Cisco recalls switches that could short power to the case. And hurt you Cisco is recalling a bunch of industrial Ethernet switches because it discovered the power source wiring could potentially short to the case. The IE 5000 is the company's series of ruggedised Ethernet switches, and the recall affects both version in the series, the IE-5000-12S12P-10G (1Gbps / 10Gbps, 28 ports) and the IE-5000- …
Where did the kick-bait headline get 'And kill you' from? The field notice linked in the article states that the symptoms are 'The switch fails to power on.' Also, the label shows 24v or 48v DC input. Still not seeing any risk of death here, even if no fuses were blown. There are models that can take 240v, but there's very little danger there either ... unless you are running one of these off a power circuit without ELCBs, in which case all bets are off.
While they may use 24 or 48V internally, all of the Cisco enterprise or industrial switches I have handled have had an internal PSU, with a 240V input. They also have metal cases, so if there is a problem with earthing in the PSU and there isn't an ELCB/RCD installed in the building (as there may not be in older buildings), there is a good chance of any shock killing the user, as by the time the fuse blew, the damage would already be done. So, yes, there is a good chance that some poor unsuspecting network tech would get killed in the event one of these switches failed. Remember, just because the safety regulations (and possibly the health and safety at work act) require that companies install RCDs doesn't necessarily mean companies have installed RCDs. Even then, there is no guarantee those RCDs have been tested regularly and are working.
This reminds me of a shipment of IBM 56K modems I received in our lab one time. They were huge -- half the size of a microwave and a card in the box actually gave CPR instructions with the warning. We laughed and laughed... but we made sure to have the network guys install them :)
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