Verizon Central Office Heist Spoiled By 911 Outage 199
Qbans writes with a link the NYTimes story on a foiled robbery attempt at a Verizon Central Office in White Plains, New York, snipping "The plan seemed simple enough. The building had been cased and the burglars knew exactly what they wanted - advanced computer circuit panels that could be sold on the black market for hundreds of thousands of dollars." Qbans points out that this story parallels a previous story on how equipment was (successfully) stolen last May. Update: 11/27 22:01 GMT by T : Reader Dave C contributes a link to coverage at the registration-free JournalNews.com.
Help, call 911 (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Help, call 911 (Score:3, Funny)
Rus
Re:Help, call 911 (Score:2)
Re:Help, call 911 (Score:2, Funny)
Enter Scooby Doo? (Score:3, Funny)
blackmarket? (Score:2, Insightful)
Catch me once... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Catch me once... (Score:5, Funny)
(Apologies to GWB)
Re:Catch me once... (Score:5, Funny)
I think it goes like this:
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
LS
Re:Catch me once... (Score:5, Funny)
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me thrice, I break your fucking legs.
Re:Catch me once... (Score:2, Funny)
Registration-free link (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Registration-free link (Score:1)
ARTICLE TEXT (Score:2)
Sorry, no information is available for the URL www.nytimes.com/2004/11/27/nyregion/27theft.html
If the URL is valid, try visiting that web page by clicking on the following link: www.nytimes.com/2004/11/27/nyregion/27theft.html
(Yeah, I didn't feel like checking my post either)
ARTICLE TEXT: (Score:5, Informative)
The night before Thanksgiving, about 8 p.m., they entered the Verizon building in White Plains undetected and set to work.
But as the criminals removed the panels, they soon triggered problems across Westchester County. Most problematic, 911 systems across the region began to crash. By the time some 150 panels were removed, roughly 25,000 people had lost 911 service.
At 9:51 p.m., the White Plains Police received a call alerting them to the fact that there might be a problem at the Verizon building. Still unaware that burglars were at work inside, a patrol car rolled up to the site, according to Inspector Daniel Jackson.
"Literally, the two guys were walking out the door," Mr. Jackson said. They were carrying two large boxes when the officer shouted for them to stop. The men dropped the stolen boxes, fled on foot and were eventually run down by the officer and arrested, Mr. Jackson said.
The two men were identified in a criminal complaint as Larry D. Davis, 43, of Brooklyn, and Gailican Phillips, 34 of Manhattan.
They have been charged with conspiracy to commit interstate shipment of stolen property, a federal crime with a maximum sentence of five years in jail, according to the complaint.
Mr. Jackson said that the burglary itself was not as disturbing as the widespread effect it had on the 911 system.
The police are working with the F.B.I. and the Department of Homeland Security on the case. Terrorism has been ruled out as a possible motive.
Although the burglary occurred in the Verizon building, the stolen equipment belonged to some half-dozen other telecommunications companies that use the premises to house part of their operations. No Verizon customers were affected, a company official said.
Dan Diaz Zapata, a spokesman for Verizon, said the building had many levels of security - from video cameras to security badges to on-site guards - and that the company was cooperating with local and federal authorities. Mr. Zapata said that Verizon had redundancy capabilities built into its system that would have prevented a theft of their own equipment from having such a wide impact.
Mr. Jackson said that there had been a theft at the building once before, in 2003, and the police had reason to believe one of the two men involved Wednesday also took part in that operation. He would not elaborate on other details in that case. However, much less was stolen then.
According to the complaint filed in Southern District of New York, the circuit boards ranged in value from $5,000 to $70,000 each and, all told, were worth in excess of $1 million. The plan was to deliver them to an unnamed co-conspirator who, in turn, planned to sell them to an unnamed company in California, according to the complaint.
"There apparently is a strong, robust black market for this stuff," said a federal law enforcement official, who insisted on anonymity for fear of saying something that would compromise the investigation.
There have been two other similar burglaries in New York City and New Jersey in recent years, according to Mr. Jackson. Those thefts were much smaller in scale.
National Infrastructure Coordination Center of the Department of Homeland Security is also working with local police because of concern that the 911 system could be relatively easily compromised.
After arresting the two men and photographing the stolen circuit panels, the police returned them to the companies that owned them. Once reinstalled, the 911 problems ended, and by 7 a.m. the system was back to normal, Mr. Jackson said.
Police said the panels that were stolen were each about the size of a legal pad and are used by telecommunications companies to transmit data and connect calls. There is an industry standard for the panels and they can easily be transferred from one computer to another.
Potential buyers of the panels on the black market range from small telecommunications companies to overseas clients, the police said.
Run down: (Score:5, Funny)
I know its an American saying but in (British) English, that would imply mowing them down with the patrol-car.
I'd have to say 'Fair Play' to that
Re:Run down: (Score:2)
Re:Run down: (Score:2)
Re:ARTICLE TEXT: (Score:5, Insightful)
Otherwise known as "whatever's necessary to make it a federal issue"?
Re:ARTICLE TEXT: (Score:2)
The fact that those charges were added later by the judge could mean a couple of things:
1) They did the math and realized that there weren't anywhere near enough small startup telco's in NY to use all the parts
2) More evidence was found showing that they had planned to sell it to a certain location, ie email, letters, whatever seized durting a search (that would have almost assuredly happened in a crime th
Re:ARTICLE TEXT: (Score:4, Funny)
Pure genius, that one. "Someone's stolen millions of dollars' worth of easily-sellable computer equipment. After extensive investigation, we decided that the motive was unlikely to be terrorism"
In related news, a man found buying a newspaper is not thought to have been motivated by terrorism.
Not caught because of 911 failure (Score:3, Insightful)
They were in the building, pulling cards that were in active use, for about TWO HOURS. According to the article they arrived around 8pm, and the police didn't get a report that there might be a problem at that building until 9:51. Sometime after that, the police car arrived at the building, where they caught the guys walking out.
It makes me wonder about how much more successful an intelligent thief could be -- these guys made an earlier hit on the sa
Serial number for components.... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Serial number for components.... (Score:1, Flamebait)
Re:Serial number for components.... (Score:1, Insightful)
RTFA, these boards were expected to be sold to an unamed company in California. And "There apparently is a strong, robust black market for this stuff," according to the federal law enforcement official in the article.
Re:Serial number for components.... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Serial number for components.... (Score:2)
You did read the article, right? Especially the part about them planning to sell to an unamed company in California?
Re:Serial number for components.... (Score:5, Informative)
I'm still curious as to how they got past the guards, unless they had ID showing them to be from one of the telecoms colocating equipment there.
Re:Serial number for components.... (Score:2)
Bottom line is that most 'secure' installations for networking/communications/IT equipment is secure in name only. Its just not all that hard to remove it.
Often security isn't what we'd wish (Score:5, Interesting)
This i, unfortunately, often the case. Security is well intentioned, but isn't completely thought through and has holes in it. Also, you'd be amazed what social engineering and some confidence can get you. If you act like you are supposed to be somewhere, it's amazing how peopel will just assume you are.
A couple years ago I was working for network operations on campus and we were upgrading the speed of building links, which involved a swap of the media converters. Most buildings we just go and get access to the room with our keys, since it's a dedicated room. However for the campus police, it's back in the 911 room with the other equipment. So when we went the staff member (I was a student) had his telcom ID and we both had university ID and driver licenses. The manager was by the phone if a verification call was needed.
We walked into the lobby, and it looked to be quite a secure location. All the doors were locked, all the glass was bulletproof. We went over to the window for the 911 call centre and told them we were form telecom and needed to get at the network gear. They said "ok" and let us in, took us to the closet, let us in there, and left us alone with all the 911 gear (and our switch). No ID was checked.
The ones mentioned in the FA. (Score:2)
Those guards.
Re:Serial number for components.... (Score:2)
Re:Serial number for components.... (Score:3, Informative)
No sane company allows outside access to their network management channels. So unless the serial numbers were kept on file by the victim (which isn't always the case, sometimes docs fall behind quite badly) and those serial numbers were published so publicly and
Re:Serial number for components.... (Score:3, Informative)
Anything purchased thru legit channels had the serial numbers recorded not only by the sales dept, but by the installing tech.
Cards purchased thru E-Bay were most likely registered to someone else.
There is a big market for older switching equipment components (ATM, Frame Relay, SS7, etc.) in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. What is obsolete or close to ob
I heard crime was bad, but... (Score:3, Insightful)
...are there really that many calls for emergency assistance, or are they basing it on a people-per-exchange basis?
and WHO do you call when 911 don't respond?
Who ya gonna call? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:I heard crime was bad, but... (Score:5, Funny)
Ghostbusters!
Re:I heard crime was bad, but... (Score:3, Insightful)
Call anyone you like - Echelon [wikipedia.org] will still be listening...
Re:I heard crime was bad, but... (Score:3, Interesting)
When 911 is doWn, you just call your local police station - they do have a phone there after all. There was life before 911 - young whipper snapper
Re:I heard crime was bad, but... (Score:3, Interesting)
They may have a phone, but they often won't pick it up. In my city (New York City), very few precincts will answer their phones; they simply don't have the available manpower to answer repititive mundane questions. They will, however, respond to questions asked in person, but most people aren't willing to invest 10 or 15 minutes of their time to go out to the precinct.
Serious emergencies are all dealt with t
Re:I heard crime was bad, but... (Score:2)
"small town centric"? How about your NYC centric? I've lived in both small towns and cities w/o 311, in the slums, and out. Being a Navy brat, then finally having the Chief retiring can do that to you. If you want to tell them 911 is down, then there is another way. You ever try to
Re:I heard crime was bad, but... (Score:1)
25 000 people would have been unable to call 911 had they needed to; the article doesn't seem to say if/how many actual calls were missed.
Re:I heard crime was bad, but... (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:I heard crime was bad, but... (Score:2)
So very obvious. You call the operator. Now, the operator will do whatever is necessary to put you through, and at the same time, you've notified the local phone company that 911 service isn't working.
Re:I heard crime was bad, but... (Score:2)
I don't suppose you've tried to call the operator any time in the last 10 years or so... because if you had you would have realized that dialing 0 doesn't get you a person... It usually gets you a pre-recorded message that basically says "bugger off"... I suppose all of the operators were downsized years a
Re:I heard crime was bad, but... (Score:2)
It hasn't been long since I last dialed the operator, and I still get a person. Where are you trying this exactly?
The old masters (Score:3, Interesting)
Interesting that someone wishes to steal this stuff.
Doubly interesting that theres obviously a market for this equipment.
Is it analgous to the theft of The Scream? Authorities must have a fair idea of the potential recipients from the get go. Be it international or not.
Verizon Tenants are Not Customers? (Score:3, Funny)
Does this mean that the telecommunications companies using the Verizon premises are not Verizon customers? Is that what it says on the rent check?
Re:Verizon Tenants are Not Customers? (Score:2)
Could they be looking at possible murder charges? (Score:3, Interesting)
If someone died as a result of not having 911 services, these guys could be in even bigger trouble.
Re:Could they be looking at possible murder charge (Score:2)
You could then say that if someone in the office spilled a drink on the board, fried it knocking out 911, that they were now subject to murder charges.
Of course, my counter argument would be that if 911 was so important, why didn't the government protect it better? Come on, putting it all in one office? Unmanned?
That's different (Score:4, Funny)
Not all states have laws like that, but many do. Since they were comitting a felony, they could be charged.
Now someone who spills coffee on the boards by accident isn't comitting a felony, they are making a mistake. The most they could be charged with is manslaghuter for gross neglience (since there is no situation where liquids should be anywhere near the equipment) however in all likelyhood they'd not be charged, just fired by the company and sued by the victim's family.
Re:That's different (Score:2)
Re:That's different (Score:2)
Now someone who spills coffee on the boards by accident isn't comitting a felony, they are making a mistake. The most they could be charged with is manslaghuter for gross neglience (since there is no situation where liquids should be anywhere near the equipment) however in all likelyhood they'd not be charged, just fired by the company and sued by the victim's family.
If the cops accidentially raid the wrong building, it's a mistake, not a felony.
Re:That's different (Score:3, Insightful)
You don't quite seem to understand the definition of "murder". Murder is the unlawful taking of a human life. Police are authorized to use deadly force if the situation warrants, therefore it isn't automatically "murder" just because someone died. If they kill someone in a situation wher
Re:That's different (Score:2)
Re:That's different (Score:2)
I couldn't tell you. Without reading the IAD report I don't know the particular circumstances. I do know that police aren't required to let a dangerous felon wander away just because their back is turned and they're not running. They also don't have to wait until th
Re:That's different (Score:2)
New York cops alone seem to be pretty expert at this sport. Just go reading the papers, they get one or two a year. There was the kid who went to go to the next builing across the roof. Happened to meet officer in stairs to roof: Officer scared, kid dead.
There was the african immigrant who happened to open his own appartment door with his own keys. Four civilian officers managed to pump a shitload of bullets into him. Turns out later, hes unarmed and not the
Re:Could they be looking at possible murder charge (Score:3, Interesting)
dropped boards? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:dropped boards? (Score:2)
Verizon's security system (Score:5, Funny)
Links To NYT (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Links To NYT (Score:2)
I wouldn't use the Post to wrap a fish. It's an incredibly lousy paper. Hell, even with all the bonehead things the NY Times has done lately, it's still a million times more credible than the Post. And what's the big deal about registering? Do it once, you don't have to give any information, it's not like afterwards the Times editors lurk out behind your house peering in windows.
Dead Fish (Score:2)
As for registration, can you spell P-R-I-N-C-I-P-A-L? There are enough other annoyances in life. Why put up with the avoidable ones?
Re:Links To NYT (Score:2)
People who don't like having to register should REALLY like this, because it makes it less meaningful for sites to have these stupid registrations. So don't bitch -- use Bug Me Not and fight the system.
Re:Links To NYT (Score:2)
ho man... (Score:2, Insightful)
oops - I'm sure they weren't interested in disrupting 911 service across state lines to make it a Federal "conspiracy" charge. Sounds like they will be made an example of and will likely end up in federal "pound-me-in-the-ass" prison.
FBI is full of anonymous cowards (Score:3, Insightful)
Maybe I'm confused here, but how does giving your name out compromise the investigation? I'm tired of all these federal officials who insist on being anonymous and hidden. Shouldn't LEO's be forthright and honest?
Re:FBI is full of anonymous cowards (Score:2)
What kinds of cards are they / where to find? (Score:2, Interesting)
Scary! (Score:4, Informative)
The rule for redundancy is that you've gotta have the equipment in more than one place. The redundant equipment shouldn't have been in the same building, let alone the same town.
A few years ago, an underground steam explosion knocked out the main phone and power stations for my area (both of which were stupidly placed smack next to each other). Because of the way the network was designed, phone service was not interrupted at all and the power went out for about 10 minutes. This was from an explosion which completely severed the connections to both buildings. THIS IS HOW IT SHOULD WORK.
Re:Scary! (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, removing 150 pieces of equipment.
Break-in to a telco center and cut all the wires, you'll get the same effect.
Hardly surprising.
Wouldn't that be like ... Terrorism (Score:2)
Thank God, they STOLE the stuff and proved they were true americans ... just slashing the wires would have gotten then terrorism charges.
Re:Wouldn't that be like ... Terrorism (Score:2)
and rightly so !
Re:Scary! (Score:2)
If you can, arrange a tour of your nearest central office. They're hard to get but it can be done. Start counting pieces of equipment. You'll probably lose count somewhere around 37,108 when the tour guide asks you what you're doing staring at the frame.
Re:Scary! (Score:2)
If a company has 150 mainframes, and you go around stealing 150 power supplies, well, there's bound to be service outages.
Re:Scary! (Score:3, Insightful)
If something happened to that building such as a fire/flood/terrorism (God forbid), the entire county would be screwed.
Re:Scary! (Score:2)
Without knowing the details, I have mixed feelings. Technically by that argument, you'd need redundancy with the cables running into somebody's house, or into each street (however obscure). Otherwise their emergency services might be cut off if someone cut a phone line. It's more of an issue of whereabouts to draw the line on building in redundancy.
On the more positive side, for instance, the entire country, state or city wasn't cut off --- 25,000 people were. I definitely agree that 25,000 people
Using 911 to hype the story? (Score:3, Interesting)
Too bad there aren't more tech details.
And I guess the people from NYT haven't tried to sell this type of equipment. Given the gluttony of
PS: Portmaster 4 for sale, contact me off list.
Criminals are idiots (Score:2)
Re:Criminals are idiots (Score:2)
almost always inside jobs (Score:2)
Terrorist Groupthink Alert! (Score:2)
Please, someone tell me you haven't all been indoctrined into the Bush Family Groupthink that every single crime that goes on anywhere in the whole damn country has some sort of terrorist motive? The homeless guy stealing apples from the grocery store isn't a terrorist sleeper agent, the guy behind the counter that short-changes you in Wal-Mart is not an Islamic fundamentalist hell-bent on destroying the West, and two bungling jackasses stealing computer
Re:And... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:And... (Score:2, Offtopic)
Re:Amazing disregard for others... (Score:3, Funny)
Actually, it's a perfect half-assed plot.
"What'll we do if someone figures out we're here?"
"Nothing, who are they going to call anyway? We're taking down 911!"
"That's brilliant!"
Heh heh.
Re:Amazing disregard for others... (Score:2)
NARF!
-
Dial 911 and die.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Their disregard for others is only matched by political buffoons who disarm law abiding citizens and expect them to survive criminal incidents long enough to call 911 and wait for cops to get off their donut laden fat asses to come do their public servant pay grade jobs.
What is so surprising about this incident is that cops actually showed up in time to catch the perpetrators. I guess that multi-thousand dollar circuit boards are more i
Re:Dial 911 and die.... (Score:2)
The police and their methods of handling crime are pathetic, from what I've personally observed.
EG. Wife took my modded sports car with custom stereo equipment, etc. etc. and during our divorce, proceeded to forge my signature on the title (was never titled in her name) and sold it. After nearly 6 months of complaining and making phone calls, I have yet to get anyone to see this as a criminal act worth pursuing! The local cops basically laughed at me, saying "Sucks to be you! But if y
Re:Sounds like you blew it (Score:2)
They might have arrested her for forgery, but they couldn't have arrested her for theft. When you are married, you own property *jointly*. In other words, legally it was her car as much as it was his, that's how marriage works. The forgery might even have been justified on that basis: the car should have been titled in both their names. The guy who founded FedEx got around a forgery charge by claiming that was just the way things were being done at the company a
Re:Sounds like you blew it (Score:2)
That aside, though, yes - you're probably correct that the "better move" would have been pursuing the buyer of the car. Problem is, I had no idea until months later that she actually sold the car. When I first called and reported the car missing - I was under the impression that she just had it hidden somewhere. (One of her relatives was helping her out at the time, and they had a big garage which they could easily h
Re:Dial 911 and die.... (Score:2)
Why is that surprising? It's not like they were getting any other calls...the 911 system was down. I've been at donut shops, etc. when cops have gotten a call; they don't wait around. Generally, when cops have high response times, it is because there are multiple crimes to which to respond. Want lower response times, pay for more cops.
Re:thank fucking god... (Score:3, Insightful)
It was so obviously not terrorists. I mean, come on, the guys were stealing stuff. If they were terrorists, they'd have just blown themselves up when they got next to the boards in the building.
Hey look, a snake! Oh, sorry, I guess it was just a plain rope.
(It's pissing me off too that every time someone yells fire there's immediately a discussion about whether or not the fire is terrorism, and when it turns out there's no fire, whether or not the person yelling fire is a terrorist. Jeez, we had regul
Re:thank fucking god... (Score:2)
Terrorists need money to buy explosives and fake passports...stolen property can be sold for money without having to have paid for it...they were going to be sold on the black market...more than likely sold to a second-world country...
Which they typically get from a sponsoring government.
Of course I'm not saying they were terrorsits, I obviously have way too little information to make such an ascertion...but to put those pieces together and think there is no way they can be terrorists, that's just plai
Re:Specifics! (Score:5, Informative)
(4 ea) ws-x4515
(6 ea) ws-x6724-sfp
(5 ea) ws-f6700-cfc
(10 ea) ws-sup720
(10 ea) ws-f6k-pfc3a
(8 ea) ws-x6704-10ge
(32 ea) xenpak 10000mbps 802.3 line cards
Re:Specifics! (Score:2)
and don't forget... (Score:2)
Re:RTFA (Score:2)
This is an appropriate means to prosecute crimes done by well organized groups. Nothing new here.