There is an old adage in business that goes something like, “Never buy for the cheapest price. If you spend a dollar too much all you lose is your dollar. If you spend a dollar too little and the product fails you have lost your entire investment.”

Now it appears that this quality versus price issue could have even deeper consequences. In a recent article ZDNet reports on an FBI investigation into counterfeit routers. It appears that there is a possibility that low cost, counterfeit Cisco routers sold on the web may have been manufactured in China and have built in backdoors. These “flaws” could allow corruption of and access to the network by outsiders.

Back in the 1980’s the saying was, “No one ever got fired for buying Hewlett Packard.” More than you job may be on the line if you go for the “best” buy these days.