San Fran Hunts For Mystery Device On City Network

alphadogg writes "With costs related to a rogue network administrator's hijacking of the city's network now estimated at $1 million, city officials say they are searching for a mysterious networking device hidden somewhere on the network. The device, referred to as a 'terminal server' in court documents, appears to be a router that was installed to provide remote access to the city's Fiber WAN network, which connects municipal computer and telecommunication systems throughout the city. City officials haven't been able to log in to the device, however, because they do not have the username and password. In fact, the city's Department of Telecommunications and Information Services isn't even certain where the device is located, court filings state."

Comments

Simple:

[SilentBob0727]

Power cycle it with a city-wide EMP.

Re:Simple:

[bratwiz]

All they have to do is look for the small black box with a lone, onerous blinking red LED.

Don't forget the obligatory RED and BLUE wires. Every small black box with lone onerous blinking red LED MUST have red and blue wires. Its a rule.

Re:Simple:

[elrous0]

As someone who watches a lot of movies, I think I can help them find it. I suggest you look for the ominous looking computer with a single red eye. You'll know you're close when it activates some devious self-defense system (probably involving poisonous gas). Pay careful attention to the background music, as it will provide valuable cues on when to run.

Re:Simple:

[mcgrew]

It could be both onerous and ominous.

Re:Simple:

[Provocateur]

No, cool would be having the phone ring and the voice on the other end turns out to be Dennis Hopper:

Pop quiz, hotshot: your network's all screwed up! What do you do? What do you do?

Re:Simple:

[Windows_NT]

Ive heard stories that relate to this. And its not that someone outside hooked this piece of equipment up, its something they have forgot about.
I read about a server that was in a room, and the room had some modifications done to it, and they ended up drywalling the server inside the wall (i dont know know how they did it). It ended up being like 5 years later they had no idea where this PDC signal was coming from and they had to physically follow the network cable to the computer and found it.
I found the story, kind of:
Server 54

Re:Simple:

[TheoMurpse]

I'm sorry, San Francisco, I'm afraid I can't let you do that.

Re:Simple:

[MPAB]

And because of Murphy's law the drywalled server never overheats or has downtime, unlike its well-cared-for counterparts.

Re:Simple:

[rah1420]

they ended up drywalling the server inside the wall

For the love of God, Montressor!

Re:Simple:

[Lord Apathy]

Because I'm a fucking dumbass and didn't think about it....

Re:Simple:

[clone53421]

With a username like "Lord Apathy", I'm guessing he isn't being paid enough to care that much.

Re:Simple:

[interstellar_donkey]

Modern rouge networked devices don't have red and blue wires. They vibrate. Usually it's someone's electric razor connected to the network, but ever once in a while, it's a dildo with an IP address.

Re:MAC search

[Yvan256]

I'd think that a red device would be easy to spot in a server room.

The scene when they find the server

[UnknowingFool]

I'm sure the scene will be like this:

As Indy deciphered the symbols, he found the correct sequence of tiles to push. The huge stone door slowly opened. Indy grabbed a torch and headed inside. At the end of the long room, there it was on the throne: A massive server. It was archaic, and it appeared to be attached to a punch card reader. Along the sides of the room, there were two rows statutes of archers pointed at the center. Indy made his way slowly to the monitor and keyboard of the server. He brushed away the dust and hit the spacebar. The screen turned on slowly and it displayed:

SCO Server 1.0

Your license has expired. You owe use $699.
>_

Suddenly the archers rotated positions and were aimed at Indy.

"Oh boy."

Sparcstation In The Wall

[gentimjs]

I recall hearing a story about a Sun Sparcstation 2 at my old college that had accidentilly got sealed inside a wall by construction folks when re-working the building the CS lab was in to eliminate a few closets for structural support reasons.. nobody could find it (shock!), but kept using it as a DNS server for another six years. It was found about 2 years after it stopped responding to ping when some component (nvram?) let out, and it started beeping after a power flicker.

Re:to quote bash.org...

[alnya]

He placed a rouge device (his personal property) on the SF network

My guess is it'll be next to his guyliner

Re:Malice and stupidity.

[erroneus]

You mean like the VP of the United States? That has been done before.

Road trip

[Oriumpor]

There are now dozens of cars packed full of cheetos cheap laptops and foul smelling individuals travelling near, or perhaps at the speed limit, towards san francisco. They're full of people thinking the same thing, "Shit if they can't find a wired device, they sure as hell can't find a wireless one!"

Re:Onerous

[Helix666]

it's a very big LED.

Re:Malice and stupidity.

[Misch]

Why can't he be a bad guy AND be surrounded by morons-- you know, the old "bad guy surrounded by morons" routine...???

Dark Helmet: Who is he?
Colonel Sandurz: He's an asshole sir.
Dark Helmet: I know that! What's his name?
Colonel Sandurz: That is his name sir. Asshole, Major Asshole!
Dark Helmet: And his cousin?
Colonel Sandurz: He's an asshole too sir. Gunner's mate First Class Philip Asshole!
Dark Helmet: How many asholes do we have on this ship, anyway?
[Entire bridge crew stands up and raises a hand]
Entire Bridge Crew: Yo!
Dark Helmet: I knew it. I'm surrounded by assholes!
[Dark Helmet pulls his face shield down]
Dark Helmet: Keep firing, assholes!

Reminds me of a high school prank

[aclarke]

I went to a boarding school in Kenya for high school. The system of bells ran across the campus of several hundred acres and many buildings in a closed loop, with all the bells in series. The system ran through the main office, with the Super Secure Bell System locked in a cabinet there so nobody could access it. Penalty for messing with the system of bells was said to be expulsion.

The problem was, that all you had to do to get all the bells on campus to ring was to wire the loop back into the mains.

We took a clock from the darkroom in the photo lab, and ran two wires through the face plate. We then ran another strip of wire along the minute hand, so whenever the minute hand swept by a certain point on the clock every hour, it would complete the circuit for about 30 seconds and ring every bell on campus.

We then hid this contraption under a pile of wood in the attic of the wood shop. Right after convocation when I could no longer be expelled, I ran into the building and turned it on.

Apparently the bells rang off and on mysteriously for most of the next month of holiday until they managed to follow the loop and find the device. Good times.

Re:Mod Parent Up

[moderatorrater]

Their clients, for reasons best left undisclosed, could not upgrade...Start with being 60-1600 meters below the ocean surface...

Good job, tightlips ;)