On Thu, Aug 14, 2003 at 11:43:07PM -0500, Scott Dier wrote:
> It was funny to see the speculation on /. about the worm causing the
> power outage today.  Someday there will be an emergency caused by a
> widespread security issue that people end up ignoring, and they will
> start to learn why its important to care.  Scary enough, the CERT BOF at
> usenix 2001 the #1 thing that scared a few of the guys there was
> electricity control computer networks and their exposure to the
> internet. (from their own consulting experience)  Of course, this was
> 'pre 9/11', but yikes.

I flew into Chicago on Tuesday for the grand tour of Equinix (a large 
fortress where they searched me more thoroughly than airport security,
and removed all electronic devices before allowing us through just to
make sure I didn't have any devices capable of taking pictures or recording
audio), when we got to the main electrical control room, they were 
showing the redundant systems, and the two touch screen panels that control 
their entire power grid. When the engineer brought up a sub menu I noticed
the tell-tale Visual Basic default program icon in the top left corner
of the dialog.

This is the kind of place that has subdued lighting _everywhere_ so you
can't see who they're hosting (ie, financial institutions, government
agencies, telecoms)

Luckily, after showing off the redundant touch screen panels, the
engineer pointed to a bank of switches, knobs, and gauges on another
panel indicating it was the manual control panel in case both of the
touch screen systems went off-line.

Aside from that though, if you're looking for a secure place to host
something where you can leave a $10,000 piece of equipment on a table
in the lobby for a few hours without worry, Equinix is the place for you.

-- 
Matthew S. Hallacy                            FUBAR, LART, BOFH Certified
http://www.poptix.net                           GPG public key 0x01938203

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