Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

FBI Defend Raids On Texas Datacenter

Posted by timothy on from the we're-from-the-govt-and-we're-here-to-help dept.

Aryden writes "Wired Reports: 'The FBI on Tuesday defended its raids on at least two data centers in Texas, in which agents carted out equipment and disrupted service to hundreds of businesses. The raids were part of an investigation prompted by complaints from AT&T and Verizon about unpaid bills allegedly owed by some data center customers, according to court records. One data center owner charges that the telecoms are using the FBI to collect debts that should be resolved in civil court. But on Tuesday, an FBI spokesman disputed that charge.'"

7 of 115 comments (clear)

  1. April 7, 2009 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    I know Slashdot is sometimes slow to report on news, but come on...

    1. Re:April 7, 2009 by noidentity · · Score: 5, Funny

      They're not slow at all; April 7, 2009 was a Tuesday. Tuesday is two days from now. Therefore, Slashdot is reporting the news two days before it even happens. Far from being slow, they're faster than everyone else!

    2. Re:April 7, 2009 by LingNoi · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's because the main slashdot servers are just recovering from an FBI raid.

  2. Re:They have data centres in Texas? by VortexCortex · · Score: 5, Funny

    I guess that's what they call it when somebody brings the state library's book back.

    Hey, I live in Texas. I know for a fact we have more than just one library book. (I would give you an exact figure, but our math teachers aren't allowed to teach us numbers that big!)

    If I had to guess I'd say more than 665...

  3. Not news, and not a simple debt collection, either by mr_mischief · · Score: 5, Informative

    This was not recent. This was not a debt collection, either.

    The guy's stuff wasn't grabbed by the FBI because he didn't pay his bills.

    The guy's stuff was grabbed because he never intended to pay his bills himself, and he committed fraud in order to get the colocation space and bandwidth in the first place.

    The guy got credit references from people who didn't exist. He forged receipts from other telecom companies. He altered documents to show he'd paid bills that other people had paid. He used a maze of twisty little business names, all different.

    He did all of that to secure credit from these folks to allow him to start service with them without a hefty deposit. Then he ditched the bills like they would have expected he might had he not forged the credit-worthiness paperwork.

    Fraud is not simple insolvency. It is a felony.

    There was every reason for this to be investigated and prosecuted as a criminal offense.

    There was also every reason for it to be newsworthy last year when it was news.

  4. Re:They have data centres in Texas? by MichaelSmith · · Score: 5, Funny

    I guess that's what they call it when somebody brings the state library's book back.

    If I had to guess I'd say more than 665...

    Why else would they need a book depository?

    --
    http://michaelsmith.id.au
  5. Re:Here's follow up from a few months ago.. by ogl_codemonkey · · Score: 5, Informative

    Found a clean copy of the text; have restored the embedded links here:

    Hello, this is CygonX. Our Hosting Data Center has suffered a major disaster: Namely the FBI storming the Data Center and the company's owner's home (that's me). The FBI took an entire data center, hundreds of servers, routers, switches, UPS system, cabinets, monitors, printers, and even power strips...as evidence.

    You would expect this kind of totalitarian storm-trooper activity in the name of the war on drugs, the war on terror, or etc. But the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation actually did NO investigation in this particular case. They took the statements of an ex-employees of the company, which was fired for drug use.

    What were they looking for? Well that’s a tricky question, and I am not even sure they know, but the short answer is $6.1 Million Dollars. Hang in there, the story gets more interesting.

    As many of you may know I have played the role of Administrator for the UWWWB forum, AKA CygonX for many years. Truthfully, CygonX was a lot like Santa Claus, and has actually been played by many people over the years in order to manage the site, but I am the original and current owner. My real name is Mike Faulkner, and I have hosted the Network Security forum and community at this domain name since sometime in early 2002.
    I was the CEO of a small tech company when I took over the site, and I hosted it off my own network on a pair of T1s. That company went under, taking most of my money with it, and UWWWB was actually hosted off a cable modem for a period of time from an equipment rack in my home. This is my forum and community that I have nourished for years.

    Over the years, I have bought, sold, and built a large number of small tech companies. I worked my way up, with 100 hour work weeks, and by taking almost no money out personally for many years. For the past few years I have been a very active venture capitalist. Investing in various small technology businesses, and using them to support each other. My VoIP Companies used my Hosting Companies, which leased space in my Data Centers, and etc. This was the Crydon Capital Corporations family of companies.
    Crydon Technology, was the data center and hosting company that the FBI raided in Dallas March 12th, 2009. UWWWB was tucked away on a tiny server in the data center for years, and we never even got a single complaint from RIAA, or MPPA, or anyone. This is not just about UWWWB, although the FBI certainly is holding it against me for running a security site.

    Here's what happened: March 12th, 2009, at about 5:AM in the morning, my home alarm system went off. I get up to see what’s going on, on maybe 3 hours of sleep, and my wife points out there are two people with flash lights in my back yard. Now, this may not be unusual for everyone, but I lived in a fairly nice home in Southlake Texas, the United States highest per-capita income city for 2008. A very nice community, virtually no crime, and excellent schools. That is to say, I did not live in a shack in the hood, this is nice suburbs, and not where the FBI usually does raids.
    So I run out the back door of my home, thinking I was about to confront some crackheads trying to steal the copper off my AC unit or something. And although I couldn’t quite see them yet I heard the very authoritative voice of what appeared to be law enforcement officers, with the radio noise to go with them. They proceeded with the expected dialogue, "stop", "show me your hands", "hands in the air" etc. They didn't shoot me, and sadly that really was the highlight of my day. I assumed my alarm had triggered by itself and the cops had been called, as we had problems with the alarm system before. They handcuffed me, while I was telling them I was the home owner. No big deal, they’ll figure it out in a second, right?
    It wasn't a false alarm on my home security system, the FBI had cut my phone lines.

    When they brought me around to the front of my house, there was a very