave because of outside circumstances (war, politics, etc.). Burn it down!

But for serious, likely too risky to have the potential for anything that can fall into a sanctioned country’s hands. Just destroy it and write it off.

hheeeyyyyoooo!

"Cisco Systems decided to physically destroy spare parts, product demonstrations, equipment and even furniture"

I read it as they originally had 60 employees. Odd wording.

I think they maybe mean 12x5, so from 60 to 5 but don't quote me on that.

They do

The source is from a Russian source

https://tass.ru/ekonomika/17451425