The data center from hell, Part 1

Seen any good horror movies lately? Here's the script for a security geek's version of the classic slasher flick.

Jan Buitron, CISSP, MCSE, ITIL Foundations Certified, Network + is one of our many gifted graduate students in the Master of Science in Information Assurance (MSIA) program at Norwich University. Because of her extensive experience in the network administration and security fields, she offered to work with me throughout her program by keeping a learning diary which is providing all of us in the MSIA team with a great deal of insight into the strengths and weaknesses of many aspects of our program in line with our philosophy of continuous process improvement.

Jan recently showed me a hilarious report on some of her experiences at one of her previous workplaces. She has kindly allowed me to publish it for your amusement and edification. The remainder of today’s article is entirely Jan’s with minor editorial changes.

* * *

Introduction

Years ago, I worked in the IT department of a small manufacturing company in Colorado while finishing my bachelor’s degree in computer information systems. This was prior to becoming an information assurance professional. Even at that time, it was obvious that the company’s infrastructure protection weakened its security.

Location

The company’s central data center was well camouflaged in an inconspicuous location in a moderately sized city, but that seems to have been its only advantage. The facility sat in an older, heavily industrialized part of the city. The streets were in need of constant repair because of the 18-wheeler trucks passing through the area; the trucks also created noise and vibration.

The condition of the streets was so bad that several employees of the facility had to repair the suspension systems on the vehicles they used to commute to work. The city frequently tore up the roadways to fix deteriorating underground pipes and other aging infrastructure, often hampering employee access to the site. Just as employee access to the location was hindered, it could also happen that access by emergency vehicles such as ambulances or fire trucks could have been hindered. The site was also a product showroom, and the poor condition of the infrastructure around the site could conceivably reduce customer visits.

The parking lot for the leased facility was also in bad condition: the concrete parking barriers each had long pieces of rebar protruding from the top surface. One day I pulled my car too far over a piece of the rebar and the rebar hooked into a plastic air scoop on the bottom of my car’s engine and completely pulled it off when I backed up to leave for the day. The result was that the car overheated and had to have an $800 repair to fix a cracked radiator and install a new air scoop.

The wrong side of the tracks

Very close by on the north side, there were railroad tracks which were continually used to park railroad cars marked “Flammable” and “Capacity, 33,000 gallons.” At one point there were 35 such tanker cars within 150 feet of the building or closer. I had at least one nightmare that a tanker exploded while I was at work. In addition, two sets of the tracks were actively used by trains, causing frequent noise and vibrations.

M. E. Kabay, PhD, CISSP-ISSMP, specializes in security and operations management consulting services and teaching. He is Chief Technical Officer of Adaptive Cyber Security Instruments, Inc. and Associate Professor of Information Assurance in the School of Business and Management at Norwich University. Visit his Web site for white papers and course materials.