MooPig Tech Coroner :: "The NSA's Hugely Expensive Utah Data Center is Unusable"

The Security Industry Blows it Again
mashed articles by Pat Darnell  |  Oct 9, 2013  |  Bryan TX

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" ... When the National Security Agency broke ground in 2011 on a $1.2 billion data center in Utah, it launched the largest defense construction project in the nation. (Laurie Bennett. June 9, 2013. LINK) ... "

The National Security Agency’s new billion-dollar-plus data center in Bluffdale, Utah was supposed to go online in September, but the Wall Street Journal’s Siobhan Gorman reports that it has major electrical problems and that the facility known as “the country’s biggest spy center” is presently nearly unusable:

The NSA's Hugely Expensive Utah Data Center Has Major Electrical Problems And Basically Isn't Working - Forbes: "Chronic electrical surges at the massive new data-storage facility central to the National Security Agency’s spying operation have destroyed hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of machinery and delayed the center’s opening for a year, according to project documents and current and former officials. There have been 10 meltdowns in the past 13 months that have prevented the NSA from using computers at its new Utah data-storage center, slated to be the spy agency’s largest, according to project documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal."

'via Blog this'

" ... The NSA described the center’s mission as supporting “the intelligence community’s efforts to further strengthen and protect the nation’s cyber security.”

Its aim, officials said then, was to help other government agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, in protecting national security networks.

It appears that its purpose is also to plumb other computer networks, in the United States and abroad. The New York Times reports that the center is designed to “to store huge volumes of personal data indefinitely.” (Laurie Bennett. June 9, 2013. LINK) ... "




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EXCERPT  |  " ... When I [Kashmir Hill] wrote about the Utah data center holding less information than was previously thought given the current limitations of technology in this space, some critics scoffed. They suggested that the NSA is far more advanced in its technology than companies like Google and Facebook with which I was drawing comparisons. This report from the WSJ about the flawed plans for the data center encourages some skepticism about NSA tech. And it definitely raises questions about the NSA budget. The center itself cost over a billion dollars to build, has a $1 million+ monthly electricity bill, and has cost up to $100,000 each time a “kill zone” happens. Those numbers are as disturbing as the privacy concerns raised by the Snowden leaks. (Kashmir Hill, Forbes Staff. Oct 7, 2013. LINK)..."

_________________________Reference
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2013/10/07/the-nsas-hugely-expensive-utah-data-center-has-major-electrical-problems-and-basically-isnt-working/
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/all/
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304441404579119490744478398.html?mod=wsj_nview_latest
http://news.muckety.com/2013/06/09/the-national-security-industrial-complex/42991
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304441404579119490744478398.html?mod=wsj_nview_latest
http://www.muckety.com/ptmoyb.htm?map=38EA3BC7474B3D7A26E254B7D44E037A.map&autoGroup=7,7
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2013/03/04/nsa-utah-data-center-visit/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2013/07/24/blueprints-of-nsa-data-center-in-utah-suggest-its-storage-capacity-is-less-impressive-than-thought/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/netapp/2013/07/26/nsa-utah-datacenter/