January 8th, 2008
Data theft, the armed variety
Computerworld chronicles the tale of Web hosting firm C I Host Inc. and details how its data center was robbed. Meanwhile, the technology manager working the graveyard shift was held hostage as the robbers stole computer equipment.
The story’s point can’t be more clear: Data centers aren’t as secure as you think.
While data centers do focus on physical security most of us think information security is about hackers and this spy vs. spy game sans violence. Maybe that perception is wrong.
For the Christopher Faulkner, CEO of C I Host, the incident was an eye opener that outlined how security is changing. In general, data centers don’t have metal detectors and bomb-detection systems and physical security isn’t front and center.
The story is definitely worth a read, but the big takeaway is this: Enterprise physical and information security policies will merge it’s just a matter of time. Perhaps worrying about physical security at data centers is alarmist, but do you really want to take the chance. Why hack into a data center when you can just bust in and take a few servers?
Ultimately, IT needs to get to a point where there’s one security dashboard that integrates data protection, video cameras throughout a building and physical security. These incidents may speed up this information/physical security meld.
Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and Editorial Director of ZDNet sister site TechRepublic. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
| 01/08/08
