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Sprint Routers Stolen; NYC Internet Outage Ensues
cbnet2004 writes "This story on eWEEK reports that late Sunday night a number of Sprint's DS-3 network cards were stolen from a Verizon colocation center at 38th St in Manhattan. Some customers apparently have service back but a number remain down -- it could be a while. The latest rumor on this situation is that some fiber optic cables were cut as well; this could put the affected customers out for days more."
Sure, I could have brought in a stick and poked at lots of other customer's gear, thru the chainlink cubicles, but I mean, I was signed in and on camera.
Check the log - when did the affected net go down and who was there at the time?
It has got to be a short list of visitors and guards or somebody is really stoopid.
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
Verizon has more unmanned facilities (at least at night) than you can shake a stick at. As a nocster for a regional ISP, I can tell you - when a circuit goes down at night, if the testing and troubleshooting w/ Vz requires access to a CO, fugetaboutit till daytime - you can escalate to hell and back, but ain't nothing happening (for emergencies, their on-call techs typically don't respond to pages). Compounding the problem, most of our other circuit providers have to use Vz for the last mile 'tail' circuit.
04/29/04 Washington Post
Patriot Act Suppresses News Of Challenge to Patriot Act
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
The American Civil Liberties Union disclosed yesterday that it filed a lawsuit three weeks ago challenging the FBI's methods of obtaining many business records, but the group was barred from revealing even the existence of the case until now. The lawsuit was filed April 6 in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, but the case was kept under seal to avoid violating secrecy rules contained in the USA Patriot Act, the ACLU said. The group was allowed to release a redacted version of the lawsuit after weeks of negotiations with the government.
"It is remarkable that a gag provision in the Patriot Act kept the public in the dark about the mere fact that a constitutional challenge had been filed in court," Ann Beeson, the ACLU's associate legal director, said in a statement. "President Bush can talk about extending the life of the Patriot Act, but the ACLU is still gagged from discussing details of our challenge to it."
A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment on the case.
The ACLU alleges that a section of the act is unconstitutional because it allows the FBI to request financial records and other documents from businesses without a warrant or judicial approval. The group also says such requests, known as "national security letters," are being used much more broadly than they were before the Patriot Act. The bureau has issued scores of the letters since late 2001 that require businesses to turn over electronic records about finances, telephone calls, e-mail and other personal information, according to previously released documents. The letters, a type of administrative subpoena, may be issued independently by FBI field offices and are not subject to judicial review unless a case comes to court.
The ACLU's complaint focuses on the use of national security letters to obtain information held by "electronic communication service providers." The group says the letters could force Internet providers to turn over names, screen names, e-mail addresses and other customer information without proper notice to the people involved. The lawsuit names as defendants Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III and FBI Senior Counsel Marion E. "Spike" Bowman. A second plaintiff has joined the ACLU in filing the lawsuit, but that plaintiff's identity has been redacted from the public copy of the complaint.