Data Center - Target [image: Inline image 1]
NSA Utah data center - take note of how many cars you can see parked here - 3-4. Go figure. So, the target (no pun intended) was Target Stores. The hack is nearly three times larger than first reported. This sounds tome like a middle-man job to me. Target doesn't maintain their own data (pronounced day-ta) center - most large companies depend on cloud services like Rackspace to collect and store their data. So, the data at the point-of-sale goes to the data center which could be located anywhere. No large corporation that I know of stores their own data. It looks like somebody got into the data center and planted a collection program at the root level of the blade server. In order to do that you'd probably have to gain physical entry to the data center. This would be a lot easier to do if you worked either for the data center on premises or could get access for a few hours or even days. It probably takes twelve people in three shifts to run a large data center at the physical location. I'd say this caper would involve at least three people on the ground inside the data center: one have the key; one to carry the laptop and cable; and one that knows the password. I'd say that all three were caught on video cameras, unless the insider hacker knew how to disable the security system. It took Edward Snowden less than a few months to download tons of data once he was inside or connected to the data center at Langley, VA. If you read the mainstream media you'd think someone broke into a target store down on Main or at a local mall and stole some credit card numbers. It's much bigger than that - all your data is stored somewhere, at some data center somewhere. Hackers are probably looking at everyone's Obamacare data as I hit the send button on my computer. You've got to assume that all your individual cloud data is available to someone right now. If you don't want to share your data with anyone your only recourse is for you to get off the cloud. Now, how are you going to do that? Post your answer here - thanks. "The revelations about Target's data breach continue to get worse, with the retailer now estimating that at least 70 million customers have been impacted, almost twice as many as the 40 million it had earlier disclosed. And it may turn out even more people were affected." Read the full story: 'Target says data breach bigger than previously thought' http://www.cbsnews.com/news/target-data-breach/<http://www.cbsnews.com/news/target-warns-data-breach-impacted-70-million-people/> Workd cited: Data Centers - The Cloud: https://groups.yahoo.com/FairfieldLife/368898<https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/FairfieldLife/conversations/messages/368898> On Thu, Jan 2, 2014 at 1:51 PM, Richard Williams <[email protected]>wrote: > Internet Alley > > [image: Inline image 1] > > "In recent years, the influx of technology companies into Northern > Virginia has brought many new office buildings and hotels to the landscape. > The rapid growth of Tysons Corner (in comparison to other locations near > the Capital Beltway) has been the topic of numerous studies. This is a > visionary look at Tysons Corner as the driving force of the nation's > technological economy." > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tysons_Corner,_Virginia > > "Much of the world's Internet management and governance takes place in a > corridor extending west from Washington, DC, through northern Virginia > toward Washington Dulles International Airport. Much of the United States' > military planning and analysis takes place here as well. At the center of > that corridor is Tysons Corner--an unincorporated suburban crossroads once > dominated by dairy farms and gravel pits. > > Today, the government contractors and high- tech firms--companies like > DynCorp, CACI, Verisign, and SAIC--that now populate this corridor have > created an "Internet Alley" off the Washington Beltway. In From Tysons > Corner to Internet Alley, Paul Ceruzzi examines this compact area of > intense commercial development and describes its transformation into one of > the most dynamic and prosperous regions in the country. Ceruzzi explains > how a concentration of military contractors carrying out weapons analysis, > systems engineering, operations research, and telecommunications combined > with suburban growth patterns to drive the region's development. > > The dot-com bubble's burst was offset here, he points out, by the > government's growing national security-related need for information > technology. Ceruzzi looks in detail at the nature of the work carried out > by these government contractors and how it can be considered truly > innovative in terms of both technology and management. Today in Tysons > Corner, clusters of sleek new office buildings housing high-technology > companies stand out against the suburban landscape, and the upscale Tysons > Galleria Mall is neighbor to a government-owned radio tower marked by a > sign warning visitors not to photograph or sketch it. > > Ceruzzi finds that a variety of perennially relevant issues intersect > here, making it both a literal and figurative crossroads: federal support > of scientific research, the shift of government activities to private > contractors, local politics of land use, and the postwar movement from > central cities to suburbs. Paul E. Ceruzzi is Curator of the National Air > and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC. He is the author > of A History of Modern Computing (second edition, MIT Press, 2003) and > other books, and coeditor of The Internet and American Business (MIT Press, > 2008)." > > Read more: > > "Internet Alley: High Technology in Tysons Corner, 1945-2005' > by Paul E. Ceruzzi > The MIT Press, 2011 > > > On Tue, Dec 31, 2013 at 8:38 AM, Richard Williams <[email protected]>wrote: > >> Data Centers - The Cloud >> >> [image: Inline image 1] >> >> Data centers adhere to the same rules as any electronic secret black box >> - the first rule of any data center is : "Don't talk about the data >> centers." This is typical hush-hush and can also carry over to people's >> mental ideas of other types the internet infrastructure such as networks, >> exchange points, the web, cables and "the cloud." Very few people know >> where their data is stored - sure you have a hard drive on your computer or >> a flash drive where you store your data, or even a few blue ethernet >> cables lying around the house. >> >> But, other locations are mysterious - for example, your online mail, bank >> information or your Amazon account. So, where is the data? In Oregon or >> Alaska? Where is the data center and what makes a data center work? If it's >> not really in the cloud, where is it? And, how many copies of your data are >> out there, stored out there, somewhere in the back of beyond. According to >> Blum, there is a physical infrastructure. >> >> "So why all the secrecy about data centers? A data center if the >> storehouse of information, the closest the internet has to a physical >> vault. Exchange points are merely transient places, where information >> passes through (and fast!). But in data centers it's relatively static, and >> physically contained in equipment that needs to be protected, and which >> itself has enormous value. Yet more often the secrecy isn't because of >> concerns over privacy or theft, but competition. Knowing how big a data >> center is, how much power it uses, and precisely what's inside is the kind >> of proprietary information technology companies are eager to keep under >> wraps." >> >> Work cited: >> >> 'Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet' >> by Andrew Blum >> Ecco, 2012 >> p. 238 >> >> Other links of interest: >> >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_center >> >> Performance Cloud Servers: >> http://www.rackspace.com/ >> >> >> On Mon, Dec 30, 2013 at 7:56 AM, Richard Williams >> <[email protected]>wrote: >> >>> Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet >>> >>> Tubes, by Andrew Blum, looks behind the scenes of our digital lives at >>> he physical heart of the internet itself. These tubes are the real places >>> on the map: their sounds and smells, their storied past, their physical >>> details, and the people who live there. Sharing tales of his on-the-ground >>> reporting, along with lucid explanations about how the role of technology >>> in our lives. >>> >>> Excerpt: >>> >>> "According to TeleGeography, the most heavily trafficked international >>> Internet route is between New York and London, as if the cities were the >>> two ends of the Internet's brightest tube of light. For the Internet, as >>> for so much else, London is the hinge between east and west, the place >>> where the networks reaching across the Atlantic link up with those >>> extending from Europe, from Africa and India. A bit from Mumbai to Chicago >>> will go through London and then New York, as will one from Madrid to Sao >>> Paulo and Lagos to Dallas. >>> >>> The cities' enjoined gravity pulls in the light, as it pulls in so much >>> else. But despite that, the Internet's physical manifestation in the two >>> cities is completely different. I had started out with the assumption that >>> London is the old world and New York the new. But with the Internet, the >>> opposite turned out to be true. If in Amsterdam the Internet was hidden >>> away in low industrial buildings on the cities' ragged edges, and in New >>> York it colonized art deco palaces, in London it formed a single, >>> concentrated, self-contained district - an office "estate," in the British >>> term - just east of Canary Wharf and the City, known formally as East India >>> Quay but by network engineers, and most else, as just "Docklands." It was a >>> massive agglomeration, an entire Internet neighborhood. I wondered what was >>> at its heart. And how far into its center I could go." >>> >>> 'Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet' >>> by Andrew Blum >>> Ecco, 2012 >>> >>> >>> On Sun, Dec 29, 2013 at 7:08 PM, Richard Williams >>> <[email protected]>wrote: >>> >>>> It's almost breath taking in it's scope! >>>> >>>> Imagine the BIOS of your computer hacked by the feds BEFORE it even >>>> reaches the stockroom of your local computer store. The BIOS - that's where >>>> you want to be if you are a spy agency. Forget tracing your calls; forget >>>> meta data warehousing; forget call monitoring; forget putting duck tape >>>> over laptop web cam. If they already have BIOS implants in your DELL or HP >>>> or whatever brand computer, you are doomed and the game is already over. >>>> >>>> Here is a simple test: Power up your laptop and leave it on; then exit >>>> the room for a few minutes. When you come back, check to see if your >>>> weather location is local or Arlington, VA. >>>> >>>> And, you think you can trick them by simply removing the battery in >>>> your cell phone? What if you own one that doesn't have a removable battery? >>>> Why do you think they are doing away with cell phones with removable >>>> batteries? >>>> >>>> "The ANT division does not just manufacture surveillance hardware. It >>>> also develops software for special tasks. The ANT developers have a clear >>>> preference for planting their malicious code in so-called BIOS, software >>>> located on a computer’s motherboard that is the first thing to load when a >>>> computer is turned on." >>>> >>>> Read more: >>>> >>>> NSA reportedly intercepting laptops purchased online to install spy >>>> malware' >>>> >>>> http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/29/5253226/nsa-cia-fbi-laptop-usb-plant-spy >>>> >>>> >>>> On Thu, Dec 26, 2013 at 8:02 AM, Richard Williams <[email protected] >>>> > wrote: >>>> >>>>> Arrest him and book him! >>>>> >>>>> You are fired for lying to the American people. Clear out your desk >>>>> and leave the building! Officer, arrest this man and book him for serial >>>>> lying. Bailiff, put this man in chains and take him for the perp >>>>> walk,immediately! Mr. Biden, get on the phone with that Snowden fellow and >>>>> get his pardon ready,NOW! Do it! >>>>> >>>>> It's not easy to pick the year's most transparent lie from the >>>>> self-styled “most transparent administration in history.” There are so >>>>> many >>>>> to choose from—such a richness of embarrassment. >>>>> >>>>> For my money, the biggest presidential lie of the year came on June 7, >>>>> the week after former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden >>>>> revealed the agency's secret collection of call records data on millions >>>>> of >>>>> Americans. “I welcome this debate,” Obama proclaimed—even as his >>>>> administration was hunting down the whistleblower who started it and >>>>> preparing to hit him with 30 years of Espionage Act charges." >>>>> >>>>> Read more: >>>>> >>>>> 'Obama's Epic Fib About the NSA' >>>>> http://reason.com/archives/2013/12/24/obamas-epic-fibs-about-the-nsa >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> On Fri, Oct 18, 2013 at 7:55 AM, Richard Williams < >>>>> [email protected]> wrote: >>>>> >>>>>> The ObamaCare disaster is not just a management failure, it's a >>>>>> firing incident. Where I used to work, a system failure this large would >>>>>> be >>>>>> a cause for instant dismissal: >>>>>> >>>>>> *"Clean off your desk and get out, you're fired! Officer, escort this >>>>>> person off the premises. And, don't you ever come back! You'll never work >>>>>> in this town again. You fuckin' idiot!"* >>>>>> >>>>>> [image: Inline image 1] >>>>>> >>>>>> 'In Defense of Kathleen Sebelius' >>>>>> http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/<http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303680404579141473117316190> >>>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>> >>> >> >
