Masked thieves storm into Chicago colocation (again!)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/02/chicaco_datacenter_breaches/
By Dan Goodin
The Register
2nd November 2007
The recent armed robbery of a Chicago-based co-location facility has
customers hopping mad after learning it was at least the fourth forced
intrusion in two years. They want to know how C I Host [1], an operator
that vaunts the security of its data centers, could allow the same one
to be penetrated so many times.
"I can't believe a datacenter has been broken into that many times,"
said Nick Krapf, president of Bloodservers.com [2], a startup game
hosting provider, who said $15,000 worth of Dell servers were stolen in
the October 2 heist. "What do you got to do to secure your facility for
it not to happen? We're pulling all our equipment from all their other
facilities."
In recent years, many IT administrators have found religion about
installing security patches and deploying other measures such as
intrusion prevention systems to keep criminals from accessing their
systems and the data stored on them. The series of break-ins at C I Host
is a reminder that safeguards must also extend to more mundane
protections, including dead-bolt locks and steel cages.
CI Host likes to vaunt the security of its Chicago-based colocation
facility [3], noting that safeguards include multiple layers of 24x7
security cameras, proximity card readers, biometric access controls and
key pads, double-locking mantraps at data center entrance and 360-degree
perimeter and roof surveillance. And yet, the same location has been the
target of at least four burglaries or robberies since August 2005,
according to police reports and former customers, some of whom say they
lost sensitive data and hundreds of thousands of dollars in hardware.