alt Hacker NewsHow A Gang of Thieves Pulled Off a Multimillion-Dollar Data Center Heist
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It’s kind of a fun story but it doesn’t make sense. Was that the only data in a data center in the world that’s not backed up elsewhere? Did I miss that part?
> Nathaniel Rich. I am a novelist, […]
See Cloudthief here https://nathanielrich.com/books/
Bit dubious about how some of this hangs together. One detail that stood out to me:
> They removed mounting screws, disconnected the servers and put them in laundry bags — 20 bags in all, each large enough to hold four or five servers.
That's like 100kg or more of servers in each bag? I guess that is not totally impossible but it doesn't seem like a particularly easy way to move them around. It's not like putting five laptops in a bag and walking out with it over your shoulder.
I was hoping for a story where they took all the bank loan data and the backups.
Data centers are huge and barely staffed. It's a really rich target for thieves in terms of IT hardware and scrap metal. There are literally tons of copper in there per acre. All the cameras in the world won't save you if you only have 4 guys in a 20 acre building.
This story is making my bullshit detector go haywire. I’m guessing it was more mundane than what they claim. How much does it cost to buy one or several security guards? It’s a hell of a lot more likely than the movie script story the article contains.
Did this guy sign a book or movie deal? The only fact I believe is that they stole stuff from the data center.
One question, how did they know which specific servers to take? That would've required some interesting research / espionage ahead of time, but the article didn't mention that part of the job.