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Is it Just Me, Or Is Our Mainframe Missing?
xnuandax writes "Here's a salient lesson for those system security personnel who spend their time fretting over the theoretical crack-ability of their 1024 bit encryption keys. Australian Customs have recently suffered a rather unfortunate set back in their "War Against Terror" with the admission that two of their secure mainframe servers have been wheeled out of the building by persons unknown. I'll bet my $2 that the root password on those boxes was 'trustno1'."
... when you don't do retinal scans on pizza delivery people.
*starts looking for cheap parts on ebay*
Quid festinatio swallonis est aetherfuga inonusti?
Africus aut Europaeus?
Isn't that how they always did it on Josie and the Pussycats cartoon? They'd dress up as "computer repairmen" and then wheel the computer out the door, which would then infuriate the bad guy and they'd have the chase scene set to a song.
I kept saying that's how I'd get my SGI Onyx that way, but it never seemed to work out. Anybody that steals a mainframe is either looking to part it out and sell it on Ebay, or they are going to melt it down for the valuable metals.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
is more important than anything else. Some years ago, people stole from Harrods in london, by simply taking a whole cash register, while disguised as maintenance men.
Oh well, what the hell...
The men, described as being of Pakistani-Indian-Arabic appearance
Thats PC for terrorist isnt it ?
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
yeah, that's unfortunate, but i'm sure that the fault lies with their security gaurd not the admin's
You just gave out my root password!
Let this be a lesson...
When you're caught being grossly negligent and incompetant, blame terrorists.
Simple security procedures.
Didn't anyone learn anything from losers like Kevin Mitnick?
Deography Photoblog
we thought you'd arranged it. they were wearing overalls.
overalls!?
...seem a lot more win-able : ) Just take a trusted computer, drop in your favorite virus, and hit send.
My last contract at a bank we did that; I won't mention the city, but the bank owned the buildings all around it and used them for storage. We had a bunch of contractors coming in for a workstation rollout, and the first day on the job I had them wander around the building, without ID of any kind, and just grab random computers and haul them across the street, using whatever explanation for it they felt like.
it was the NEXT DAY before any inquiries came in.
Oh, they also used the signs on the buildings you could see through the windows as admin passwords.
Why, yes, I AM a Pagan Libertarian.
The big question has to be; what have they left behind? The guys who knicked the servers were floating around the Customs building for the better part of 5 hours. I'd bet a penny to a pound that they left backdoors open to get back in when they feel like it.
From my perspective as a former sysadmin/security guy, how could someone not notice that 2 main fileservers were suddenly offline? Alarm bells should have been ringing the second they came offline. Where's the monitoring? I suppose at the very least that its a kick in the ass to anyone who thinks that physical security and good procedures are any less important than firewalls and network intrusion detection.
"I'm tired of all this 'Aren't humanity great' bullshit. We're a virus with shoes" - Bill Hicks
I read this a few hours ago on ABC's site (abc.net.au), and I nearly laughed my nuts off.
This is customs right, the organisation responsible for stopping all those nasty things like guns, drugs, WMD's, cheap CD's and region 1 DVD's getting in and harming the general population. And they lost two servers.
Reminds me of an old project with up to 100 of us on it before go live. They left the project manager and a few others there to wrap up after go-live and the support period. By the time IT came to collect 100 of the newest PC's in the company, they were shells. No CPU, RAM, HDD, Vid etc.
Anyway, aparrently I had better get back to sheep shagging. I suppose I should move to Montana, they say the sheep there don't fight back.
Stopping myself...Abort (core dumped)
Maybe they were just replaced with a Linux server.
Australia has been dealing with terrorism a hell of a lot longer than the U.S. has.
I don't know what exactly a bunch of Indonesian communists would want with a mainframe though.
From the article:
"The servers have no value except the information they contain," an officer said.
Take the information and give the servers to me!!
Please??
Watch out. Someone will be getting the boot.
Outsourcing is a great idea. From the sites I have seen it at, they would continue charging for the lost servers...and the replacement until the contract comes up for renewal.
Stopping myself...Abort (core dumped)
This just reminds us what the greatest risks are to any secure system: social engineering and inside men. If you look authoritative and dress up in a serviceman's outfit, very few people will question your actions. You can steal furniture, computers, machinery, tools, whatever by just looking important. By imporsonating a sysadmin on the phone, you can easily talk passwords out of gullible people. With a fake service order "signed" by the right people, the odds are endless.
On the same note, people inside an organization are often responsible for hacks, stolen information, and other things since they have the keys already!
It just goes to show the weakest portion of any system is the people.
I wonder what devices the states have in place to stop this "terrorism"? Come on they walked out with a friggin mainframe, how is that non-cosure.
Come get some....
Like for ages IBM's mainframes has a standard privileged technician account with the password "musigate", very useful when some BOFH expired my accounts. Ooops, you mean it's still musigate now?
Ceci n'est pas une signature
Obviously they plan to download all the pr0n destined for Australia thus returning the place to its traditional sheep shagging state.
Sysadmin: "HA! I have patched all my software, yelled at all the users with weak passwords, locked down every possible port and continously monitor the allowed ones, and with this keystroke I will enable UNBREAKABLE encryption on every critical data file!"
*slams hand down to hit Enter key*
*hits bare desk*
...
Dunno if this is a troll but...
Australia sent SAS troops to Afghanistan and Iraq.
We were targeted by Jamaar Islamir in the Bali Bombing.
Yeah, it's probable Australia is a potential target for terrorists...
Tempus fugit sub anesthesia.
I must say, that was one of the funniest, best written story summaries I've ever read here. I'm still chuckling. I'm afraid that in this case, actually reading the article would only be a let down. What a gem.
"...all the labours of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness..." yada yada
Australia has been involved in a lot of things that would piss of extremist Muslims.
Our army seems extremely professional. First rate SAS troops, a reasonable knack for peace-keeping and even some cool (if obvious in hindsight) gun technology.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
The brazen airport computer theft that has Australia's anti-terror fighters up in arms
By Philip Cornford
September 5, 2003
On the night of Wednesday, August 27, two men dressed as computer technicians and carrying tool bags entered the cargo processing and intelligence centre at Sydney International Airport.
The men, described as being of Pakistani-Indian-Arabic appearance, took a lift to the third floor of the Charles Ulm building in Link Road, next to the customs handling depot and the Qantas Jet Base.
They presented themselves to the security desk as technicians sent by Electronic Data Systems, the outsourced customs computer services provider which regularly sends people to work on computers after normal office hours.
After supplying false names and signatures, they were given access to the top-security mainframe room. They knew the room's location and no directions were needed.
Inside, they spent two hours disconnecting two computers, which they put on trolleys and wheeled out of the room, past the security desk, into the lift and out of the building.
The brazen theft has prompted Australia's top security agencies to conduct emergency damage audits amid fears that terrorists may have gained access to highly sensitive intelligence from the computers.
The Australian Federal Police and ASIO, the two chief guardians against terrorism, fired off angry memos to customs officials, demanding to know the extent to which their top-secret operations have been compromised.
The Australian Customs Service has admitted the security blunder, but told customs officers in an email that no sensitive operational information was lost.
This brought angry rebuttals from customs officers who claimed that the two mainframe servers held thousands of confidential files, including top-secret communications between customs investigators and the AFP and ASIO.
They point to the fact that all officers have been instructed to change passwords which give them access to the system, but a spokesman for the Customs Minister, Chris Ellison, said this was a "precautionary measure".
The theft is being investigated by the AFP, which is conducting 65 counter-terrorist operations against nationalist groups in Australia and international terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiah.
Customs officers believe the thieves had inside information because they knew how to bypass security, how to identify themselves and where to go, plus the fact that the mainframe room was regularly entered after hours for maintenance.
The Community and Public Sector Union, which represents customs officers, has asked for guarantees that none of its members is at risk as a result of the theft.
The union expressed fears thatthe lives of undercover agents could be jeopardised after officers claimed that customs officials were covering up the true extent of the damage. Also at risk, they said, are operations against terrorists and international drug cartels in which customs officers watch the movements of suspects and suspicious cargo in and out of the country.
They stressed that terrorists had the most to gain by stealing the servers. "The servers have no value except the information they contain," an officer said. "They would have personal internal email accounts, probably the passwords for those accounts, and any information harboured within them.
"Customs officers use the accounts to communicate volumes of sensitive operational material and intelligence to each other, including information from other agencies such as AFP and ASIO. This would be at risk."
The spokesman for Senator Ellison said: "Extensive testing of the system is being carried out to determine whether it has been compromised by the theft. No evidence has emerged to indicate that there has been any intrusion. Customs has been advised that the servers did not contain personal, business-related or national security information.
"Nevertheless, arrangements
TWW
"Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
Hey, why all the hassle ?
A good sysadmin has all important stuff backed up. And if you do it properly the backup is sent to a offsite location. Isn't it easier to steal those backup tapes or discs? If you are lucky the outsourced company doesn't even notice the theft or someone who does not want to loose his job does not tell anyone.
So my question is: Do *you* encrypt your backups?
The Australian Customs Service has admitted the security blunder, but told customs officers in an email that no sensitive operational information was lost.
As we can see it's a well-planned action, and there's almost no way to sell the two mainframe for good profit. The major cost center of a mainframe lies mainly in the operational and maintanence, which are not applicable to stolen hardware.
Obviously, their target is the data within. If the authority do not start investigating what information the thieves are looking for and the possible use of the information within the stolen hw, the consequence might be very serious.
No more official BS. Do something before too late.
So, the servers had neither personal nor business data on it. So what's left? The server must have been empty then, good riddance.
In the last 24 months:
:-)
Afganistan: Australia's Special Air Service was there, saved a few yanks in a downed helicopter. The American soldiers seemed to thing these Aussies were all right.
Iraq: Australia sent 3 boats and about 2000 special forces personell. Did a lot of (if not all of) the ground based reconisance, plus about half the search and rescue missions.
East Timor: Liberated the poor little country from the Indonesians and wiped out the resistance. Free elections were held for the first time.
Indonesia: Sent Federal Police over who "helped" with the investigation into the recent Bali Bombing.
North Korea: We'll Be There!
Iran: Be a walk in the park!
Saudi Arabia: Hey, we all like cheap petrol!
Plus there's the fact we're all reasonably well off here in Aus, excellent education and health systems, great democratic political system, fair moral sense.
So you can see there's a few reasons the terrorists might not like us, although, if they do come here, we can easily melt their hearts with our koala bears, or melt their skin with our radiant sun
... that my closet is more physically secure than the Customs department of the country of Australia? Next you're going to be telling me that it has more illeg^H^H^H^H^Hperfectly legal music too!
Australia has sent peacekeepers to East Timor in 1999, and may have been involved, under rather shadier circumstances, in a 1975 "intervention" as well. Indonesia itself has played host to several terrorist groups, some with separatist intentions and others with anti-Western ideologies. And of course, paranoia can elevate the perceived risk of even the most marginal organizations.
How are secure mainframes for national security without any top secret data. Do the Aussies allow their public officals to play Quake on govt machines? Come on, everything is clasified because it leads to something else! Maybe it only had names and addresses of terrorists [better yet, just the non-terrorist on the "list"] on it. After all, that wouldn't be to secret...they should know who they are?
What do you mean root password? Hackers don't need a password if they are running Windows.
Why is this a troll. I assumed he was an average merkin cizen.
The Community and Public Sector Union, which represents customs officers, has asked for guarantees that none of its members is at risk as a result of the theft.
They've got to be kidding.
IMHO there should be some investigation into this level of incompetence. Procedures should be in place and followed. If procedures were followed, the person responsible for security (and the procedures) should be put out on their arse with zero chance of another job in security. If procedures weren't followed, the staff that didn't follow them should get their arses kicked.
To know that you know what you know, and that you do not know what you do not know, that is true wisdom. --Scooby Doo
Australia has 117.8 million head of sheep
;)
New Zealand has 46.2 million head of sheep
Okay us Kiwis have more sheep per people I concede
Anyway maybe they should have checked any nearby LAN parties that were going on...
Customs has been advised that the servers did not contain personal, business-related or national security information.
Okayy.... So just what was on them, then? Somebody's pr0n collection?
-- Alastair
It was the just RIAA removing a couple of infringing servers
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
Why aren't mainframes bolted to the floor?
Just so people dont think we are complete nutters down here....
No mainframes were taken... they were two win32 computers taken from a semi secure? area.
I'm a little happy that they didnt leave a bomb in place of the two bombs that they took.
And a word of praise for the IT support staff. They had our systems back up in no time at all.
(here goes my karma)
An Ausie was on holiday in NZ. One day he was visiting a local farm when he heard a strange noise coming from the barn. Curious as to what it was,he entered the barn and was presented with the spectacle of a Kiwi farmer shagging a sheep. When the farmer looked up he turned away and said,"you know,in Australia we shear are sheep". The indignant Kiwi responded,"well,I'm not sheer-ring this sheep with anybody!".
==== Warning:this poster contains subject matter that may be offensive. Flaming discretion is advised.
2. Meet with people. Hire everyone (especially Austrailian Customs agents). Wear a fake mustache. Give each person a different assignment. "You are to go in to our bank/store/house/hospital/police station and using any uniform/disguise and verbal means, physically take our hardware. Do not get caught. If you do, hand them this card - they know this card as Phsyical Security test E8T-m3 - we are contracted with them to to this test."
3. Promise bonuses for high-priced items. Take items, have them load your (rented) car. Congratulate them on their first day. Hand them a schedule for next week & note high performers. Leave.
3a. If your employee gets caught, remove mustache and look nonplussed. Walk away.
4. Profit!!!
"It just goes to show the weakest portion of any system is the people."
That's why you get rid of the people, and replace them with machines.
Customs has been advised that the servers did not contain personal, business-related or national security information.
so those were just porn/game servers. no big threat to security, national or otherwise.
"You you have anything to declare, mate?"
"No."
"What about these computers with 'property of Australian Customs' stencilled on them?"
"I brought them from home."
"Very well then! Proceed! G'day mate!"
It was only on the second last day that someone questioned my actions. Until then, nobody thought twice about an unfamiliar person sauntering up their desk, unplugging their desktop PC, and walking off. Because the old PCs were so dusty, I wasn't even wearing my normal business attire -- instead, I was wearing jeans and a t-shirt.
This is by no means unusual. I've been to places where the IT employees did not know which servers do what, how many servers they actually have, or what the passwords are. In a place like that, a missing server may not be noticed for days!
Really? Then what the hell were they for?
They say
"They would have personal internal email accounts, probably the passwords for those accounts, and any information harboured within them.
hmm. 'personal email' sounds like personal information, and probably business and security related too. But then say:
The Australian Customs Service has admitted the security blunder, but told customs officers in an email that no sensitive operational information was lost.
So I guess they're just using their mainframes to advertise penis enlargement pills
"Customs officers use the accounts to communicate volumes of sensitive operational material and intelligence to each other, including information from other agencies such as AFP and ASIO. This would be at risk."
I give up.
I hate to give MS any credit, but even they figured that one out. Check out their Ten Immutable Laws of Security. -- "Law #3: If a bad guy has unrestricted physical access to your computer, its not your computer anymore."
Don't forget to pay $699 on the way out.
Be wary of any facts that confirm your opinion.
...MATE
btw, are you born that way or became stupid as a result of (plenty) unfortunate circumstances?
Now we know how Telstra will save all that money...
Imagine a beowolf cluster of-- FUCK, they're gone!!!!/I>
You need a FREE iPod Nano
Or you might put them in one of those immigrant detention centers in the middle of the desert, to wait a couple of years until their case is processed. Whatever.
Biometrics will help, but I'm afraid there will be some bizarre head'n'thumb-cutting activities in the future...
"I knew Windows would be involved somehow! Slashdot hasn't let me down yet."
Of course. Window's security is pretty transparent.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/05/10625490 00698.html
(Remove the space between the two zeros in the URL - Don't know, some slashdot phenomenon
"CESTA ASTRONOMY"
Afganistan: Australia's Special Air Service was there, saved a few yanks in a downed helicopter. The American soldiers seemed to thing these Aussies were all right.
:-)
They were surpised to learn there was a place called Australia... they'd only been prepared for this Afghanistan thing.
Iraq: Australia sent 3 boats and about 2000 special forces personell. Did a lot of (if not all of) the ground based reconisance, plus about half the search and rescue missions.
Yet Australia did not appear on the map in mission control??? I mean c'mon, there were THREE countries in the coalition of the slightly willing, and ours didn't even get drawn in!
East Timor: Liberated the poor little country from the Indonesians and wiped out the resistance. Free elections were held for the first time.
And then rooted them over by bullying them into favourable rights to the natural gas rig in the straight.
Indonesia: Sent Federal Police over who "helped" with the investigation into the recent Bali Bombing.
I bet they did.
North Korea: We'll Be There!
Iran: Be a walk in the park!
Saudi Arabia: Hey, we all like cheap petrol!
Hmm... now might be a good time to mention that Australia hosts MOST of the US' satellite comms for the Middle East, and Asia.
What's missile defence again? And why do I need one?
Plus there's the fact we're all reasonably well off here in Aus, excellent education and health systems, great democratic political system, fair moral sense.
Correction... we have a record defecit, our kids can't read and write (my parents are teachers), our health system has been gutted (hospitals a plenty, but no nurses to staff them!!), a hybrid political system bastardised from the brits designed to maintain our corporate slavery to the crown (do some digging), and a general hatred for anybody who looks or smells different. Remember, tolerance is not acceptance. Tolerance is hatred with a smile.
So you can see there's a few reasons the terrorists might not like us, although, if they do come here, we can easily melt their hearts with our koala bears, or melt their skin with our radiant sun
So true.
I think. Does this mean I don't get to keep them?
... it still scares the shit out of me.
"Derp de derp."
What the fuck does that mean?
[Cut to picture of an empty server rack] "Missing" You get the rest...
Correction... we have a record defecit, our kids can't read and write (my parents are teachers), our health system has been gutted (hospitals a plenty, but no nurses to staff them!!), a hybrid political system bastardised from the brits designed to maintain our corporate slavery to the crown (do some digging), and a general hatred for anybody who looks or smells different. Remember, tolerance is not acceptance. Tolerance is hatred with a smile.
You can always make a good thing better, sure. But compared to "terrorist nation's?"
PS. I don't mind be subservient to the crown. I think as far as rulers go, the Queen is pretty dammed good. She doesn't even tell us what to do!
Free, as in mainframes?
(Google for heist60.mpeg if above if slashdotted)
So i reserve the right through inter-tasmin rivalry to say...
Typical Aussies
joke its just a joke..
If I were a terrorist I'd mainly be afraid of drop bears. Because at the moment, I'm mainly afraid of drop bears, and I can't really see why that would change.
If, as described, they were actual mainframes, the Customs people's statement that no sensitive info was lost/stolen might not be too far from the truth. In servers & other high end systems, it's not uncommon for the hard drives in the computer to contain only the OS & applications. The data used/created by the applications would be on a RAID attached to the computer. If that was the setup of the systems, the only actual data would system passwords and possibly temp data currently in use at the time of shutdown.
If, however, one or more of the systems was a RAID or some such data storage system, then the Custom's people are (as expected) lying through their teeth. The next question would be whether or not some form of encryption was in use (fs or application level).
yo
:-)
So I guess they're just using their mainframes to advertise penis enlargement pills
No go, that would be business related then
Nope. The biggest security hole is if you have the Goatse.cx guy working for you.
Thats why they took both mainframes...they wanted the backup in case the first one broke...
My usual thought when I hear of stories such as this one is that there are accomplices at the location. There's no way that total outsiders could have pulled out such a theft.
The usual suspects are the cleaning personnel, but I'd also add the security guards. At my workplace and other locations, there have been thefts of electronic hardware during the night by someone who had the keys. Who goes around the offices at night when nobody's there? The guards.
In this case, those who stole the hardware are probably outsiders extensively briefed by insiders about the location of the systems and the security procedures in place.
Sometimes, hardware containing sensitive information is stolen by people who are only interested in the resale value of the hardware and are not aware of the presence of this information. In this case, isn't it preferrable to keep a low profile and refrain from discussing possible breaches of security in the public?
You say you would like to help the US in any bloodbath it cares to create. Then you say you have a 'fair moral sense'.
I don't think so somehow.
'might is right' is as far as your moral sense seems to go.
You see the IBM ad about all of the servers going missing ?
Turns out they replaced them all with a single IBM mainframe.
Maybe this is the reverse, maybe Dell broke in and replaced their mainframe with 1024 workstations - and no one has noticed yet...
Hah hah! That so tipifies Aussie optimism and enthusiasm! :)
Go you big red fire engine!!!
Pinky: "What are we going to do tomorrow night Brain?"
Brain: "I would tell you Pinky but this 120 char limi
Seen any dingos in the area?
They might also be carrying a baby...
"Life's funny sometimes." "And sometimes it isn't." --Cat's Cradle
It's just been replaced by this little linux server over here.
-pyrrho
OK to quote from the article:
After supplying false names and signatures, they were given access to the top-security mainframe room. They knew the room's location and no directions were needed.
Inside, they spent two hours disconnecting two computers, which they put on trolleys and wheeled out of the room, past the security desk, into the lift and out of the building.
Nowhere does it say that two mainframe computers left the building, only that tey got access tothe mainframe room. All the mainframes I ever worked on had their own wheels they were so big.
This is just typical lazy and/or sensational reporting by the original journalist.
Someone should read these before they get posted here. The Story is about lax access for the computer room - not about mainframes being stolen.
the time when I was in college. Me and my friends pooled in and got a telephone connection. Unfortunately (or fortunately), the telephone number was earlier belonged to the helpdesk of a major ISP here. As it was out of use for quite some time we didn't get many calls (related to the ISP) on it. But whenever some customer of the ISP called, we made it a point to ask them for their username and password for their Internet account. BTW, we used the accounts for educational purposes only ;-)
It was in a central room, which had one door and no windows. The door opened to a hallway. From that hallway, you could either go out past the receptionist, past one of the company founder's office, to get out the front door, or you could go the other way, past my office, and the offices of a couple other programmers.
We noticed the machine missing at noon. It had last been used at 11am. Between that time, the receptionist had been on duty, the founder had been at work in his office with the door open, and four programmers had been at work with their doors open, facing the hallway.
There had been the usual bathroom breaks, trips to the printer, and stuff like that, but still...it seems like it would require amazing timing to find an opportunity in there to sneak the thing out...and there was no vantage point outside the building from which one could see that the route would be clear.
...at my former computer science department, a whole room of SUN server equipment was emptied over a long holiday weekend in 1998.
One does wonder who steals servers and where these stolen goods end up later.
------------------
You may like my a cappella music
This reminds me of a story...
I live and work in a certain large Far Eastern city, which has quite a few major financial institutions.
Several of these institutions use Sun hardware.
One of these institutions found that on Monday morning, their production system didn't work.
A bit more investigation found that the CPUs (8, IIRC) had all been removed. Apparently, someone walked in over the weekend and then walked out with several thousand dollars worth of UltraSPARC IIs under his arm.
They made a bit of fuss about this, boosted their security, and bought a bunch of new CPUs.
Then, a couple of months later, they found that their production system wasn't working on a Monday morning...
It is entirely believable, knowing how journalists tend to exaggerate things.
to access your data, I have to know your publicly available ID and I have to have access to the phone in your (unlocked) cubicle.
How well does your company pay their cleaning/janitorial staff? Suppose a coworker went into your cubicle and called IT from your phone -- how would security find out who did it?
I would assume that they would need to see your ID (as well as you) before resetting your password. If that is too burdensome, then have a system in which you contact your manager or HR. One of these can then log in through a secure connection and file a password reset request with your ID to the remote IT support site. The fact that they are logged in (with their password) at least ensures there is a starting point for an audit, and the odds of impersonation are less likely.
When in doubt, have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand.
If I recall, something even worse than this happened about 15 years ago in Nevada. A couple of people posing as computer technicians came in to a casino/hotel in Lake Tahoe with a large canvas covered box and left it right under the nose of security personnel. It turned out to be a large bomb that they had left for ransom. A couple of days later it went off. Though no one was hurt (the casino and half the town had long been evacuated) it still blew the side off the multi story building, destroying it. I'll bet that despite tighter security, you could do this all over again. There's a saying that those who can't learn from mistakes are destined to repeat them. I guess it remains true post 9/11.
Here we have a state of the art server room, with security and all ...
... The server rack isn't even closed.
Guess where our servers are standing now ? Right there in the storage room, no keys on the door
At least they close the front door at night.
Linux hosting for $2.50/mo
url is you friend.
Screw the CPU boxes, they don't have any|much local storage, just a bunch of I/O lines and Engines. The data lives in attached storage (DASD) hardware. Did they take that? Was one box the CPU and the other the DASD?
:/
And why the hell didn't all kinds of monitoring tools go balistic?!? I can't even reboot my own server at work without some support person calling me - "Hey, we noticed that your server rebooted. Do you want us to take a look at it?".
KangarooBox - We make IT simple!
The Ozzies always have to do things that bit bigger, don't they? UK intelligence services has laptops with sensitive information stolen (well, left in a pub after a drinking binge and then stolen), so the Ozzies have to get a mainframe stolen.
...you can get in *anywhere* with them if you frown hard enough
Of all the possible password attacks mentioned in my favourite cryptography book the rubber hose method is my favourite.
The rubber hose method consists of kidnapping someone who knows the password and beating him with a rubber hose till he tells you the password.
Guess this could be called the wheel out method.
Sindri Traustason.
Encrypted root filesystem.
This is your sig. There are thousands more, but this one is yours.
I use this rule-of-thumb mainly to set limits on my own paranoia...
The Web is like Usenet, but
the elephants are untrained.
Also, koalas aren't bears... they're marsupials, females having a pouch in which their young first develop. Their pouch faces the rear and has a drawstring like muscle that the mother can tighten. They are the sole member of the family Phascolarctidae (and yes, it does really bug me when people call them bears).
All generalisations are wrong... including this one.
People in the US are definitely not sheep shaggers, having only 8 million head of sheep in 2000, only approximately 0.03 sheep per person.
People in Australia are huge sheep shaggers, having 120 million head of sheep, approximately 6 sheep per person.
People in South Africa are not sheep shaggers, but could have more sheep-shagging tendencies than people from the United States,, since they have 30 million head of sheep, a reasonably low 0.75 sheep per person.
New Zealanders are definitely sheep shaggers, having 39 million sheep, 10 for every person. This is a highly disturbing number for such a sparsely populated country.
Iraq: Australia sent 3 boats and about 2000 special forces personell
I think it's safe to say that the Australian military know a hell of a lot more about crawling around roasting hot deserts than most too.
Dave
I write a blog now, you should be afraid.
Not at all suprising, coming from the country whose who runs an unencrypted state wide wireless network between town halls, that transmits confidential information.
at least we'll be able to identify the perpetrators on sight: they'll be dragging their gigantic balls behind them as they walk.
pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
You obviously have a lot of faith in IT data security and it's possiblities, but judging from the rest of the article, these servers were probably backed up onto floppy disks, which were then left lying on top of the cabinets.
At a previous employer, one of our customers had their main Netware server stolen during the working day.
Two men dressed as couriers wandered into the reception, said that had a faulty machine to pick up, were let into the machine room, and walked out with the 3000 file server.
It took the network admin over an hour to realise that the server had been taken - they had even logged a fault call with us stating that users were having problems accessing their data.
Considering we (Australia) doesnt actually *have* 2000 SAS personnel, but only around 300 at last count... We deployed deployed 80 ATCers, 16 WMD location personnel, ~75 "security" personnel doing explosives ordinance and VIP protection, 6 guys to train IDF (iraqi defence force) after the war, 3x CPA reps, 3x light armoured vehicles + crew, comms and logistics guys and a bunch of Military cops. Add to this 2x C130 plus crew and support (totalling 140), 1x "military liason" *cough* ASIS *cough*, 3 blokes from Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, ~90 "Army HQ" staff. Also making an appearence were HMAS Sydney + support group, HMAS Kanimbla, HMAS Newcastle and 2x P3 Orion aircraft for a total of 270 Naval personnel and 160 for the orions + support elements. We also sent over a gaggle of F-18's, though I can't find any mention of numbers for these. Last but not least, our SAS deployement. Being SpecForces there isn't much information running around, but best guesses put the number at somewhere between 60 and 130 deployed in total. So, while we had a total of almost 2000 troops in Iraq over the past six months or so, most of them were definately NOT SAS.
Janie took my gun...
This is proof that even without running network services and without a bunch of lusers with accounts on it, a mainframe still isn't secure.
;)
I can't wait to see what IBM's patch for this little security problem is, heh.
--
Send us your Linux Programming articles
Geeky modern art T-shirts
Oh yes, terrorists hate us for what we have! They hate our freedom! Yes, we've done nothing to these people. They just _hate_ us.
Meh, yes, I'm Australian too, and I don't agree. In fact, I think you've been drinking too much koolaid.
Afghanistan: right, what was the reason for that again? What's going on there now? Liberation!
Iraq: ditto. How's that free democratic country going? Oh yes, that place looks liberated. The UN was useless one day, and now they're important enough to ask for help. Ho ho ho. Please help us get out of the shit we created.
East Timor: Yes, after "helping" the Indonesians for 20 odd years, we finally turn around to the poor East Timorese who we personally helped fuck over, and say "Oh, you have some natural resources? How about you give us 10% in return for freedom!"
Indonesia: Oh yes, great trial. More like a non-trial. Judgement was passed before trial. It was just a kangaroo court. Yes, we don't support capital punishment, but if it happens somewhere else, WE'RE SUDDENLY ALL FOR IT! We want BLOOD!
The rest is shit.
Education and health systems are both under attack by the liberals. "Americanisation". Let's make it impossible for people to afford education! That way, we can further the divide between the classes. And let's make those fuckers who can't afford private health pay MORE. Yes, fuck those poor bastards.
Yes, somehow this system gets Howard into office term after term. How?! I don't know a single person who voted for the guy. What the fuck is going on?
Not that it's hard to manipulate the Australian public. Boat people, Ra! Ra! Evil FORGIENERS. Vote for me and I'll... detain them! Terrorists everywhere! Next thing you know, whoa, Reds under your beds!
Hey, how about I call the National Security Hotline and tell them that something "suspecious" is happening at your place? Can I do that? Then we'll see how "fair moral sense" comes into it.
Shit, I want ASIO to come bursting through my doors right now. Please detain me without charge for weeks on end! Please!
One day, you people will wake up and see that you're being fed shit. In a few decades, people won't even know what medicare was, or what an affordable tertiary education is. "We had free public heatlh?"
Answer this: What the fuck are you getting for your 48.5% taxation rate if health and education become non-subsidised?
Do you realise that a law is being passed the prohibits the organisation of protests over the Internet?
Do you realise how police state-ish our society is becoming?
Meh, where on earth can I go without being followed by bad politics, and idiotic masses?
The fact that they outsourced maintenance of such a sensitive system speaks volumes of their incompetence.
If this really was a mainframe, then the thieves essentially just got the CPU and no sensitive data was taken. Unlike a Win32 machine, a mainframe does NOT have any data (beyond configuration information) stored inside the box. All data exists on external DASD or tape devices. Unless the thieves wheeled those out, too, they didn't get anything sensitive.
Buzzing the information Superhighway at Warp speed
Thats what they do with people from Afghanistan and other countries that can't explain where the suticase full of cash is from. People flew 1st class to Indonesia and got on a leaky boat aren't refugees.
Reminds me of that ATM machine that was stolen from Snow Hall on military base, they didnt find it for 2 years until a long dry spell let a pond get real low.
For those that dont know Snow Hall is a tech training center and has 24 hour security and video cameras. The machine was quite large and bolted to the floor and since it was the day before payday it was full also. 250k was in it I believe.
Only bank robbers I know of that got away with it AFAIK.
In Soviet Russia, beowulf clusters of our new Pakistani-Indian-Arabic overlords steal YOU!
It is not what was on the disks. It is what they put on the disks in the two hours they were there.
How big were the hard disks?
What could be accessed from those computers?
300,000 volt step-up transformer that smacks anyone who attempts to unplug the machine without entering the 32 character password while dancing on one foot singing "mary had a little lamb".
I have three in my cupboard and they all have infinite reality engines, SDI graphics interfaces and gigabytes of RAM. Don't know if they still boot, but they make nice big purple play blocks for the kiddies, and at only $8,349 per month for the lease payments (still), they're a steal. :(
soooo sooo reasuring, hee heee, isn't it nice to know customs is being looked after by such competent people, :-D, Good job lads. lol
in my life God comes first.... but Linux is pretty high after that
Francis Smit
East Timor: Liberated the poor little country from the Indonesians and wiped out the resistance. Free elections were held for the first time.
ROFL!!!!!
It takes a special talent to say that after decades of active cooperation with Indonesia and diplomatic support to Indonesia's position. Australia liberated East-Timor the same way Hitler liberated Belgium.
[exec]: "Ned, our servers! Somebody stole our servers!"
[Ned, munching a powdered donut]: "Oh, we installed an IBM zSeries running linux. I sent an email? Gonna save us a bundle."
And of course when security actually tries to do their job and bails you up, you just trump 'em, "ah f*ck it mate, I really don't care, I've been working all f*ckin day and I want to go home, if you don't want to let me do my job thats fine by me, you're just doing your job aren't you? What'd you say your name was? Its just that when the boss asks why this f'ing gig turned to shit I need a name. Its really not a problem, now whats your name and who do you work for?"
Then again thats what I say when I've got 100% authority to be there. Ah security!
They presented themselves to the security desk as technicians sent by Electronic Data Systems, the outsourced customs computer services provider which regularly sends people to work on computers after normal office hours.
Another reason you should be damn careful about how you outsource, who you outsource with, and the security involved. People need to know who they're really dealing with and how to check.
"The Sage treasures Unity and measures all things by it" - Lao Tzu
Manager: "Where is the mainframe?"
..
IT Guy: ".. Uh..."
Manager:
IT Guy: "No wait...."
Both the Manager and the IT Guy peer throught the window to see both of the mainframes duking it out in the parking lot (one with treds attached to the bottom the other with 12 rover wheels attached) with the rest of the IT staff and programmers standing in a large circle around with cash in their hands throwing down bets.
just to blatantly steal a good IT commercial i can't remember who did it...
Who makes you Sig?
Implementing stricter airport security standards - $800,000
After hours security guards - $2,000
2 Mainframes - $2,000,000
Having your machines wheeled out by Islamic terrorists - Priceless
They stole all our servers!
(So why did they make mainframes so small again?)
As more and more companies outsource their IT services, this type of activity will become more frequent. Companies that care about their IT systems should keep trusted people in-house to maintain their data security.
-ted
Where the hell is that "Go you big red fire engine!!" quote from? I knew some dudes that used to say it all the time, weird..
And after all the political speechs, the fanfare, the total information awareness programs, the $ billons spent of defence about how our freedom is being sacrificed in the name of increased security measures to protect us from terrorist attacks.
Yet this sort of this thing goes on when a bit of time spent on the security policy could have stated "No computer equipment should be removed from its place without written authorization from the head of secuirty" or something to that effect.
Its not really that difficult, it just requires a bit common sense.
Ned: No, we moved everything onto that one(points to ibm e-server in back corner). It's going to save us a bundle.
--IBM "Heist" Commercial
Chris Benard
CRICKEY!
Note to Australians, Us yanks know that Steve Erwin does not represent all of the population of Australia. But he's just so cool.
Sig it.
Completely unrelated to the tipping issue, isn't the idea of 16 hours of jet lag contradictory? One it's more than 12 hours, aren't you just getting closer to your "base" time?
Infectress
It was actually quite an engaging story, dealing with bio-terror, AI, the global police state, the middle east, etc..
Rather, stop at the nearest police officer you see; and if you don't see a police officer before you see a bank or a government building with security, go into the building and ask them to call the bomb disposal squad for you. Rip off your shirt to prove it, and say "I'm going out to the parking lot. This isn't a bank robbery, but someone wants it to be; and if I don't get help quick, I'm going to die."
That said, if anyone can identify the neck piece, that would be helpful. I had some ideas, but nothing seemed to pan out in an internet search:
(1) Leg irons or cattle fetters?
(2) Double-flanged locking pipe holder, with spacers?
(3) Something used in logging?
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
Rove from channel 10 said it once and it appeared in a few newspapers...
I had to visit the data center for a major financial center in Jersey City, NJ shortly after WTC. (A lot of the big iron is across the river from Manhattan... for price reasons more than security) Because of the sudden lack of available downtown office space, every available empty space in Jersey City was suddenly rented out.
So... I walked into see my customer. I was surprised a the new security in place. I showed my company badge, signed in, and was lead to a desk under a sign marked "High Value Transactions". Plopped me right down in front of a terminal. I was really confused. The setup was totally different than what I was expecting from previous visits. So I started looking around for people I knew, etc... After about 10 minutes I realized I was in the data center for the WRONG company!
So I got up and left. I have no idea how long I could have stayed there, or what I could have done. I suspect that if I had gotten out a screwdriver, I could have likely started shopping for hardware.
Moral of the story: chaos breeds insecurity, and an "official" plastic badge with your picture on it is shockingly powerful.
... wanted the Customs to lose some important data? For example, if they were to lose all records of a certain recent import ...
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
all they really need are the machines that go PING
-Cnik
Okay... encrypting backups is a Good Thing(tm) but if the backups came from is reasonably high-end, then you still have a problem. Big-iron doesn't sit around at the local Fry's. The lead time required to buy a million dollar server is substantial. And this assumes you have the capital to do so... And what do you say in the mean time? "We're sorry, Customs is closed for 6-8 weeks. Our new server is in the mail".
I'm not bashing your point, the number of people burned by lacking backups is a LOT larger than the number burned by someone walking (rolling) out with a mainframe. Backups are good. Encrypting them is better. But losing hardware, especially hard-to-replace hardware, is pretty stupid.
Ahh yes, but you forget that they can just cut the power to building. Granted that in order to do this they would have to cut the power for 27 city blocks... and of course you will have 5 minutes and 13 secods to get the mainframe out of there before the backup systems come online, but hey it can happen, right?
How about a spell checker for slashdot, or even more impressive, a spell checker for strings in C-Code? Use lint! -DG
You wanna know how it is? I'll tell you how it is. Giant sucking sound, that's how it is. When two servers disappear, it doesn't happen without a sound. Nosir, there's a giant sucking sound. I'll tell you, cause I've got big ears, that it's a conspiracy. Conspiracy, that's what is. When they send people to invade your daughter's wedding, and watch her, why, that's a conspiracy. And when they send three men in, claiming to be EDS, my own company, I built that company from scratch, why that's a conspiracy.
(Ross Perot)
Actually, now that that's done, I have to say, (1) I actually respect the guy on every count, and (2) I strongly suspect that there *was* a conspiracy involving his daughter's wedding and the Bushes; but I don't know. Knowing the rest of the history of the Bushes as it has appeared in the news, though, I don't discount the possibility.
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
If they're talking a real "sure-it-can-run-CICS" mainframe, they must've gotten some help from the security staff to move them...I've never seen any mainframe that weighed less than 300lbs. Even the IBM zSeries is the size of a couple of fridges lashed together.
A server ( 8 CPUs, big database) at a former employer was being accessed from around the world. One of the techs was logged in and noticed that it had "gone away". After 1/2 hour of checking the machine was found on the loading dock about to go onto a truck.
It seems that the machine had originally been leased to do Y2K remediation. It was then redeployed and used as the star attraction in a server upgrade for a production system. The only problem was that the list of Y2K test machines that were to be sent back to the lessor was not updated.
I wonder if these guys just forgot to renew the lease.
Lovely quote from The Register:
An MP was wanting to know why Customs representatives hadn't mentioned this incident when reporting to a Parliamentary inquiry into government IT security. A customs agent said:
That is quite impressive. She seems to be implying that police were hoping that the thieves would think the machines hadn't been missed and therefore the thefts weren't being investigated, and that admitting the thefts to Members of Parliament would let the cat out of the bag that sharp-eyed customs agents had in fact got round to noticing that the machines were gone.Video footage of the aftermath.
The Heist
Techy: "No, we moved everything on to that one. I sent out an email..."
Seriously, that's got to be the best on of all the ads IBM made in that style.
-Well, you know how it goes.
I'll try to have them back tomorrow. Are you open Saturdays?
-FL
I worked in a software development house that was located in the worst area of downtown in a larger town in Washington State that never locked its doors. Since there were employees there around the clock they didn't see the need. Unfortunately, after 11PM all the employees were on the basement floor and the whole upstairs was empty, so anyone could walk in off the street and steal whatever they wanted.
As a joke, me and another guy printed out a stack of sheets that said "STOLEN: LOCK THE DOORS" and posted them on every monitor or loose piece of hardware in the building.
The next morning all hell broke loose and sure enough the front doors were locked that night, though they were left unlocked again the night after and were never locked again AFAIK. Techies don't usually understand physical security very well until $80K of hardware walks out the front door.
No, no, no, you've got it all wrong.
This is what really happened to them.
(That's a link to a 5MB mpeg, please be gentle, mirror and post a link!)
Heist
I am not allowed to change my password! Seriously!
I'm just waiting for _the_ major security incident...
Arabs are bound by the language they speak, rather than their "looks" or race. So, when you talk about physical appearence of Arabs, which arabs are you talking about ? North Africans or people from the middle east ? Palestinian arabs look no different from Israeli jews. But they look quite different from "typical" Indians or Pakistanis.
Interestingly, Arab Americans were apparently told to chose "white" as their race in US census (http://www.allied-media.com/Arab-American/census. html).
Arabic is a semitic language like Hebrew. North Indian languages are closer to German than Arabic, since they belong to Indo-European family of languages. They don't practice the same religion. Culturally too they are very different ... just listen to the music or see their traditional dresses.
If you say Pakistanese and Indians belong to the same ethnic group, there would be a some truth to that.
karma : former act as leading to inevitable results
Never underestimate the ability of a pickup truck to plow right through your firewall.
they switched to Dell.
You will find that a set of scrubs, a lab coat, and the trademark surgery-resident scowl will set you in far better stead (particularly if you're too young to be an attending). Also, if you carry a stethoscope, you'll need a very well-worn stethoscope... nobody but a med student carries a brand new Cardiology II (many attendings, particularly surgeons, don't carry one at all... they just borrow one)
i ke-a-baby look...
Just cultivate the I'm-so-tired-I-could-kill-you-gut-you-and-sleep-l
If you're in resident disguise, avoid the nurses... some of them delight in giving residents a hard time. Ironically, they forget that residents remember those slights when they actually become staff... and some nurses have the gall to wonder why the attending surgeon is such a curmudgeon to the nurses. As the saying goes, paybacks are a bitch).
You will learn all of this in time.
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
When I was in college I worked for the computer lab. One day we set out to upgrade all the PCs. What we had to do first was get the old ones out of the way. We backed an unmarked white van up to the computer lab, opened the doors to the lab, and started taking the machines. It was during a school day. Students and faculty were walking by watching us. Occasionally one would even lend a hand (hold a door open a bit more, pick up a dropped mouse, etc... ) No one questioned us. Not even the student worker running the lab. We had not even made conversation with the worker during the entire time. After we loaded up the 20+ PCs and headed out our boss decided to call the lab and 'warn them against people stealing PCs'. The worker freaked! He said he was there when it was happening but since "they looked like they knew what they were doing so I didn't question them." The boss then let him in on the real story.
The key: just look like you know what you are doing.
"If you are on fire you can just stop, drop, and roll. If you fall into Lava you are just dead." - my 5yr old daughter
Unattended boot
pretty dumb thieves.. next time just copy the content of the hard disks and you can pull the trick over and over, since now the security desk guys know your familiar face
Where I used to work, we had a case where somebody walked in with a delivery person uniform... struggling with a heavy box for "Joe XXX".
He got the security personnel to card the elevator so that he could get up to the floor wher "Joe XXX" worked. In a short while, he came back down... Joe wasn't there to sign so he said he'd left a note, and was bringing the supplies back to the office.
He got one of the security people to help him move the heavy box outside.
What's wrong with this story? Well, it turns out that the box was fairly light when it came in... think about it for a second.
Perhaps the reason no one questioned you is because they got a memo the week before detailing what was going to happen.
I believe the East Timorese liberated themselves. Aussies did cleanup and peacekeeping, but I seriously doubt that your tiny army would dream of taking on Indonesia.
They outsourced maintenance on a computer with top-secret data? That sounds extremely stupid.
While all security problems should be addressed, one should be realistic in assessing the kinds of attacks likely to be faced. While someone could certainly brave our cheap security system to steal our computers in a night time raid, such an action is not worth spending a lot of time worrying about - our data/hardware is just not valuable enough that many would take the risk of being caught.
We, and many other businesses, should continue to focus our security efforts mainly on preventing by-wire attacks from random outsiders, simply because the lack of personal commitment/risk makes these attacks the most likely to be faced.
Let's not stir that bag of worms...
they just consolidated their 2 big mainframes into 1 smller mainframe made by IBM.
Please send all spell and grammar checking to our
esteemed Commander-Less-In-Chief:
The story should be titled: Is It Just I Or: How I
Stole An Election And Became "President"
Cheers,
W00t
There is no spoon. Security is an illusion.
You can never be secure because you can't afford the resources it would require, ever. You need a person to monitor a system physically as well as virtually at all times. And even then there are ways to transmit data that are not obvious. So unless you are God you are not secure.
Just when you think you have a system locked down someone walks it right out your front door with a big smile on their face. Social engineering perhaps is the cause of this insecurity as Kevin Mitnick pointed out in his latest book. Its like trying to hold a dam together as more and more holes sprout open. You run out of fingers, then toes, then what do you do? Do you still believe you can be secure? Ha!
we have a lot of unused SGIs around here too. I wonder what percentage of them are just sitting there unused?
Does anyone have one they use?
First off, if those systems had classified info, were they networked? I would figure they weren't.. So what about the perps intelligence? They walked in, knew exactly where the systems were, knew what they were looking for. Kinda shows someone is on the inside? Do I sense a polygraph coming up?
This is proof that even without running network services and without a bunch of lusers with accounts on it, a mainframe still isn't secure. ;)
;-)
I can't wait to see what IBM's patch for this little security problem is, heh.
--
The patch is simple: We just go back to mainframes that take several rooms of space, weight tons, and are impossible for 2 people to move without taking many many days and knocking out walls. It needs to be big enough to take more than a weekend to remove.
Freedom is merely privilege extended unless enjoyed by one and all.
Dude... Where's my mainframe?!
When I was working for the tech department for my university, one of my many jobs was to go through and perform routine matinence and such. Being a college kid, jeans and a t-shirt was my usual attire, and whenver I was in a sensative area ("important research") someone always made a call down to my boss to verify that I was supposed to be there and wasn't just some stupid kid pulling a prank.
What I always found amusing though, was what would happen on the days when I was required to wear my ROTC uniform to work. Nothing big, just your standard BDUs (cammos) and the cadet rank pins (which are not the same as official rank pins). No matter where I went on those days, I was always allowed in without a hitch or a second glance. People are far too trusting of nice clothes.
T Money
World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
Tell an Australian that a person from any one of these three sub-cultures stole something, they'll instantly believe you.
Thanks for generalizing every Australian as a racist. Oh yes. All Australians are like that. Moron.
Generalize something derrogatory about Australians, and James A. (hype7 (239530)) will instantly believe you. Send your Australian jokes to James A.
Dude, where's my mainframe?
I imagine he'd say, "Crikey! My last name starts with an I, not an E!"
Then he'd problably add, "Crocs rule!"
Virg
"Too Many Servers"
"If I pay everybody the same wage, there's no incentive for the worst waiter to do any better, and there's no incentive for the best waiter to do any better than the average waiter who is making the same wage."
So let's carry this idea all across the working economy (Why not? If it's good for the goose...). Basically your employer pays you a less than living wage. If you do good, and the boss feels like it? You get a tip, for that week. You don't? Then sorry you kissed the wrong part. Wonder how long you'll survive?
North Korea now claims to be a computing superpower.
al-Qaeda or Jemaah Islamiah are the proud new owners of a customs mainframe. Can't imagine what they are planning to get out of that data. Maybe they are just looking for some nice boxen to run their CRM and ERP systems on?
TallGreen CMS hosting
As I RTA, I wondered what good changing a user password would do if the server was already stolen by terrorists...
Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
Hell, let them go swimming the wrong time of year and let the jellies get them. Or let them play with some of your spiders :)
So why not?
We are the 198 proof..
If this is a mainframe, then the data (DASD) is probably elsewhere. I didn't catch anywhere exactly what was taken, but unless one was a Shark or EMC box, there's no data in danger. It's like someone stealing your motherboard.
Thanks,
Aaron
After we got out of the cab (yes, AFTER) I leaned in and gave him exact change. Then I told him that I wasn't tipping him because of what he said to the cyclist.
I wish I could have stuck around to listen to the impressive string of incoherent cussing he yelled at me, but I was busy hustling my wife into the restaurant before she got scared. I just might have tipped him for an impressive performance.
I've found that my posts don't format quite right w/o a sig.
It would be all too easy for one of the girls to suggest that you might have been up to something inappropriate, and there you are with the motive (assuming you're not gay) and the means.
Aha! So, if I am ever accused of rape, sexual assault, or sleeping with some other man's wife, I'll just claim to be gay and flounce away scott free. Time to brush up by watching "Queer Eye" on Bravo!
+1 Insightful! Why didn't *I* think of this?
The REAL jabber has the user id: 13196
What you do today will cost you a day of your life
========
Together, we will drive the rats from the tundra.
Some Islamic terrorists got them and are makeing a a bomb with it.
1,3,7,9, Osama Ben Laden likes fucking little boys in the ass just fine.
Man, that takes real balls.
I've found that my posts don't format quite right w/o a sig.
"Dressed as computer technicians" ... What the fuck does that mean?
If you have to ask, you're probably dressed as one right now.
I have one of these these "mainframes on a card". I asked around the office if anyone had one, and a mainframe developer in Harrisburg wanted to get rid of one for a couple of years. So I drove out and picked it up. It runs OS/2 and has a real S/390 chip on a microchannel card. He had it way tweaked, and now I need to find out how to reload VM on it :( I got the installation media from someone at work, but he said it was for a newer version and would not work on the original P/390 I have.
It is a *totally* different kind of beast, but I really need to learn it.
Does anyone have a version 1 P/390 based on the PC Server 500, not the 330 with installation media? TiA
Intelligent Life on Earth
... Congress did some hearings a few years ago on entire ships that have been lost. One of the congressman had a large photo of an entire ship that is listed in the Navy's inventory but nobody knows where it is.
I've found that my posts don't format quite right w/o a sig.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/5/18265.html
ehintz
Eating out in the US is on average enormously cheaper than in any other first world country. Yeah, sure, there are some expensive restaurants, but in general the menu prices are far lower than in other countries with comparable standard of living, and the prices remain competitive even with the tip factored in.
The whole reason menu prices are so low in this country is because the tipping system works.
Now why does this help, you might ask? After all, don't you always "have" to pay the tip? Well, that's the thing: you don't always have to. For example, most restaurants accept take out orders, and you're not generally obliged to tip for take out orders. I'm not exactly suggesting that everyone rely on take out from now on, but it sure is nice to have the option.
It's like price discrimination, except that the customer gets to choose the price. We should be propping up this system, because it's very advantageous from our point of view to be able to choose our own price.
That has not been my experience. In my experience, I try to tip flight attendants when I order drinks on the plane, and they have always said "thank you" and accepted the tip. Sometimes they show up, drop off the drink and split before I can give them the tip, but I assume that's because they don't expect the tip, not because they don't want it.
It's a fucking joke you idiot.
Let's here it for government security!
Reminds me of Rutger Hauer in the Stallone movie, "Nighthawks" - "Remember, there is no security!"
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Now can someone in the US wheel Bush out of the White House?
BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
Ahhh... you've stumbled on the mystery of "Go you big red fire engine!!"
Go forth and multiply!!
Pinky: "What are we going to do tomorrow night Brain?"
Brain: "I would tell you Pinky but this 120 char limi
A few months ago local newspapers were reporting that an ATM had been physically stolen from C.R. Swart building. Now theft of an ATM, as odd as it sounds, is one thing, but what makes this story particularly bizarre is the fact that C.R. Swart building happens to be the central headquarters of the South African Police Service in Durban, South Africa. The cash machine in question was installed inside the building, not even on the ground floor if I remember correctly, for the benefit of the local police men and women.
Now I'm curious to know who they called when they discovered the theft.
Another thing to look out for is to make sure that hardware marked Out-of-Order has been reported to the help-desk as such. My sophemore year of college, there was an incident in which a few students hid in a lab until security came an locked the door. They then went around and took all of the hardware out of three or four computer cases, leaving the case itself externally intact. Once they were finished, they printed official-looking out-of-order signs and placed them on the computers they had just stripped. The theft wasn't noticed until the faculty repsonsible for the lab called the help desk several days later to ask when the computers would be fixed.
Come test your mettle in the world of Alter Aeon!
...The thieves have a lot of balls, and security has no teeth.
Sounds a lot like 9/11.
-=- Many seek good nights and lose good days.
Look at all the stuff that Tony Pino stole before he got greedy and did the Brinks job. According to his standards, it's no big deal unless you can get at least one unknowing employee to help you carry the stuff out. He often did that. His wife wouldn't let him bring home a piano or a refrigerator without a receipt, so he'd steal those, too, or talk an employee into writing him one.
...is why tipping is so proportional to food prices.
The waiter for an $85 meal rarely does a four times better job than one for a $20 meal, or 8x better than a $10 meal...
...they just didnt get the memo.
Speaking at Defcon 12 - Credit Card Networks Revisted: Pen
After taking the mandatory electrical safety course for IBM field technicians I can tell you that IBM's tech writers already make it sound like that is a standard feature. The amount of time devoted in that course to electrical safety and lockout procedures is around 40 pages. Since the number of PC tech's outnumber techs who work on hardwired mainframes is probably 1,000:1 this fact amused me. And then I realized that I had just lost 2 hours of my life that I would never get back.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
This makes Australia the number 1 RACIST and redneck nation. I hate them. I wish Bush would just nuke em (seriously). I think he would do some crazy stuff if he got pissed with those fucking KKK bastards in australia.
I can't believe why Australians have turned so backwards lately. In the 80's they were kinda cool, with Crocodile dundee and stuff, and I thought they were pretty laid back. But more and more we find out how intolerant, vagraent, and obviously racist this nation is. If there ever was a bunch of racists who got a country, I'd say Australia is it.
I work in a travel agency, and lately we've been telling people to avoid Australia due to these problems. There have been a number of reports of people getting detained at airports (tourists) just cause they were not white or had a weird name. Australia IMHO, is the most fucked up country there ever is now. If Bush wants to liberate anyone, he should be liberating Australia (the land) from the people (the fucking dumbwit racist rednecks).
I agree with the poster who said Australia itself has become the most racist place to live in.
If you look at the United States, all you can say is that they are greedy and after money or oil. And the British just cause they had to follow US.
But, Australia, gets in any conflict that has racial implications against minorities. They have this weird way of getting into conflicts that do not even matter to them and fucking around with people who are not Australian.
Recently, travelworld took Australia off as a friendly destination and put in the same rank as Libyia and Iran. IMHO, this is the right thing to do, not only that, if they keep at it, I think we should go on war against the Australians.
For a while I thought Australia was getting into conflicts due to the little-penis-syndrome, but lately it seems like they are driven to get involved in unrelated conflicts due to their inherent predujices. I really disklike Australians now, One good thing that came out of this is that my New Castle town charges a surcharge on public lodgings if your an Australian and it specifically says sanctons for crimes against humanity (Our mayor is pretty levelheaded). Pretty fitty I say, and the pubs are about to join it too.
"Well Damn! You can't hack them, Joe, you loser! Hey, why don we just swipe th' fucken boxes instead? Shit this hightech dance."
Table-ized A.I.
I'm proud to be an australian!
Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know when your gonna get food poisoning.
here in uruguay we steal cash machines
It was replaced with just one server. ;-)
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