[60011] in Hotline Meeting
Re: m37 machine room alarm this morning
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Francis X. McLaughlin)
Mon Jun 17 13:05:50 2002
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Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2002 13:03:54 -0400
To: Camilla R Fox <cfox@MIT.EDU>, ops@MIT.EDU, network@MIT.EDU
From: "Francis X. McLaughlin" <Franx@MIT.EDU>
Cc: hotline@MIT.EDU
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Camilla,
The circuit used by the security machine between 37-322A and W91 went
down on Thursday and I called it in to the I.S. Telecom office. One
of their techs came to W91 this morning to work on it, at that time I
wasn't aware that another one went to 37 or I could have made
arrangements to shutoff the alarm. In any case they do not have
access into areas unless there's a telephone closet inside. He must
have used a master key, which in turn triggered the alarm. He called
CP but not me. After finding out what was happening I asked him to
let me know when he left so that I could alarm it, he didn't.
Usually because the telephone techs work for Telecom and we call in
the security circuits we let them fix them and if its an alarmed room
we will meet them there and deactivate the alarm. Obviously it
didn't work well today. As for normal policies, the only people who
have access other than those people requested by Jonathon are the few
security system maintainers from W91 DOST. As of this mailing the
circuit is still down and the only affect would be adding or deleting
access and cards. If you would like to call me please do at 3-7049.
Fran McLaughlin
Datacenter Operations Services Team
At 11:10 AM -0400 6/17/02, Camilla R Fox wrote:
>A little before 10:15, vmail on x32624 (from Matt with Hardware
>Services) paged Cana, saying the alarm in the m37 machine room had gone
>off. I was a little more awake, so I headed in to find out what was
>going on.
>
>I found the room empty and the alarm disarmed; I phoned hotline, and JJ
>told me that a Lucent technician with authorisation from W91 had not
>known about the alarm system, or had been told he could key his way in.
>
>I phoned the W91 machine room, and was told that Fran had authorised
>said Lucent technician; I didn't get a clear understanding of what he
>was to fix, or whether it was urgent, but it sounded like something to
>do with the alarm system itself.
>
>My understanding was that facilities people and outside contractors
>aren't to come in here without an escort, unless it's an emergency.
>Has this changed? (I don't feel strongly about the policy, but I'd
>like to know what policy is being followed.) I didn't know that we
>ever gave contractors card-key access to the machine rooms, and it does
>sound like that's what was attempted.
>
>If this wasn't an emergency, could someone look into why ops wasn't
>given advance notice?
>
>I'm going to arm the alarm as I leave, in a couple of minutes, since I
>see no sign of anyone.
>
>Camilla Fox
>Athena Server Operations
