C I Host Responds to Robbery ReportsBy Anastasia Tubanos, theWHIR.com
November 6, 2007 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — This week, the WHIR reported a recent robbery at Web hosting provider C I Host’s (cihost.com) Chicago colocation facility, in which an employee was assaulted with a tazer by intruders who took at least 20 data servers.
Although C I Host can’t speculate as to precisely why its facility was broken into, says James Eckels, chief corporate counsel, it believes it is being targeted. Eckels says C I Host believes the perpetrators were sophisticated robbers who were likely familiar with the building layout, the company’s operations and the technology involved, and that they “know what they’re doing.”
According to C I Host, on the night of the robbery the alarm went off shortly after midnight, which brought the Chicago Police Department to the facility to search for disturbances. After finding nothing, the police left and “even hit us with a false alarm fee,” says Eckels. At around 3:15 a.m. the alarm went off again, and the robbery was discovered. C I Host speculates that the robbers were hiding in the mechanical closet, and were missed by the police when they scanned the facility, before making a move into the data center.
Eckels says C I Host’s data center manager called each customer affected by the incident and emailed them each a notice of what had occurred, with C I Host’s and the Chicago Police Department’s contact information.
C I Host has been offering temporary boxes to affected customers, but Eckels says most have opted to purchase their own replacement servers. The company has asked customers to keep their receipts for possible future reimbursement, based on whatever settlement the company reaches with its insurance company.
“Bottom line is, no-one likes to hear what we have to say,” says Eckels. “We can offer services or discounts, but people want money. They want compensation. But we don’t have money to give them. We’re just as victimized as our customers. They came to us because we offered them cheap colocation services. They think because we’re a corporation we have lots of money, but we make our money through volume. If we had the money, we would give it to them.”
Customers involved in attempting to set up a class-action lawsuit, however, say C I Host is responsible for keeping their equipment safe. The previous break-in at the same location, they say, makes the latest incident the result of negligence on the company’s part.
Eckels says C I Host recognizes there is a flaw in its security system, but says other factors may have led to the incident. C I Host is a tenant in a larger building, and the company doesn’t own the entire compound. Eckels says the building owners need to shoulder some of the responsibility for boosting its security measures. He says the building happens to be in a “bad area of town.” C I Host, he says, has changed its security guard situation to employ someone the company finds more reliable and proactive.
While information about the break-in has been mostly disseminated through online forums up to this point, Eckels says that sort of discussion often ends up including misinformation. He says he hopes customers will deal with the company directly.
“There’s no resolution really,” he says. “We’re dealing with the situation on a customer-by-customer basis. We’ve got nothing to hide, even though people have been saying otherwise online. The forums have been a bed of misinformation – extortion compounded with defamation. One of the biggest mistakes is that people are talking about four robberies. A robbery means than property has been seized through violence or intimidation. C I Host has technically only been robbed twice in two years. The other two were break-ins where things were stolen, but not robberies.”
Customers may be happy to deal directly with a company honestly addressing a difficult situation. But according to some forum posts, a few have already packed up and moved their business to other hosts.
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