Data centre looted in multimillion pound overnight heist
Anonymous Coward
Convincing police officers #
Posted Friday 7th December 2007 14:54 GMT
I assume that the robbers also tasered everyone and maybe executed a few people with multiple shots to the head - to make their impersonation of police officers more convincingly realistic.
oliver Stieber
ban the police #
Posted Friday 7th December 2007 15:10 GMT

If we didn't have any police then this kind of incident wouldn't happen in the first place.
And if you do ever meet a real police office ask them for ID, it keeps them baffled until you can make a clean get away
neil
Empty data centre #
Posted Friday 7th December 2007 15:12 GMT

Is a data centre with no data in it just a fancy name for a spares cupboard ?
Dam
BOFH \o/ #
Posted Friday 7th December 2007 15:12 GMT
Nick Miles
Nah... #
Posted Friday 7th December 2007 15:12 GMT

Are we sure they were dressed as coppers and not as strippers?
Rob
RE: Convincing police officers #
Posted Friday 7th December 2007 15:12 GMT

You mean rather than trying to convince them by wondering around doing naff all and employing others to the job for them but with different job titles.
Which is just as well otherwise no kit would have been nicked and you wouldn't have a cool heist story :)
andy rock
mustn't have know too much about IT then... #
Posted Friday 7th December 2007 15:27 GMT

...otherwise they'd have gone straight for the SAN-looking thing; the data's worth a hell of a lot more, albeit a shitload harder to shift.
still, i'm sure they'll have plenty of time to reflect upon their 'error' while sipping pinacoladas on some far away beach.
Anonymous Coward
Is it just me #
Posted Friday 7th December 2007 15:27 GMT
But isn't going to the trouble of dressing up as police officers, to break into a data center of an investment bank a little risky just to steal stuff they could have got from many other less protected data centers across the UK A little hard to swallow.
Anonymous Coward
FOR SALE: #
Posted Friday 7th December 2007 15:31 GMT

Assorted servers and sundry items, slightly 'used'.
TrixyB
This all sounds a little familiar... #
Posted Friday 7th December 2007 15:31 GMT

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/02/chicaco_datacenter_breaches/
Does anyone think so?
simon
irony #
Posted Friday 7th December 2007 16:15 GMT

has anyone noticed the ad running on this page... ' my data is safe, is yours' ' my network is safe, is yours' - well it made me laugh...
coat acquired... door pending
Anonymous Coward
Did they have a quick poke about.... #
Posted Friday 7th December 2007 17:15 GMT
....for a couple of cd's?
Anonymous Coward
Mafia PHB #
Posted Friday 7th December 2007 18:52 GMT

It's the usual story; rather than steal the right kit the first time around, the boss went for the cheap stuff. I told him it would need replacing in a year's time....
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/01/level3_robbery/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/20/easynet_brick_lane_robbery/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/23/vodafone_network_outage/
Anonymous Coward
I actually... #
Posted Saturday 8th December 2007 00:50 GMT
...work in tech support for a company (not JP Morgan) who has several racks hosted at UK5 and this is the first I've heard of it. Fortunately none of our servers have vanished, but there was a cooling system failure (not the first time it's happened either) on Sunday which led to most of our servers getting powered off. Lots of knackered disks and unhappy customers to deal with; just what you need first thing on a Monday.
An ominous cow herd
So that's why... #
Posted Saturday 8th December 2007 10:11 GMT
...we lost connectivity to Euronext Liffe Financials.... no wonder nobody knew what was going on!
john doe
no data was taken? #
Posted Saturday 8th December 2007 14:41 GMT
yeah, right. Did they scrub the data before removing the hardware?
Michael
It's insured no doubt #
Posted Saturday 8th December 2007 21:31 GMT

£2million pounds worth of stuff?
So, the thieves will be wondering where the other million pounds worth of stuff they're supposed to have taken is.
Simon Neill
They didn't take any data? #
Posted Saturday 8th December 2007 21:31 GMT
What, they take the server, ditch the hard drives?
Perhaps all they took was switches and network cables.
oh, I know! they came in with a wireless AP and stole £2m worth of bandwidth!
coat, door, pub, pint.
Steve Keller
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Theft--Same MO #
Posted Sunday 9th December 2007 09:36 GMT
In March of 1990 the largest art heist in US history occurred in Boston at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum when two men dressed in Boston police uniforms came to the door and asked to be let in to deal with college students running through the interior courtyard. This was a common event since the museum was located across the street from a college, but this time it was not true. Once inside the fake cops tied up the two guards, robbed the museum, took the CCTV system tapes of the event, and left. The case remains unsolved. Museum employees everywhere now know to verify the identity of police before letting them in by call the police dispatcher unless they called for them personally for a known issue. Physical security should be part of every data center employee's training and this should include access control procedures.
Steve Keller
Museum Security Consultant
www.stevekeller.com
Slaine
furthermore... #
Posted Monday 10th December 2007 10:08 GMT

... All data centre employees work behind secure bullet-proof counters and should be aware of the fact that it is not possible for police to enter a data centre without a valid search warrant. Did no-one at the data centre question this breach of their own security? Their first action should have been to hit the alarm bells and would thus call the REAL police who, presumably would then drop their donuts and be there within the week.
Such professionalism, such dedication to duty, such is my coat, my hat.