<story><title>MIT Closet Allegedly Used by Aaron Swartz</title><url>http://cryptome.org/2013/01/swartz/mit-closet-swartz.htm</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>gregholmberg</author><text>When I clicked on the link, I expected to see an unlocked closet primarily used to store mops, floor wax and boxes of copier paper.&lt;p&gt;Instead, I saw a small carpeted room containing a half-full rack of telecom gear, featuring several Ethernet switches providing 100 or so switchports for end users, punchdown blocks for terminating phone service to a similar number of incoming lines, and a small number of switchports on what looks like an administratively privileged network via a second smaller switch.&lt;p&gt;The list price of the larger Cisco with all three power supplies and several 24-port GigE cards was at least $15,000 the last time I had to buy one.&lt;p&gt;The fiber uplinks to other rooms (provisioned like this one, or better, typically one per wing on each floor of a large building) are likely to carry some very interesting traffic -- not just between end users and their preferred servers, but between the large switches themselves, possibly even routing outbound traffic for the &quot;administrative&quot; switch, as well.&lt;p&gt;I sometimes use separate &quot;control plane&quot; switched media to access &quot;remote power strips&quot;. These allow an admin to remain seated at a desk while rebooting machines all over the campus.&lt;p&gt;Allowing unrestricted access to a storage closet containing that much gear (uninstalled) is irresponsible. Theft is likely.&lt;p&gt;Allowing unrestricted access to a wiring closet containing that much gear (provisioned, configured, and running in production mode) is a hilarious wtf. The imagination soars ...&lt;p&gt;Allowing unrestricted physical access to any administrative switch that carries traffic for power-cycling campus equipment on and off remotely is a fairly serious oversight, and not in the least bit hilarious.&lt;p&gt;edit:  It looks like the photos show two different rooms. The wiring closet itself has a bare concrete floor.</text></comment>
<story><title>MIT Closet Allegedly Used by Aaron Swartz</title><url>http://cryptome.org/2013/01/swartz/mit-closet-swartz.htm</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>alaskamiller</author><text>Aaron&apos;s impact has been rippling through the internets lately and that&apos;s awe inspiring but we&apos;re slowly marching into morbid reality porn. Nancy Grace does this exact &quot;thing&quot; for a living. Tread lightly.</text></comment>