"Network Card Theft Causes Internet Outage"

Andy Dills andy at xecu.net
Tue May 4 05:22:44 UTC 2004



Just in case any of you don't read slashdot:

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1583347,00.asp

"Law enforcement officials said four DS-3 cards were reported missing from
a Manhattan co-location facility owned by Verizon Communications Inc. The
theft at 240 E. 38th St. occurred just after 10:30 p.m. on Sunday and is
being investigated by New York City Police and members of the joint
terrorism task force, according to NYPD spokesman Lt. Brian Burke. "


4 DS3 cards and the joint terrorism task force is called in?

Aren't there enough gas tanks being stolen around the country for the
joint terrorism task force to be kept busy?

Trying to fix our terrorism problem like this is like trying to fix the
spam problem using IP-based blacklists.

Anyway, late in the article a spokesman for Sprint is quoted:

"Fleckenstein said that the outage was "not major," and not large enough
to require a report to the Federal Communications Commission."

I just thought it was hilarious that a this outage is major enough to
suspect terrorist motives and involve the appropriate agency, but not
major enough to warrant reporting to the FCC. Sure, it didn't knock down
the service of 50,000 customers, but doesn't it seem sad that an entire
mid-sized city must lose service before the FCC gets to know about it?

I think every fricking trouble ticket generated at an ILEC should be
recorded at the FCC. It's not like they don't have the means and
technology. It would be near-trivial, in fact, given their capabilities
when properly motivated.

Andy

---
Andy Dills
Xecunet, Inc.
www.xecu.net
301-682-9972
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