Thieves Steal Computers from City Hall

[adrian]

"They made off with four computers and some petty cash," Brennan said. "Some money that was left around to buy stamps and the like."

Source and complete article

Didn't something similar happen last year? (if I remember, they stole the processors in Dell computers).

I guess someone needs to fold badly *LOL*

[pzarquon]

Re: Thieves Steal Computers from City Hall

Didn't something similar happen last year?

Yep. And you posted about it.

Usually computers get stolen for the hardware. But folks are right to be concerned that the information stored on those machines can often be more valuable. From the article:

"Near as we can tell, there's no sensitive or confidential sort of information contained on the computers that were stolen," Brennan said. "They're your typical office computer for e-mails and the like."

I don't know about you, but even in a well-managed network environment (and you can guess whether the city counts as such an environment), users store all sorts of things on their "typical office computer" hard drive... from nude celebrity photos to tax records to random databases of random chunks of other peoples' personal information.

[1stwahine]

Re: Thieves Steal Computers from City Hall

tOO fUNNY! I like post a comment but I'm laughing sooo much! I have to calm down a bit. hahahahaha

Auntie Lynn

[mel]

Re: Thieves Steal Computers from City Hall

Why would anyone want to steal junkie PCs for the hardware is beyond me. Any personal information stored on the hard drives would have more value for identity thieves. The hardware is just a burden.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Thieves Steal Computers from City Hall

When building computer systems (especially socket 478) The difference between a Celeron running 2.53Ghz and a similar P4 running at the same clock frequency can be amazing. With a P4's higher onboard L1 and L2 cache ram they outperform Celerons when it comes to graphics. The cost of a P4 is astronomically higher than a Celeron as well sometimes almost double for the same socket configuration.

If you were to build a decent gaming system around a socket 478 mobo, one of the most expensive components is the processor. You end up paying for a cheaper Celeron 2.53Ghz thinking it's fast enough until you try running a game like Doom and watch your screen freeze up. Then you find out your processor isn't up to the game's performance despite running a 256Mb PCI-E graphics card.

Then you realize, "Hey we just got a ton of Dell desktops running P4's on a socket 478 configuration". On a Dell you don't even need any tools to open one up to remove the processor. Five minutes and now that P4 on your secretary's desk is running a Celeron at the same frequency: 2.53Ghz.

You say to youself, "Heck Mrs. so and so is only going to do MS Office applications and really doesn't need the power of a P4, when a Celeron will do that kind of work just as well. Nobody will notice".

That is until the IT guy notices the discrepancy on Boot up. Some Dell's even come with 128 and 258Mb ATI or Nvidia 8x AGP graphics cards. For standard office applications a standard integrated video chipset or even something as mundane as an 8Mb graphics card will be enough.

Sitting on that office desk is a goldmine of gamer solutions that when replaced with cheaper Celerons and throwaway graphics cards, will net that gamer with an expensive processor and a faster graphics card. Heck pop out Mrs. so and so's 512Mb of PC3200 DDR400 ram modules and replace them with your slower 512Mb of PC2700 DDR333 ram modules and she'll never even notice the speed difference.

One thing you never want to cockaroach from a Dell is their power supplies. I've seen Dells come in with blown 280-Watt PSU's. Blown because it was trying to run a DVD-burner, 256mb 8x graphics card, and a crap load of ram.

Basically you could take out a goldmine of hardware and replace it with cheaper stuff but the typical office worker would never notice the difference because they aren't taxing their rigs to the potential for what those Dell's could do.

[1stwahine]

Re: Thieves Steal Computers from City Hall

5:15 a.m. K-den. I had enough rest. I not laughing. It happened before as Adrian first posted on HT. (giggles) HPD is under the jurisdiction of C&C - I would assume should have been making perodic checks even if it wasn't. Common sense. However, considering what is happening within it's own Department between the Chief and staff (cough,cough) no wonder nobody was checking?

Question? Don't they have Security at Honolulu Hale since the last break in? Duh? I smell something amiss. Inside job. How the hell dey going carry all dat stuff without getting seen?

Like the last break in - dis one not going get solve. Too much PILIKIA.

Two words.

Make Asx!

Auntie Lynn

just my 2cents foa today.
(I take dat back. Too early.
dunno wat else going come up)