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Verizon Central Office Heist Spoiled By 911 Outage
Qbans writes with a link the NYTimes story on a foiled robbery attempt at a Verizon Central Office in White Plains, New York, snipping "The plan seemed simple enough. The building had been cased and the burglars knew exactly what they wanted - advanced computer circuit panels that could be sold on the black market for hundreds of thousands of dollars." Qbans points out that this story parallels a previous story on how equipment was (successfully) stolen last May. Update: 11/27 22:01 GMT by T : Reader Dave C contributes a link to coverage at the registration-free JournalNews.com.
For any telecommunications equipment used by the government and connected to the public telephone network, I would expect each component to have a network requestable serial number. That would quickly reduce the black market value for such components in a way similar to mobile phones
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Interesting that someone wishes to steal this stuff.
Doubly interesting that theres obviously a market for this equipment.
Is it analgous to the theft of The Scream? Authorities must have a fair idea of the potential recipients from the get go. Be it international or not.
In post Patriot Act America, the library books scan you.
losing service in telephone terms does not mean that they're all calling at once. Probably an estimate based on the effected exchanges.
When 911 is doWn, you just call your local police station - they do have a phone there after all. There was life before 911 - young whipper snapper
I am, and always will be, an idiot. Karma: Coma (mostly effected by
If someone died as a result of not having 911 services, these guys could be in even bigger trouble.
When 911 is doWn, you just call your local police station - they do have a phone there after all.
They may have a phone, but they often won't pick it up. In my city (New York City), very few precincts will answer their phones; they simply don't have the available manpower to answer repititive mundane questions. They will, however, respond to questions asked in person, but most people aren't willing to invest 10 or 15 minutes of their time to go out to the precinct.
Serious emergencies are all dealt with through 911. Non-emergency police matters (blocked driveway, illegally parked car, noise complaint) are routed to the city's 311 call center.
Most residents don't even know what precinct they live in (and there are close to 150 throughout the city), and it's impossible to know what precincts cover what areas. If, for instance, you're driving in an area that you're unfamiliar with, and you have an emergency, figuring out the proper precinct can be a delay of numerous minutes.
Your small-town centric post is disturbing: in a large city, the 911 system is extremely important.
An effective signature identifies a particular user amongst a base of thousands.
Most computer items of any price are for sale on ebay (even very expensive network switches and routers). What kind of cards were these and the one in NYC? I assume they are re-selling to other telcos. Wonder why you never see them on ebay.
Verizon != Verizon Wireless, if equipment is stolen from the White Plains Verizon office, it will have nothing to do with cell phone service.
About 10 years ago I got a tour of the Tellus facility in Alberta, at that time Alberta Government Telephone. My uncle was one of the senior telcom engineers there so he arranged the whole thing. Security was fairly impressive going through the front, getting checked in and our visitor badges and everything. However, as we were walking around, he opened a door to the alley and noted often people would prop it open so they could duck out and back in.
This i, unfortunately, often the case. Security is well intentioned, but isn't completely thought through and has holes in it. Also, you'd be amazed what social engineering and some confidence can get you. If you act like you are supposed to be somewhere, it's amazing how peopel will just assume you are.
A couple years ago I was working for network operations on campus and we were upgrading the speed of building links, which involved a swap of the media converters. Most buildings we just go and get access to the room with our keys, since it's a dedicated room. However for the campus police, it's back in the 911 room with the other equipment. So when we went the staff member (I was a student) had his telcom ID and we both had university ID and driver licenses. The manager was by the phone if a verification call was needed.
We walked into the lobby, and it looked to be quite a secure location. All the doors were locked, all the glass was bulletproof. We went over to the window for the 911 call centre and told them we were form telecom and needed to get at the network gear. They said "ok" and let us in, took us to the closet, let us in there, and left us alone with all the 911 gear (and our switch). No ID was checked.
Think of it as the difference between arson on an abandoned warehouse catching the security guard, or the homeless man, versus leaving the stove on by accident. One is an accident, one is a crime. I hope a crime that causes additional harm means more severe charges.
I am, and always will be, an idiot. Karma: Coma (mostly effected by
I'd be willing to bet they were stealing line cards from CLEC coloc chassis, which would totally kill the phone/DSL service from the CLEC's clients. Instead of saynig "25,000 people lost phone service" I'm guessing they said "25,000 people lost access to 911, which meant they could have DIED!"
.bombs, the market is fairly flooded with carrier gear. Unless it's zero day goods, the value on this crap drops like a rock.
Too bad there aren't more tech details.
And I guess the people from NYT haven't tried to sell this type of equipment. Given the gluttony of
PS: Portmaster 4 for sale, contact me off list.
Southeastern Virginia REPRESENT!
Their disregard for others is only matched by political buffoons who disarm law abiding citizens and expect them to survive criminal incidents long enough to call 911 and wait for cops to get off their donut laden fat asses to come do their public servant pay grade jobs.
What is so surprising about this incident is that cops actually showed up in time to catch the perpetrators. I guess that multi-thousand dollar circuit boards are more important than human lives to the cops as well.
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves