October 19, 2013 / by emptywheel

 

My name is US Bandwith, king of kings:

“My name is US Bandwith, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away

I’m thinking of planting a sphinx in UT in front of the UT Data Center. What other appropriate response is there to this?

The U.S. National Security Agency failed to install the most up-to-date anti-leak software at a site in Hawaii before contractor Edward Snowden went to work there and downloaded tens of thousands of highly classified documents, current and former U.S. officials told Reuters.

[snip]

The main reason the software had not been installed at the NSA’s Hawaii facility by the time Snowden took up his assignment there was that it had insufficient bandwidth to comfortably install it and ensure its effective operation, according to one of the officials.

Due to the bandwidth issue, intelligence agencies in general moved more slowly than non-spy government units, including the Defense Department, to install anti-leak software, officials said.

This is precisely the excuse they used after Chelsea Manning absconded with several databases on a Lady Gaga CD. They’re still using it.

Then there’s this:

The NSA’s Utah data center is still struggling to get up and running. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that the site slated to hold exabytes of NSA spy data has been suffering from lightning arcs and meltdowns that have destroyed hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment and prevented the NSA from using the center for its intended purpose: massive data storage and mining. The WSJ reported there had been ten incidents thus far. A source familiar with the project says the center underwent yet another shutdown over the weekend after electrical problems on Thursday and Friday.

The data center was shut down through Tuesday. The source says there aren’t “arcs and fires anymore” but that the experts on the site still haven’t figured out what’s causing the problems. They have figured out how to prevent flashes of lightning, though.

“They’re seeing a pattern of where it gets to the meltdown point and they stop it before it blows again,” says the source. The source says that contractors have been injured and taken to the hospital due to electrocution, but not in the most recent shutdown.

At least they’ve stopped electrocuting contractors.

Our empire needs the intelligence, you see, but apparently can’t ensure an adequate supply of power, of any type.

Update: Argh. As Morris Minor notes, it’s bandwidth, not bandwith. But I’ve grown fond of it, so I’m going to leave it as is, calling it poetic license, while I hang my head in shame.

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Originally Posted @ https://www.emptywheel.net/2013/10/19/my-name-is-us-bandwith-king-of-kings/