Topic: Did the FBI handle this correctly?

[toasty0]

Or did the court allow too broad a search warrant?

FBI Seizes Servers at Dallas Data Center
April 3rd, 2009 : Rich Miller
The FBI raided a Dallas carrier hotel Thursday and seized equipment from data center space operated by Core IP Networks. Agents armed with a search warrant appear to have confiscated all the servers in the facility, which houses gear for about 50 businesses.

“The FBI has seized all equipment belonging to our customers,” Matthew Simpson, the CEO of Core IP, said in a message. “Many customers went to the data center to try and retrieve their equipment, but were threatened with arrest.” 

Simpson says the FBI told him it was investigating a customer of Core IP, but claims the company in question is a prior customer that no longer colocates with Core IP. Simpson told a Dallas TV station that the investigation concerns pirated movies.


That claim has triggered speculation that the probe is tied to the leak of the feature film “Wolverine.” A rough version of the film is circulating online, several weeks before the movie is scheduled to debut in theaters.

The 6 a.m. raid took place at Core IP’s offices on two floors of 2323 Bryan Street in Dallas, a major carrier hotel owned by Digital Realty Trust. Simpson said Core IP leases space from Telx, another provider in the facility.

The FBI told Channel 11 News in Dallas that ”it could take several days to restore the servers of the affected companies.” That’s not happy news for customers, which reportedly include numerous phone companies, impacting e911 caller location services in some areas of the country. FBI officials told the TV station “they could speed up their analysis of the web servers if the affected companies would contact them.” 

Simpson said the FBI also showed up at his residence with a search warrant, but said neither he nor Core IP were doing anything illegal. “If you run a datacenter, please be aware that in our great country, the FBI can come into your place of business at any time and take whatever they want, with no reason,” he wrote

http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2009/04/03/fbi-seizes-servers-at-dallas-data-center/

[Bonk]

Not enough information to answer the question.

Besides, the question is moot. It does not matter if they did it "correctly", they did it; and that is all there is to it.

This is an indication of the value of the information trade, it is now a worthwhile target, like other lucrative markets. This is a good sign for the industry.

On the other hand, this could mean the end of co-location data centers. Running from your own facility, at least you significantly reduce the odds that your business will be commandeered.

Other thoughts: Does anyone really care that much about X-Men Wolverine? (enough for the FBI to shut down dozens of businesses...) Does Jessica Alba appear nude in it or something?

[toasty0]

This is also brings home another reason for bi-location and vituralized backups and fail-overs.

[Nemesis]

I'm not sure if this is the one I read about a couple of days ago but if it is the FBI may have some troubles.  There are limits on search and seizure when it comes to publishers.  The one I read of was or at least included a publisher. 

Some may remember the long court battle by Steve Jackson Games years ago over a similarly extensive raid.  SJG won in the end and the judge reamed out the cops, partially because they were informed during the raid that they were raiding a publisher. 

[marstone]

interesting precedence this could set, just change a few details.  Being able to confiscate all items in a co-location on a warrent.  Hmmm, say a store in a mall was selling stollen goods. (instead of information in a large building with seperate computer databases), would the Fed be able to take all good in all stores in the Mall?  No, so why would they be able to take all from the co-located server.  Making the people who manage the servers dump the sites they wanted to check to say a few terrabyte drives is what should have happened.  Not shut down a bunch of sites that have nothing to do with the ones they are looking into.

[knightstorm]

Other thoughts: Does anyone really care that much about X-Men Wolverine? (enough for the FBI to shut down dozens of businesses...) Does Jessica Alba appear nude in it or something?

Lets see, Wolverine is a prequel follow on to the X-men film series.  which grossed over a billion dollars world wide.  It is devoted to one of the most popular marvel superheroes.

[Bonk]

Lets see, Wolverine is a prequel follow on to the X-men film series.  which grossed over a billion dollars world wide.  It is devoted to one of the most popular marvel superheroes.

They made that much? I always felt they were kind of lame - a bit like an episode of outer limits - or the Harry Potter movies - fun to watch but nothing to write home about.

I just figured this episode would be the same.

I remember the look and feel of Wolverine from the old comic books, but don't recall enough content to say if these movies do the comic books justice.

I also have this romantic notion of national police forces dealing with more significant national crime issues. Though I'm sure my view is coloured by media sensationalism, they love reporting this stuff and gloss over all the important but boring day to day work I guess.

[knightstorm]

They made that much? I always felt they were kind of lame - a bit like an episode of outer limits - or the Harry Potter movies - fun to watch but nothing to write home about.

I just figured this episode would be the same.

I remember the look and feel of Wolverine from the old comic books, but don't recall enough content to say if these movies do the comic books justice.

I also have this romantic notion of national police forces dealing with more significant national crime issues. Though I'm sure my view is coloured by media sensationalism, they love reporting this stuff and gloss over all the important but boring day to day work I guess.

Wikipedia lists the worldwide gross for the entire series as $1,163,063,674.  I thought the series was fairly well done.  I personally liked the first two films better.  As for whether the FBI handled it incorrectly, if it was just the only company raided was the one that was affected, I'd say no, but the raid affected businesses that weren't involved, and had no way of knowing about this.  They should have least given the customers time to transfer their operations elsewhere before seizing the servers.

[Dracho]

That managed hosting provider is so screwed..

It's the cost of doing business on the cheap and outsourcing control over your critical business infrastructure.  Hopefully the companies saved enough money by being in that data center that they're still ahead of the cost of running their own..

[Nemesis]

Link to full article

Following a twisted trail of dummy corporations, post-office-box addresses, and bogus phone numbers, the FBI investigation centers on two Texas companies: Premier Voice and Lone Star Power. Individuals associated with these companies submitted "false/fraudulent credit information and other false representations" to access the telephone services, which they allegedly resold to their own customers for $0.01 per minute over a nearly four-month period, according to an affidavit signed by FBI Agent Allyn Lynd.

So it is not about Wolverine.  It is about defrauding AT&T, some of their computers were at the location and seized as well.

Also those accused apparently don't even co-locate with the company and are former customers.