How A Gang of Thieves Pulled Off a Multimillion-Dollar Data Center Heist

(nytimes.com)

18 points by chirau5 days ago

4 comments

  • larrymcp10 minutes ago
    One question, how did they know which specific servers to take? That would've required some interesting research / espionage ahead of time, but the article didn't mention that part of the job.
  • swader9999 minutes ago
    I was hoping for a story where they took all the bank loan data and the backups.
  • huitzitziltzin33 minutes ago
    It’s kind of a fun story but it doesn’t make sense. Was that the only data in a data center in the world that’s not backed up elsewhere? Did I miss that part?
    • fzzzy22 minutes ago
      Your confusion doesn't make any sense. The point was to steal a copy of the data, not prevent the original owners from having the data any more.
      • buran7716 minutes ago
        &gt; The bankers “were involved in prime mortgages” and had “circumnavigated” certain regulations.<p>&gt; Ellis’s assignment was to break into the data center and steal around 80 servers that hosted the incriminating files<p>The hit was contracted by the bankers who broke the law. Why would they need &quot;a copy&quot; of the evidence?<p>If the goal was to know what the prosecution has on them they took one hell of a risk and there are better ways ways to get that data. Hiring petty criminals to steal damn servers and giving them more details than they need to know is a stupid idea. You get a bunch on encrypted drives and a trail of inconvenient witnesses.<p>The story smells like a book promotion and a petty criminal further bolstering a high profile robbery.
        • fzzzy13 minutes ago
          Ok good point.
    • paleotrope27 minutes ago
      Nope. THe story doesn&#x27;t make any sense at all.<p>They stole about 5 milion dollars worth of computer equipment, which depending on how it&#x27;s purchased is either a single cabinet of storage or a few cabinets of compute, which is largely worthless on the resale market, or if you believe the criminals, they were stealing evidence of illegal activities of the &quot;bankers&quot;.<p>The story is way too sexed up and hollywood&#x27;d
      • giancarlostoro19 minutes ago
        Sounds like a really awful attempt at writing a Mr Robot sequel.
      • samlinnfer26 minutes ago
        And we are to believe they don&#x27;t have FDE on their application servers?
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