Slashdot Mirror
Datacenter Robbed for the Fourth Time in Two Years
mariushm writes "According to the Register, the Chicago-based colocation datacenter C I Host was attacked by armed intruders recently, making it the the fourth time in two years that armed thugs have made off with data. According to a letter C I Host officials sent customers, 'At least two masked intruders entered the suite after cutting into the reinforced walls with a power saw ... During the robbery, C I Host's night manager was repeatedly tazered and struck with a blunt instrument. After violently attacking the manager, the intruders stole equipment belonging to C I Host and its customers.' Aggravating the situation, C I Host representatives took several days to admit the most recent breach, according to several customers who said they lost equipment, all the while reporting the problems as 'router failures'."
While people will have a field day making fun of C I Host for this, I'd say it really wasn't the company's fault. Frankly, it's a corporate datacentre, not an armed installation. Their service extends to protecting your data against router problems, power outages, hacking attempts... Not armed incursion. That's not a web-host's job.
Though I'd agree it's definitely a poor representation of C I Host that they kept their customers in the dark about the attack. The frequency is odd, too... Do they have any particularly important customers who are being particularly targeted, or is the incidence of burglaries just bad luck?
Is it easier to believe that the data center was actually robbed, or that federal agents showed up for a "Patriot Act" search and left behind physical evidence to allay suspicions?
It would explain why no prosecutions occurred after the first 3 raids.
> So can anyone here be bothered to explain to the ignorant what a datacenter is?
Not really, no. Not anymore than we can explain what a router or a switch or a 1U rack box is. Seriously, I take slashdot to task for not expanding acronyms or insider terms sometimes, but if you don't know what a datacenter is, you're probably nowhere near interested in this entire field.
Done with slashdot, done with nerds, getting a life.
Chicago has a total gun ban. There are no guns there, therefore there are no armed robberies. I'm sure the datacenter manager was thankful to the Brady Campaign and the Chicago political machine that he wasn't armed as he was being tasered and beaten.
At least no one got shot!
Seriously... if they tried a robbery like that in Texas, they wouldn't do it more than one time.