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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."
I used to work in datacenters throughout Silicon Valley and let me tell you that unless they have hired some kick ass security guards than shit gets stolen all the time. Usually small stuff like PDAs, or the like. Once I heard of an entire rack being stolen when it was left outside, thank god they were empty. Security for these places should be like fortx knox, and the second the card was removed there should be of been a notification to the current on-site physical security detail. These systems will not work unless interopabrable measures are taken to make sure everyones eyes are wide open.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
thefts at locales like this are often done by people with at least some inside knowledge of the site's security.
I have shopped around for a data center more than once. The people who take you on the tours are so eager for your business (at least nowdays) that they show you just about everything. One company even took me into a place where pretty much all the connectivity in Seattle passes through (a level 3 node or something, I can't recall the name.) This place was secured by two locked doors with no guards and street level access. I have seen plenty more 'security' that would be pretty easy to bypass. If you were a terrorist, it would be pretty damn easy to destroy many of these places.
It all comes down to physical security in the end. You can have the most secure network, but usually anyone with physical access to the equipment can attack it in several ways. They can obviously steal it, or steal parts of it. Hot swap hard drives are great except when someone can run up to a server in an unsecured server closet and in a few seconds have all of a company's data in their hands. Obviously most hardware vendors also put password "backdoors" (think default Cisco configs) that allow you to override any passwords, or recover passwords from a serial port.
Most people spend way too much time on thinking of attacks from the Internet or employees, but usually don't look at someone who wants to sabotage the equipment. Computer rooms usually contain all of the proprietary data in a company, and most companies don't put that much effort into patrolling computer rooms for people who shouldn't be there. Executives should make sure that physical security is part of the I.T. plan from the beginning and not an afterthought.
I'm assuming in this case it was in a Verizon C.O. which are usually somewhat secure, but something like this could happen anywhere, computer sabotage I think will become more and more common in the future as businesses rely more and more on them.
being investigated by New York City Police and members of the joint terrorism task force
That's just great. Not that I don't hope they find the crooks to walked off with this stuff - but once the word "terrorism" pops up, all of the sudden I'm thinking Patriot Act.
These thieves might have gotten themselves some kick butt network hardware - but I bet they won't get themselves due process
Ryan Kennedy opposes comm
I'm reminded of an old saying. "If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys." It used to apply to low paying jobs, but it seems to be spreading to any job where you're treated worse than the equipment (i.e. any non-management job). It's more like "you treat people like monkeys, they act like animals."
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I'd rather be flamed than ignored.
See, that's why New Yorkers don't have cars.
Ahh.. I wonder if they will actually look on the other machines in the data center to make sure the theft wasn't just a cover for loading services/keyloggers/etc on the boxes through the data center... sort of a distraction with the fringe benefit of some sellable hardware.
meh
Dude...we're not talking about "network cards" in a PC. These are DS3 WICs, probably in 7206VXRs or the like. Not only is there no unscrewing of a case (other than the two thumbscrews at either side), but they're fine to yank while powered up.
What's amazing (and it may not be the case, as we don't know all of the details, I'm sure) is that a simple correlation of the start time of the network down event and the sign-in log and security cameras (if any) hasn't been done to ID who did it. These facilities aren't particularly heavily trafficed by people on Sunday evenings, and they usually aren't all that big.
Do not fold, spindle or mutilate.
It's all about acting like you're supposed to be doing what you're doing. Act like you own the place, and nobody will say a thing to you.