NSA & RSA

, not just the metadata but the audio content as well?

New NSA Bluffdale Utah Data Center was revealed long ago. Just for telephone number metadata? Sure! LOL

/ap132411996867.jpg s%202.jpg et.shtml NSA's Massive Utah Datacenter Having Serious Electrical Problems: Has Alrea dy Had 10 Fiery Explosions from the frying-our-data dept (Mis)Uses of Technology by Mike Masnick Tue, Oct 8th 2013 12:12pm It's no secret that government computing projects tend to be something of a boondoggle for government contractors. There are way too many stories of p rojects that are massively over-budget while never actually working. It's a lmost to be expected these days. Still, when it came to the NSA's infamous Utah data center they've been building over the past few years, you would h ave thought that maybe these guys would plan things out a little more caref ully. While we can mock the NSA for the lies and misleading statements they make to the public, most people agree that they do have pretty damn good t echnical skills. But, no, it appears that the Bluffdale data center is a complete mess. The data center, which was supposed to open up last month, has apparently been massively delayed due to major electrical problems -- and we're not just ta lking about some issues with not having enough power, but with setting stuf f on fire: According to the Wall Street Journal, the data center's electrical prob lems include "arc failures," a.k.a. "a flash of lightning inside a 2-foot b ox," which results in fiery explosions, melted metal and circuit failure. M ore terrifying, this has happened ten times, most recently on September 25, reports the WSJ, which reviewed project documents and reports and talked t o contractors involved. The report blames the NSA "fast tracking" the Utah project and thus bypassing "regular quality controls in design and construc tion." Whoops. Whoops indeed. Apparently the NSA was in such a rush to store all our data that it almost burned down its own data center. Good thing they're getting a tax break on all that electricity they're using. Also, it appears that there's a fair bit of sniping going on, as some peopl e claim they knew this was going to happen all along, while others say they have no idea why it's happening: Worse, it sounds from the WSJ's reporting as if the contractors ? arc hitectural firm KlingStubbins which designed the electrical system, along w ith construction companies Balfour Beatty Construction, DPR Construction an d Big-D Construction Corp ? are still scrambling to figure out what's cau sing the problems. The Army Corps of Engineers sent its "Tiger Team" to sor t things out this summer but they were unable to pinpoint exactly what's wr ong. "The problem, and we all know it, is that they put the appliances too c lose together," a person familiar with the database construction told FORBE S, describing the arcs as creating "kill zones." "They used wiring that's n ot adequate to the task. We all talked about the fact that it wasn't going to work." So, while the NSA has all sorts of code-breaking specialists, it appears th at they're a bit understaffed on electrical engineers... Meanwhile, how lon g until peeved Iranian government officials pretend that they did this in r esponse to the NSA creating Stuxnet to mess with their nuclear processing p owers... Posted under the FAIR USE exceptions to US copyright law. Non-profit and for purpose of discussion.