A spate of recent break-ins in the City of London has raised fears that an organised gang is targeting data centers in the capital.
On 16 October, pan-European advanced network owner Easynet was the victim of a large and apparently unsophisticated robbery at its Brick Lane headquarters.
According to a letter sent out to its customers, the company said it had a security breach which compromised our core services at 20.16 on 16 October. We were affected by the theft of some core network equipment, resulting in an outage of our services to a number of Customers. In line with our fault management process, all available engineering resources were called in to restore services to our Customers during the following 24 hours. Using existing reserve stock and working closely with our suppliers we were able to restore service to the majority of customers by 01:30 on 17 October. We were also able to replenish our spares and other lost equipment overnight. Full services were restored by mid day on the 17 October although we had some intermittent faults during the day as a result of damaged cables which were replaced promptly. We have put in place additional security measures over and above the ones we had prior to the incident.'
However, witnesses contributing to on-line forums have repeatedly said that two thieves used a swipe card to drive a van up to the facility unchallenged, from where they began loading equipment into the vehicle. Easynet has denied these claims insisting that a forced break-in took place and that the thieves did not use swipe cards to gain entry.
Then, on 31 October, global telecoms carrier, Level 3 lost all its services at its Braham Street data centre following a robbery. A number of router cards were stolen in the robbery, which took place on 31 October, and which severely disrupted voice and data services to businesses in the capital.
Level 3 sent an email to some of its customers following the robbery, saying that : 'There was a security breach in our Braham Street gateway early this morning. A number of service-affecting cards were removed without authority from live equipment. This has resulted in the loss of IP and voice services to a number of customers at Braham Street.'
Level 3 has two data centres in London, the other around a mile away in Goswell Road. The link between the two was severed by the robbery, and many businesses lost connectivity thoroughly.