F.B.I. Seizes Web Servers, Knocking Sites Offline

[Newsjock]

Source: New York Times

The F.B.I. seized Web servers in a raid on a data center early Tuesday, causing several Web sites, including those run by the New York publisher Curbed Network, to go offline.

The raid happened at 1:15 a.m. at a hosting facility in Reston, Va., used by DigitalOne, which is based in Switzerland, the company said. The F.B.I. did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the raid.

In an e-mail to one of its clients on Tuesday afternoon, a DigitalOne employee, Sergej Ostroumow, said: “This problem is caused by the F.B.I., not our company. In the night F.B.I. has taken 3 enclosures with equipment plugged into them, possibly including your server — we can not check it.”

Mr. Ostroumow said that the F.B.I. was only interested in one of the company’s clients but had taken servers used by “tens of clients.” He wrote: “After F.B.I.’s unprofessional ‘work’ we can not restart our own servers, that’s why our website is offline and support doesn’t work.” The company’s staff had been working to solve the problem for the previous 15 hours, he said.

Read more: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/21/f-b-i-seizes-web-servers-knocking-sites-offline/?hp

[Warpy]

1. They busted a kid overseas as the "ringleader" of LULZsec

I guess they've gotten the ruling class's attention now.

I imagine these two things are connected somehow.

[Drale]

2. I don't understand why more businesses don't have their own servers

and rely of outside sources to host their sites.

[geckosfeet]

3. They would actually have to hire someone to maintain them silly.

It is so much less costly to outsource the storage of all that critical data and customer credit information.

[Drale]

4. That is true but

I've stopped using several companies because their websites where never up or never worked correctly.

[TroglodyteScholar]

5. Bingo

All of my company's file servers are handled by IBM, and they do an absolutely piss-poor job. But my company doesn't have to worry about filling IT jobs, so it's all good, huh.

[InkAddict]

7. Not quite, we're IT types that are now out of work as IBM , et al

off-shored/outsourced the thorny details of making YOUR technology work efficiently.

[TroglodyteScholar]

11. I'm not sure what you thought I was saying.

Let me clarify: our technology does NOT work efficiently, and IBM is at the dead center of that.

Edit: Perhaps you didn't catch the sarcasm in my "all good" statement?

[InkAddict]

16. Yup, didn't get it - so, sorry...I'm sort of sensitive as I'm only a few weeks

laid off - local company outsourced to CT workers because company direction changed, hah! - even with our antiquated equipment, we did a better job than the "service" and the service's HELP wasn't so much, being vexingly slow at fixing problems - go figure, maybe some of us were just impatient for the quality that technology was supposed to provide; them, not so much - so I understand your dilema and sarcasm somewhat.

[L. Coyote]

17. Yeah, $12 a month vs. a techie that cost $1200 a week.

[Xithras]

6. Because doing it right costs money.

And nobody wants to spend the money on an army of geeks to maintain a datacenter anymore.

[boppers]

8. Oh, that money's still being spent.

It's just scaled up to a much greater degree. One of my geek friends just does datacenter power systems, and he's been booked for years.

Same thing with my friends who specialize in routers, switches, etc... the thing is, is you have to really know what you're doing. An A+ or MCSE just doesn't cut it.

[InkAddict]

9. See #7

The EMR will soon eliminate even more American jobs; virtual back offices and datacenters in foreign nations w/YOUR intimate health information. Here's one popular certified EMR/EHR software provider: Can you say GE?

[boppers]

13. Because servers are a waste of money and resources.

The whole idea of each business having their own "box" turned out to be vastly more expensive than large compute centers selling virtual boxes. Some do still host, of course, but the trend is towards maximizing CPU time, and minimizing space, resources, and costs.

[Downwinder]

10. Fan Belt Inspectors are not computer literate.

They should not be allowed in a server room.

They should go back to what they do best -- Pinkerton Goons.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

12. The server farm of the future will have two employees, a man and a dog. The man will

be there to watch the switch, the dog will be there to make sure he doesn't touch it.

[applegrove]

14. I wonder if they are looking for Anonymous?

[JosefK]

15. Taken? "Stolen" is more appropriate.

...and the fascist police state rolls on without a peep.