A seven-minute video posted on YouTube leads viewers through the security measures that Google takes within its data centers. In addition to information about how the company controls access to its data center facilities, the video provides some entertaining views of the destruction of hard drives that have reached the end of their useful lives. Google's point is to emphasize the measures it takes to protect the customer data on those drives.
About 3:45 into the video is a demonstration of a machine dubbed "the crusher," which pushes a steel piston through the drive. Next for the unfortunate former piece of computing equipment is the drive shredder, which does exactly what you would expect a drive shredder to do. The shredded drives are recycled.
Cabling also makes its way into the conversation. About 5:30 into the video, the narrator states, "Google data centers are connected to the Internet via high-speed fiber-optic cabling. In each data center there are multiple redundant connections to protect against the possibility of a failure from a single connection."
Monday, April 25, 2011
Friday, April 15, 2011
Rebels hacked, rewired Libya's cell network for their own use
A compelling story from Wall Street Journal reporters Margaret Coker and Charles Levinson details how Libyan rebels - with help from individuals and governments supportive of their cause and without help from some equipment suppliers - rewired a portion of Libya's cellular-communications network to allow the rebels to communicate with each other.
The WSJ article states, "engineers hived off part of the Libyan cellphone network ... and rewired it to run independently of the regime's control." The article explains that the country's telcommunications infrastructure is built in a star topology, the center of which is Tripoli, allowing Colonel Moammar Gadhafi's government to control phone and Internet access. Libyan rebels had been without telecommunications access of any kind and were resorting to flag-waving during battles with government forces, the article says, before help from outside of Libya aided them.
The story details the efforts of Libyan-born, American-raised telecom executive Ousama Abushagur, who currently resides in Abu Dhabi. It reads a little like a work of international-espionage fiction, describing telecom-equipment provide Huawei's contract with the nation of Libya and refusal to supply equipment to the rebels as well as the roles of neighboring countries and their telecommunications companies in the hacking effort.
The story states that once they obtained the needed equipment and were on the ground - or perhaps more appropriately on the towers - in Libya, the system-installation crew "fused the new equipment into the existing cellphone network, creating an independent data and routing system free from Tripoli's command."
You can read the entire Wall Street Journal story by Coker and Levison here.
The WSJ article states, "engineers hived off part of the Libyan cellphone network ... and rewired it to run independently of the regime's control." The article explains that the country's telcommunications infrastructure is built in a star topology, the center of which is Tripoli, allowing Colonel Moammar Gadhafi's government to control phone and Internet access. Libyan rebels had been without telecommunications access of any kind and were resorting to flag-waving during battles with government forces, the article says, before help from outside of Libya aided them.
The story details the efforts of Libyan-born, American-raised telecom executive Ousama Abushagur, who currently resides in Abu Dhabi. It reads a little like a work of international-espionage fiction, describing telecom-equipment provide Huawei's contract with the nation of Libya and refusal to supply equipment to the rebels as well as the roles of neighboring countries and their telecommunications companies in the hacking effort.
The story states that once they obtained the needed equipment and were on the ground - or perhaps more appropriately on the towers - in Libya, the system-installation crew "fused the new equipment into the existing cellphone network, creating an independent data and routing system free from Tripoli's command."
You can read the entire Wall Street Journal story by Coker and Levison here.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Elderly woman, digging for scrap, knocks out Internet in Eastern Europe
CNET Asia has reported that a 75-year-old woman cut off Internet access to thousands in the Eastern European countries of Georgia and Armenia when she dug up a fiber-optic line, thinking the cable was copper and aiming to scrap the metal for cash.
The enterprising senior citizen was arrested for her efforts. Local media outlets have begun calling her the "spade hacker" and report that she faces up to three years' imprisonment if convicted.
According to reports, officials at Georgian Railway Telecom, which owns the fiber-optic line, were surprised at the amount of damage done. CNET quoted the company's top marketing executive as saying, "I cannot understand how this lady managed to find and damage the cable. It has robust protection and such incidents are extremely rare."
One news outlet is reporting that the accused is claiming innocence and has been distraught since her arrest. ABSCBN News identified the woman as Hayastan Shakarian and said she "tearfully insisted she was innocent and she had never heard of the web."
Their story quoted her as follows: "I did not cut this cable. Physically, I could not do it. I have no idea what the Internet is." A Georgian interior minister, however, claimed that Shakarian had already confessed.
The enterprising senior citizen was arrested for her efforts. Local media outlets have begun calling her the "spade hacker" and report that she faces up to three years' imprisonment if convicted.
According to reports, officials at Georgian Railway Telecom, which owns the fiber-optic line, were surprised at the amount of damage done. CNET quoted the company's top marketing executive as saying, "I cannot understand how this lady managed to find and damage the cable. It has robust protection and such incidents are extremely rare."
One news outlet is reporting that the accused is claiming innocence and has been distraught since her arrest. ABSCBN News identified the woman as Hayastan Shakarian and said she "tearfully insisted she was innocent and she had never heard of the web."
Their story quoted her as follows: "I did not cut this cable. Physically, I could not do it. I have no idea what the Internet is." A Georgian interior minister, however, claimed that Shakarian had already confessed.
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