Patent ID: 7845016

Claim:
In a system having a plurality of network communications devices, each network communications device including a plurality of hardware modules, a method for verifying that the hardware modules are from an approved vendor, comprising: i) at each network communications device, determining whether respective vendor data obtained from each hardware module of the network communications device is valid vendor data according to a vendor data checking procedure, wherein valid vendor data includes a valid vendor identifier and a valid module serial number; and ii) engaging in a counterfeit module detection process among the network communications devices, the counterfeit module detection process including (a) comparing respective valid module serial numbers from respective hardware modules of different ones of the network communications devices to identify duplicate valid module serial numbers among the network communications devices, each duplicate valid module serial number indicating that corresponding hardware modules from the different network communications devices are potentially counterfeit hardware modules not from an approved vendor, and (b) disabling operation of the potentially counterfeit hardware modules on each of the different network communications devices, wherein: (a) each of the network communications devices maintains a respective device module database containing vendor data obtained from hardware modules of the network communications device; (b) the system includes a service provider maintaining a central database containing vendor data for hardware modules of the network communications devices of the system, the network module database being populated with vendor data received from the device module databases of the network communications devices; (c) comparing respective valid module serial numbers from respective hardware modules of different ones of the network communications devices includes comparing valid module serial numbers stored in the central database; (d) the service provider is operative to generate alert messages to the network communications devices upon identifying duplicate valid module serial numbers, the alert messages inducing the disabling of the potentially counterfeit hardware modules; and (e) each network communications device is operative in response to each alert message from the service provider to: include a module serial number from the alert message in a list of module serial numbers maintained by the network communications device; compare the serial numbers of hardware modules in the network communications device with the module serial numbers in the list; and upon finding a match between a serial number of a hardware module in the network communications device with a module serial number in the list, take an action with respect to the hardware module having the matching serial number, the action selected from (i) shutting down the hardware module and (ii) notifying a local system administrator.