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[ISN] FBI Defends Disruptive Raids on Texas Data Centers

From: InfoSec News (alertsinfosecnews.org)
Date: Wed Apr 08 2009 - 01:01:18 CDT

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2009/04/data-centers-ra.html

By Kim Zetter
Threat Level
Wired.com
April 07, 2009

The FBI on Tuesday defended its raids on at least two data centers in
Texas, in which agents carted out equipment and disrupted service to
hundreds of businesses.

The raids were part of an investigation prompted by complaints from AT&T
and Verizon about unpaid bills allegedly owed by some data center
customers, according to court records. One data center owner charges
that the telecoms are using the FBI to collect debts that should be
resolved in civil court. But on Tuesday, an FBI spokesman disputed that
charge.

"We wouldn’t be looking at it if it was a civil matter," says Mark
White, spokesman for the FBI's Dallas office. "And a judge wouldn’t sign
a federal search warrant if there wasn’t probable cause to believe that
a fraud took place and that the equipment we asked to seize had evidence
pertaining to the criminal violation."

In interviews with Threat Level, companies affected by the raids say
they've lost millions of dollars in equipment and business after the FBI
hauled off gear belonging to phone and VoIP providers, a credit card
processing company and other businesses that housed equipment at the
centers. Nobody has been charged in the FBI's investigation.

According to the owner of one co-location facility, Crydon Technology,
which was raided on March 12, FBI agents seized about 220 servers
belonging to him and his customers, as well as routers, switches,
cabinets for storing servers and even power strips. Authorities also
raided his home, where they seized eight iPods, some belonging to his
three children, five XBoxes, a PlayStation3 system and a Wii gaming
console, among other equipment. Agents also seized about $200,000 from
the owner's business accounts, $1,000 from his teenage daughter's
account and more than $10,000 in a personal bank account belonging to
the elderly mother of his former comptroller.

[...]

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