I assume that the robbers also tasered everyone and maybe executed a few people with multiple shots to the head - to make their impersonation of police officers more convincingly realistic.

If we didn't have any police then this kind of incident wouldn't happen in the first place.

And if you do ever meet a real police office ask them for ID, it keeps them baffled until you can make a clean get away

Is a data centre with no data in it just a fancy name for a spares cupboard ?

Seriously, BOFHesque :p

You mean rather than trying to convince them by wondering around doing naff all and employing others to the job for them but with different job titles.

Which is just as well otherwise no kit would have been nicked and you wouldn't have a cool heist story :)

Are we sure they were dressed as coppers and not as strippers?

...otherwise they'd have gone straight for the SAN-looking thing; the data's worth a hell of a lot more, albeit a shitload harder to shift.

still, i'm sure they'll have plenty of time to reflect upon their 'error' while sipping pinacoladas on some far away beach.

But isn't going to the trouble of dressing up as police officers, to break into a data center of an investment bank a little risky just to steal stuff they could have got from many other less protected data centers across the UK A little hard to swallow.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/02/chicaco_datacenter_breaches/

Does anyone think so?

Assorted servers and sundry items, slightly 'used'.

has anyone noticed the ad running on this page... ' my data is safe, is yours' ' my network is safe, is yours' - well it made me laugh...

coat acquired... door pending

....for a couple of cd's?

It's the usual story; rather than steal the right kit the first time around, the boss went for the cheap stuff. I told him it would need replacing in a year's time....

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/01/level3_robbery/

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/20/easynet_brick_lane_robbery/

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/23/vodafone_network_outage/

...work in tech support for a company (not JP Morgan) who has several racks hosted at UK5 and this is the first I've heard of it. Fortunately none of our servers have vanished, but there was a cooling system failure (not the first time it's happened either) on Sunday which led to most of our servers getting powered off. Lots of knackered disks and unhappy customers to deal with; just what you need first thing on a Monday.

...we lost connectivity to Euronext Liffe Financials.... no wonder nobody knew what was going on!

yeah, right. Did they scrub the data before removing the hardware?

£2million pounds worth of stuff?

So, the thieves will be wondering where the other million pounds worth of stuff they're supposed to have taken is.

What, they take the server, ditch the hard drives?

Perhaps all they took was switches and network cables.

oh, I know! they came in with a wireless AP and stole £2m worth of bandwidth!

coat, door, pub, pint.

In March of 1990 the largest art heist in US history occurred in Boston at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum when two men dressed in Boston police uniforms came to the door and asked to be let in to deal with college students running through the interior courtyard. This was a common event since the museum was located across the street from a college, but this time it was not true. Once inside the fake cops tied up the two guards, robbed the museum, took the CCTV system tapes of the event, and left. The case remains unsolved. Museum employees everywhere now know to verify the identity of police before letting them in by call the police dispatcher unless they called for them personally for a known issue. Physical security should be part of every data center employee's training and this should include access control procedures.

Steve Keller

Museum Security Consultant

www.stevekeller.com

... All data centre employees work behind secure bullet-proof counters and should be aware of the fact that it is not possible for police to enter a data centre without a valid search warrant. Did no-one at the data centre question this breach of their own security? Their first action should have been to hit the alarm bells and would thus call the REAL police who, presumably would then drop their donuts and be there within the week.

Such professionalism, such dedication to duty, such is my coat, my hat.