Slashdot Mirror
University of Twente NOC Fire Arson
Lars writes "A 26-year old man from Hengelo has admitted to deliberately setting fire to the Network Operations Centre of University of Twente, last Wednesday. The fire gutted two wings of the building and devastated one of the fastest networks in Europe.
The arsonist is an employee of the University, which must come as quite a shock to those involved.
The University released a short statement to the press.
It mentions that the total damage caused is roughly 40-50 million euros (about the same in dollars) and that the guy was caught last Friday, when he tried to set fire to one of the faculty buildings."
Not really. His boss probably stole his stapler.
The arsonist is an employee of the University, which must come as quite a shock to those involved. The University released a short statement to the press
English text here.
A few non - european services were affected as well - namely ALL security updates for Debain (the primary mirror anyhow) were offline for a while.
Brings up a good point in disaster recovery: How many organizations have machines at various places that they can't recover from a total loss?
"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act" -- George Orwell
The article basically says: he dun-it and he's an employee. What it doesn't say is why he dun-it, though.
-- Waht? Tehr's a preveiw buottn?
Ralph: "That's where I saw the Leprechaun. He tells me to burn things!"
Leprachaun: "You've done grand, laddie! Now ya know what ya have ta do! Burn the house down! Burn 'em all!"
Press release Twente Police 25 November 2002
Confession concerning fire UT
The 26-year-old man from Hengelo detained on Friday afternoon has confessed that he also started a fire on the grounds of the University of Twente on Wednesday morning 20 November 2002. In this fire two wings of one of the buildings on the grounds were completely destroyed and damages caused of between 40 and 50 million euro.
The 26-year old was detained Friday afternoon after witnesses had observed the start of a small fire in another building. On the directions of these witnesses the 26-year old could then be detained.
On the how and why of the arson on the 20th no further announcements can be made at this moment. The suspect will be undergo further questioning on this.
We can announce that the 26-year old is an employee of the University of Twente. The University staff has been informed of his confession by now.
He will be brought before the magistrate in Almelo today.
Stupid idiots.... the whole infrastructure was burnt down, and we're trying to rebuild it as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, www.utwente.nl is used as a central point of information towards students and employees. Which n00b put the link on slashdot, _AGAIN_? Thanks for ruining our just revived webserver, thanks for nothing!
I wonder if we could get him a job over at that place in Redmond?
First a massive fire, now a thorough slashdotting. What's next, Mecha-Striesand?
So, this guy gets out when he is 30yrs old, can find a job and move on with his life looking for more buildings to burn down. isnt there something wrong with that?
Well, presumably he'd be required to disclose his conviction to potential employers. I sure wouldn't hire him at that point - if he's a disgruntled employee then I don't want to hire him and possibly piss him off. If he's a fire bug then I just don't want him around, period. He could not report that he was convicted, but unless he gets an entirely new identity a routine background check will show the conviction. This is why more and more companies are doing background checks now.
As far as paying back the damages, it's the insurance company that's going to have to suck up the cost of replacement. Yeah, I know - it means everyone who uses that insurerer will have to pay higher premiums for some time. But they're the ones that would have to sue for damages. And they very well may. But getting repaid is obviously not going to happen.
The idea of debtor's prison is long gone, and for a good reason. The idea was that if you caused material harm then you could be thrown in jail until you repaid the harm. But it's rather difficult to earn money when imprisoned, which leads to a rather vicious circle. Debtors prison was often used to perpetually incarcerate political or business opponents. Let's not even think about bringing it back.
gruntled?
In talking with a Disaster Recovery, quote EXPERT unquote, he said a little fact that quite surprised me: 62% of all technology disasters are premeditated by disgruntled employees, honest administrative mistakes, or lack of change control procedures. We build our moats around the castle, but we never think to install smoke alarms in the kitchen!?!?
If I don't post again before Thanksgiving, Happy Turkey day ya'll.
"This isn't a study in computer science, its a study in human behavior"
You guy's are really considerate: fire destroys network, they do all their best to get it somewhat back to work and then you slashdot it back into oblivion.
Though the arsonist takes a huge part of the blame, i think the university also made some faults. Why put your servers in a building that burns that well? If you have so much expensive equipment, you should consider everything, including arson! A few days ago they were happy that no asbestos was released because it was removed shortly ago. But isn't asbestos a fire retarder??
Anyhow this fire is a huge problem for the university. When i was studying there 2 years ago, their biggest trouble was the financing of new buildings. They were supposed to build a new combined building for Physics, Electronics and Chemistry. When the drawings were almost finished they had to scap the whole thing. Right now several buildings are way beyond their lifetime and could technically be shut down to regulations any moment. Most buildings are already extended with temporary containers (Portacabins). And now this..... If they were a company this would certainly be their bankruptcy.
karma police: arrest this man, he talks in maths; he buzzes like a fridge, he's like a detuned radio. [radiohead]
Here is a link to the movie you are refering to.
Somethign tells me this guy who burnt the place down, will not go to the tropics to meet woman. Instead he is going to prison and meet Bubba; the A$$ Plow.
NO! NO! Please don't mod me, I'm too young to die a troll. *click* Oh the pain, the pain...
I sure wouldn't hire him at that point
Whatever happened to having "paid one's debt to society"? Assuming that he
does in fact, go to jail and serves time, when does the deeds of one's past no
longer impact who you may be in the future?
SealBeater
-- Its survival of the fittest...and we got the fucking guns!!!
This happened in The Netherlands. He will be judged by a single judge, no jury. Having full access to lawyers who are not capable of making any money out of this beyond their reasonable salary. He will maybe even go to prison (not that likely though). Single person in a room. 4 Nice painted walls, a door with a friendly window. TV in the room. Possibly a window for a decent view of the outside world. 3 Good meals a day. Sports facilities and libraries. Guards without guns. Lots of therapeutic little jobs....so he doesn't f&^%#ng hate society when he gets out next month!
My name is Dam Backer. I am from The Netherlands and I switched to the US 6 years ago.
(all of the above might not be perfectly accurate, but it schetches an idea of the philosophy of the Dutch punishment system)
I wanted to point out that more complex trials are handled by three judges instead of one (I'm not sure about the exact rules on that matter). The punishment will probably depend a lot on his past criminal record, motivation & current regret/willingness to be treated. In the best case it might be low (community service). It has been proven that (more) jail-time will increase the chance of someone becoming a repeat offender, so we try to reduce jail-time in favor of more educational approaches (and reduce the load on our jails + save money).
I also want to point out that judges aren't elected, so they aren't forced to punish harder to appease the people* that believe the "Crime is increasing"-mantra that the media like to perpetrate (and have for hundreds of years. They complained about it during roman times and ever since.).
*True democracy is the average man deciding who is smart enough to govern them. It's not the average man making decisions on complex matters which they cannot (be expected to) understand in detail. The people should choose the goals and judge the elected men and women on the results they achieve. Politicians should be allowed to try and achieve these goals with a coherent set of decisions. That's why I don't like these micro-management elections or referenda for that matter. </rant> Sorry, had to get that off my chest.
The Drowned and the Saved - Primo Levi