Dallas ISP raided and shut down by FBI

[NKYKev]

Core IP Networks was raided and shut down by the FBI Thursday. Apparently, it was because of the actions of a former customer, which were not specified. But all existing customers of the ISP have been knocked offline, and the FBI refuses to comment. I guess this is a warning to the ISPs out there - when the FBI comes, they shut down everything and everyody, apparently. Story here.

[MetaMan]

Cops ruining multiple peoples lives because of an individual i just do not believe it.

[cykoe6]

The Feds in the US are out of control.

[pornguy]

Thats something that in the long run will cost them a HELL of a lot in court.

[pornocruto]

Wonder how many will sue for loss of income..

[NKYKev]

I am copying the note the ISP CEO sent to his customers. Note that the FBI sent 15 police cars and SWAT teams to go to the guy's house, and threatened customers trying to get their equipment from the colo center with arrest.

Matthew Simpson
Core IP Networks LLC

Dear Customers,

Today at 6:00am, the FBI conducted an unwarranted early morning raid of our 2323 Bryan Street Datacenters, on the 7th and 24th floors.

I received a phone call at 6:05am from our NOC that the entire network was powered off. I called Capstar Commercial and TELX, our landlord, and was told that the FBI was in the datacenter with a search and seizure warrant. I asked that the agent in charge call me immediately.

I received a call 15 minutes later from FBI Agent Allyn Lynd. Mr. Lynd would not tell me why he raided our datacenter or what he was looking for. He also accused me of hiding inside my house in Ovilla, Texas. I was actually in Phoenix, Arizona when this happened. I told him that, and he told me that he was "getting the dogs" after me, and hung up on me. I found out from an employee that there were 15 police cars and a SWAT team at my home in Ovilla.

The FBI has seized all equipment belonging to our customers. Many customers went to the data center to try and retrieve their equipment, but were threatened with arrest.

Neither I, nor Core IP are involved in any illegal activities of any kind. The only data that I have received thus far is that the FBI is investigating a company that has purchased services from Core IP in the past. This company does not even colocate with us anywhere, much less 2323 Bryan Street Datacenter.

Currently nearly 50 businesses are completely without access to their email and data. Citizen access to Emergency 911 services are being affected, as Core IP's primary client base consists of telephone companies.

If you run a datacenter, please be aware that in our great country, the FBI can come into your place of business at any time and take whatever they want, with no reason.

I can be reached for further comment at: [email protected]
Further information will be given as it becomes available.

Yours,
Matthew Simpson
CEO, Core IP Networks, LLC

[bobby666]

seems to be a funny organisation, that fbi

[Pleasurepays]

i'm sure its for no reason whatsoever. they just had nothing better to do that day than to mobilize a massive force of state and local and federal law enforcement, with warrants, reviewed by the courts and signed by a judge for fun.

[NKYKev]

Originally Posted by Pleasurepays

i'm sure its for no reason whatsoever. they just had nothing better to do that day than to mobilize a massive force of state and local and federal law enforcement, with warrants, reviewed by the courts and signed by a judge for fun.

Apparently, a former customer was involved in illegally downloading Hollywood movies. The actions of the FBI impacted companies from the likes of AT&T and Google on down, millions of dollars of equipment was taken, over 100,000 people have had their 911 service impacted - seems like an inappropriate level of response to me. Story here.

Originally Posted by socalkev

Apparently, a former customer was involved in illegally downloading Hollywood movies. The actions of the FBI impacted companies from the likes of AT&T and Google on down, millions of dollars of equipment was taken, over 100,000 people have had their 911 service impacted - seems like an inappropriate level of response to me. Story here.

LOL, so it's probably all over some movie torrents and pirated copies of microsoft office, etc? For actions that drastic I was at least hoping they were nailing some cp producers or terrorists or something along those lines.

"Simpson also estimates 100,000 phone customers across Texas, and the country, are now without E-911 service, which provides dispatchers with information about where you're calling from. "

no 911 service for 100,000 people, but thankfully they stopped those movies from being pirated.

[Fletch XXX]

protect us FBI get em!!!

[MetaMan]

Originally Posted by Pleasurepays

i'm sure its for no reason whatsoever. they just had nothing better to do that day than to mobilize a massive force of state and local and federal law enforcement, with warrants, reviewed by the courts and signed by a judge for fun.

police doing what they want outside the law? no no that never happens.

[NKYKev]

Originally Posted by evildick

LOL, so it's probably all over some movie torrents and pirated copies of microsoft office, etc? For actions that drastic I was at least hoping they were nailing some cp producers or terrorists or something along those lines.

Apparently so. To shut down so many innocent business owners and endanger the public for anything less than terrorism or cp seems way over the top to me. Thing is, if an entire ISP can be shut down and have all their equipment seized because of one customer, no ISP is safe. I guess this is how the MPAA plans to make ISPs do copyright enforcement for them.

[Pleasurepays]

Originally Posted by MetaMan

police doing what they want outside the law? no no that never happens.

people bitching and complaining that they're just sad victims and totally innocent of everything, right up to the point they get tried and sentenced.... no, that never happens.

[Dirty Dane]

Originally Posted by socalkev

Apparently, a former customer was involved in illegally downloading Hollywood movies. The actions of the FBI impacted companies from the likes of AT&T and Google on down, millions of dollars of equipment was taken, over 100,000 people have had their 911 service impacted - seems like an inappropriate level of response to me. Story here.

Sound like more than just downloading :-)
Probably someone organize hosting and sharing tons of stuff... if its about Hollywood movies at all.

[Ethersync]

Originally Posted by cykoe6

The Feds in the US are out of control.

Yes. Hearing about shit like this outrages me

[NKYKev]

Originally Posted by Dirty Dane

Sound like more than just downloading :-)
Probably someone organize hosting and sharing tons of stuff... if its about Hollywood movies at all.

Yeah, that was not the best way to say it. Thanks for making it more clear.

[MetaMan]

Originally Posted by Pleasurepays

people bitching and complaining that they're just sad victims and totally innocent of everything, right up to the point they get tried and sentenced.... no, that never happens.

please point out where i said that?

[czarina]

it figures... the FBI has so much power that it's simply impossible to fight against them anymore

[Dirty Dane]

Originally Posted by socalkev

Yeah, that was not the best way to say it. Thanks for making it more clear.

Well, it could also be just downloading. You never know... Everything is turning into stasi and facism. The things we have fought against for 40-50 years..

[LoveSandra]

Brainless

[NKYKev]

Originally Posted by pornguy

Thats something that in the long run will cost them a HELL of a lot in court.

Not likely - even if someone succeeds, it will just cost the taxpayers money, one way or another.

[directfiesta]

Seems FBI can do almost anything today in the USA .....

[Joshua G]

dont mess with texas.

[woj]

Originally Posted by Pleasurepays

i'm sure its for no reason whatsoever. they just had nothing better to do that day than to mobilize a massive force of state and local and federal law enforcement, with warrants, reviewed by the courts and signed by a judge for fun.

no kidding

[LiveDose]

Out of control.

[directfiesta]

Originally Posted by Pleasurepays

people bitching and complaining that they're just sad victims and totally innocent of everything, right up to the point they get tried and sentenced.... no, that never happens.

good old extreme right winger ... yep, guilty till proven innocent, along with the others.

I hope, if you are in the business ( ???? ) that it DOES happen to you ... I will laugh my head off

[NetHorse]

Yeah..I am willing to bet there is a lot more to this story than what's being reported. I agree it sucks that the innocent have to pay the price though.

The FBI won't organize a major raid like this without a very good reason. If they raided the ISP solely on the reasons being provided than 100s of ISPs across the country would have already been raided.

[WiredGuy]

Did the FBI post or comment yet? I'd like to hear their side of this as it definitely sounds like they went too far.
WG

[Pleasurepays]

Originally Posted by directfiesta

good old extreme right winger ... yep, guilty till proven innocent, along with the others.

I hope, if you are in the business ( ???? ) that it DOES happen to you ... I will laugh my head off

"Extreme right winger"?

well... whether you want to accept it or not, there is more to the story. There is also a federal warrant which doesn't just fall from the magical tree of unicorn tears. it went before a federal judge, was reviewed and approved. there is a chain of accountability in this process. further, it took a considerable amount of planning to set all this up and involved a lot of levels of bureaucracy on both the state and federal level. its not like its a case of a lone sheriff in Backwoods Arkansas making a poor judgement call.

would i be happy if I lost my server in this matter? of course not. however, since i don't know all the story... there is no basis to rush to judgment. You see... i'm not like you. I'm a rational person who reasons things through. I don't spend my time running through life on raw emotion like a 14yr old girl on her period.

[directfiesta]

Originally Posted by Pleasurepays

"Extreme right winger"?

would i be happy if I lost my server in this matter? of course not. however, since i don't know all the story... there is no basis to rush to judgment. You see... i'm not like you. I'm a rational person who reasons things through. I don't spend my time running through life on raw emotion like a 14yr old girl on her period.

Seems someone did .... MrLogic

If you live in a condo, I hope someone a few years ago was doing illegal shit so that the FBI can come in and kick you out of your unit ... no explanation ... because it must be well founded ....

[Pleasurepays]

Originally Posted by directfiesta

Seems someone did .... MrLogic

If you live in a condo, I hope someone a few years ago was doing illegal shit so that the FBI can come in and kick you out of your unit ... no explanation ... because it must be well founded ....

a condo is private property. the servers are owned by the hosting company. no one is forcing people to live on the street here.

depending on what was happening there, it might have involved all servers and there might be good reason to not let people access them and modify their contents until an investigation is concluded.

seriously... wear your helmet.

[TeenCat]

lol police state

[Tom_PM]

How is knocking phone and 911 service for an entire town warranted? lol.
It's clearly, very clearly, a recklessly carried out stage of their "investigation".

I saw on the news this weekend about some movie being pirated to the internet before it's release. Maybe this was related to that. But if it was, it was horribly done.

It was EXACTLY as if 1 apartment in a building of 50 apartments had a meth lab, and instead of busting the one apartment, they busted all 50.

[Sarah_Jayne]

Well that has to rank high on one of the suckiest days to have.

[DaddyHalbucks]

Originally Posted by Pleasurepays

"Extreme right winger"?

well... whether you want to accept it or not, there is more to the story. There is also a federal warrant which doesn't just fall from the magical tree of unicorn tears. it went before a federal judge, was reviewed and approved. there is a chain of accountability in this process. further, it took a considerable amount of planning to set all this up and involved a lot of levels of bureaucracy on both the state and federal level. its not like its a case of a lone sheriff in Backwoods Arkansas making a poor judgement call.

would i be happy if I lost my server in this matter? of course not. however, since i don't know all the story... there is no basis to rush to judgment. You see... i'm not like you. I'm a rational person who reasons things through. I don't spend my time running through life on raw emotion like a 14yr old girl on her period.

Well put.

[directfiesta]

Originally Posted by Pleasurepays

a condo is private property. the servers are owned by the hosting company. no one is forcing people to live on the street here.

depending on what was happening there, it might have involved all servers and there might be good reason to not let people access them and modify their contents until an investigation is concluded.

seriously... wear your helmet.

Read the thread instead of listening to yourself type...

I will quote to make it easier, MrRight ... :

The FBI has seized all equipment belonging to our customers. Many customers went to the data center to try and retrieve their equipment, but were threatened with arrest.

Anything else I can help you with ???

Saw that your other right wing buddy came in to fluff you a bit ....

[Pleasurepays]

Originally Posted by directfiesta

Read the thread instead of listening to yourself type...

as i said... specifically addressing your remark (comments which you ignore in your mindless fervor to rant against the US and authority as if there are only victims in the world... allowing people to reclaim their servers or allowing them access to their servers would depend on whether or not their servers are relevant to the investigation/case.

since you don't know if they are, arent, if they were compromised/hacked etc... you're just pissing in the wind because at the root of it all.. you hate authority. if someone had compromised all the boxes and was using them to distribute CP... then obviously they aren't going to let customers access them. but of course, you had to go straight to comparing this to the federal government throwing people out of their homes.. so its not like you are capable of reason.

[sarettah]

Raided colocation data center under investigation for fraud
The company that runs a Dallas colocation data center which the FBI raided last week is under investigation for fraud, according to a report.

CBS in Dallas, citing court documents related to the raid, reports that Core IP Networks is one of several Web server providers being investigated for defrauding AT&T and Verizon out of millions of dollars. The two telecom giants reportedly told federal officials that Matthew Simpson, Core IP's CEO, along with four others, had defrauded them out of $6 million worth of fees in a three- to four-month period.

Simpson denied the charges, telling CBS Dallas that he is doing everything he can to "cooperate with the investigation and to help ? clients get back up and running."

Last week, in a letter posted online, Simpson claimed the raid was the result of an FBI investigation into a company that once purchased services from Core IP Networks but that didn't colocate with them. There was speculation that the raid may have been connected to illegal downloads of the soon-to-be-released X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie, but that hasn't been verified.

Simpson has not replied to repeated requests for comment.

From: http://searchdatacenter.techtarget.c...52933,00.html#

[Tom_PM]

Originally Posted by sarettah

From: http://searchdatacenter.techtarget.c...52933,00.html#

oop! Nevermind!

[quantum-x]

Originally Posted by socalkev

Core IP Networks was raided and shut down by the FBI Thursday. Apparently, it was because of the actions of a former customer, which were not specified. But all existing customers of the ISP have been knocked offline, and the FBI refuses to comment. I guess this is a warning to the ISPs out there - when the FBI comes, they shut down everything and everyody, apparently. Story here.

Rubbish.
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?.../04/04/2013200

Don't post FUD ;)

[NKYKev]

Originally Posted by quantum-x

Rubbish.
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?.../04/04/2013200

Don't post FUD ;)

I posted what I had read, and what had been initially reported in a Dallas newspaper and on PCWorld.com. And yes, it was speculation based on IP matters. Now it appears this case is over fees supposedly due to AT&T and Verizon for voip access. While the specifics may have changed, the reality is the same - the FBI shut down the servers of a lot of very innocent companies for no reason if all they needed to do was investigate the voip servers and get records of the transactions that AT&T and Verizon are complaining about - and according to the owners of the ISPs involved, any fees due them should be paid by the clients using the voip servers, not them, by the way. Story here. Whether any of this is true or not is still speculation as well. But the FBI still shut down the entire ISP, and a lot of people with no connection to any possible wrongdoing are suffering because of it, whether it be from loss of data or their 911 service. etc.

[Snake Doctor]

Originally Posted by Pleasurepays

i'm sure its for no reason whatsoever. they just had nothing better to do that day than to mobilize a massive force of state and local and federal law enforcement, with warrants, reviewed by the courts and signed by a judge for fun.

Originally Posted by Pleasurepays

people bitching and complaining that they're just sad victims and totally innocent of everything, right up to the point they get tried and sentenced.... no, that never happens.

Originally Posted by Pleasurepays

"Extreme right winger"?

well... whether you want to accept it or not, there is more to the story. There is also a federal warrant which doesn't just fall from the magical tree of unicorn tears. it went before a federal judge, was reviewed and approved. there is a chain of accountability in this process. further, it took a considerable amount of planning to set all this up and involved a lot of levels of bureaucracy on both the state and federal level. its not like its a case of a lone sheriff in Backwoods Arkansas making a poor judgement call.

would i be happy if I lost my server in this matter? of course not. however, since i don't know all the story... there is no basis to rush to judgment. You see... i'm not like you. I'm a rational person who reasons things through. I don't spend my time running through life on raw emotion like a 14yr old girl on her period.

Goddammit.

I hate it when I agree with you. Knock it off already.

[V_RocKs]

Sweet. I hate spam.

[Manowar]

Damn, someones websites just got lost

[Klen]

I though only our police doing such things but i guess i was wrong.If you wrote something bad on internet and someone sue you police will come and took everything from you even it is enough to take hard drive to search for evidences.

[Snake Doctor]

Originally Posted by KlenTelaris

I though only our police doing such things but i guess i was wrong.If you wrote something bad on internet and someone sue you police will come and took everything from you even it is enough to take hard drive to search for evidences.

[d-null]

Originally Posted by Snake Doctor

that's fuckin rude of you, we all know english isn't his first language, I understood exactly what he was saying...... dude should be commended for learning the language and doing a pretty decent job of it

[JD]

50 ISP uh-ohs