Cisco confirmed the authenticity of two source code files that appeared on a Russian security site over the weekend but could not say whether a network breach led to the unauthorized release of its proprietary code. Cisco scrambled to discover the source of the leak, but security experts said attackers won't be able to use the code easily.

"I don't think it is too worrisome," said Johannes Ullrich, chief technology officer of the Internet Storm Center, an online service that monitors threats on the Internet. Comparing the leak with Microsoft's loss of its code earlier this year, Ullrich said Cisco is in a better situation. "If you have the Windows source code, you can build it on your PC at home, where the Cisco code needs specialized hardware, so most people aren't going to be able to compile the files."

By Robert Lemos at ZDNet.

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