- If FBI agents showed up at your data center bearing a
warrant, would you be able to provide them prompt access to customer data?
How long would it take?
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- That's an important question in the wake of an FBI raid
of Columbus, Ohio hosting company CIT Hosting last Saturday. Federal agents
wound up shutting down the entire operation, seizing all the company's
web servers and all customer data as part of its investigation of a hacking
incident.
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- CIT Hosting, also known as FooNet, markets itself as
"the leader in the IRC and DDoS protection business for the last 5
years." The company posted a web page informing customers that its
data center was shut down, and instructing customers to contact the FBI
if they needed access to their files.
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- "The FBI executed a search warrant issued by the
United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio regarding
the IRC network that we host," the company said in its statement.
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- IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is a live chat system that
allows users to create private discussion rooms. While IRC has a lengthy
history of legitimate use, it is also a medium for discreet communication
between hackers. CIT said the FBI was "investigating whether someone
hosted on our network hacked and attacked someone else."
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- "After several hours of attempting to track down,
inspect and audit the terabytes of data that we host, the FBI determined
that it was more efficient (from their point of view) to remove all of
our servers and transport them to the FBI local laboratories for inspection,"
the statement continued. "The FBI has assured us that as soon as the
data has been safely copied and inspected, the equipment will be promptly
returned. Unfortunately, the FBI has not been able to tell us when they
will be completed with their inspection."
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- The seizure isn't standard procedure, and there's no
way to know exactly what prompted it. CIT's account suggests the FBI may
have lost patience with the process. The IRC-focused nature of CIT's business
may also have been a factor.
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- But if you're a data center operator, you want to avoid
any scenario in which the FBI gets impatient and starts hauling away your
servers. Just one more item on the contingency planning checklist for the
times in which we live.
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- http://www.carrierhotels.com/news/2004/Feb/19/fbi_shutters_web_host.shtml
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