As Americans stew over the looming risk of job-stealing AI and data centers in their back yards, the feds are raising the alarm about a new category of threat, documents obtained by WIRED show.
One can only hope that there really is a network of people ready to fire bomb these places.
Which brings up the question. How do you bypass the surge suppressors for a data center and cause a power spike that destroys all the ai chips. Asking for a friend.
Just thinking out loud but going after the power seems like a bad approach. Instead you should target the cooling infrastructure. Not sure what you could throw in the air intake to do maximum damage, but I think that’s going to be a lot easier to damage than the power would be. Either that or you get clever on the power side. Don’t try to do a big spike, instead stress the failovers. Rapidly alternate between low voltage (maybe connecting a massive power shunt across the incoming line) to trip the backup power and normal voltage to get it to switch off of the backup. I’d bet it would handle rapidly swapping back and forth a lot worse than one big spike.
PSA, it’s a really bad idea to mess with the kind of high voltage lines that feed these data centers. That’s a really good way to end up dead in a very painful manner.
No, I don’t think that will do anything but mildly inconvenience them.
We had these chiller units at the lab I used to work at. They are built like a tank, the only vulnerable part is the two pipes carrying water in and out of the building. Plus our security people insisted we surround the chiller with a twelve foot fence topped with barbed wire.
But even if you do shoot out one of the pipes, all that happens is an alarm goes off the and the system does and orderly shuts down. Our system was installed by the lowest bidder and failed all the time, no really problem.
So if you were to do this, all you have done is risk your life and liberty to mildly annoy the powers that be. You’d be more effective running for local government and cutting them off from the municipal water system.
Plus these building aren’t wood, they are steel and concrete, you can’t even burn them down. Only a transient power event, that overwhelms the surge protection would do any harm.
Say like covertly putting up a lightning rod and running a wire to the building.
But they know they are hated, and these places are well guarded. You will never get close to one. I just don’t see a realistic way to do any damage except through the power line running into the building. Maybe via a substation.
As nice as it is to fantasize about this stuff, you’re attacking a fortified fixed position. They know you are coming, and law enforcement and government is on their side. Seems like a suicide mission.
Yeah the best bet would be to attack the power lines and be a pain. Maybe attack road infrastructure in the area, for example if they have a bridge undermine it and let them have fun. But yeah the best bet would be to just push out pro AI local officials and then revoke permits and whatnot. Worst case scenario you can’t get out of a contract but you can revoke police assistance and ban them from having security or something, would probably depend on how that type of shit works on the legal side of things which I am not familiar with.
One can only hope that there really is a network of people ready to fire bomb these places.
Which brings up the question. How do you bypass the surge suppressors for a data center and cause a power spike that destroys all the ai chips. Asking for a friend.
Aim for the cooling fins on the large electrical transformers
Just thinking out loud but going after the power seems like a bad approach. Instead you should target the cooling infrastructure. Not sure what you could throw in the air intake to do maximum damage, but I think that’s going to be a lot easier to damage than the power would be. Either that or you get clever on the power side. Don’t try to do a big spike, instead stress the failovers. Rapidly alternate between low voltage (maybe connecting a massive power shunt across the incoming line) to trip the backup power and normal voltage to get it to switch off of the backup. I’d bet it would handle rapidly swapping back and forth a lot worse than one big spike.
PSA, it’s a really bad idea to mess with the kind of high voltage lines that feed these data centers. That’s a really good way to end up dead in a very painful manner.
No, I don’t think that will do anything but mildly inconvenience them.
We had these chiller units at the lab I used to work at. They are built like a tank, the only vulnerable part is the two pipes carrying water in and out of the building. Plus our security people insisted we surround the chiller with a twelve foot fence topped with barbed wire.
But even if you do shoot out one of the pipes, all that happens is an alarm goes off the and the system does and orderly shuts down. Our system was installed by the lowest bidder and failed all the time, no really problem.
So if you were to do this, all you have done is risk your life and liberty to mildly annoy the powers that be. You’d be more effective running for local government and cutting them off from the municipal water system.
Plus these building aren’t wood, they are steel and concrete, you can’t even burn them down. Only a transient power event, that overwhelms the surge protection would do any harm.
Say like covertly putting up a lightning rod and running a wire to the building.
But they know they are hated, and these places are well guarded. You will never get close to one. I just don’t see a realistic way to do any damage except through the power line running into the building. Maybe via a substation.
As nice as it is to fantasize about this stuff, you’re attacking a fortified fixed position. They know you are coming, and law enforcement and government is on their side. Seems like a suicide mission.
Yeah the best bet would be to attack the power lines and be a pain. Maybe attack road infrastructure in the area, for example if they have a bridge undermine it and let them have fun. But yeah the best bet would be to just push out pro AI local officials and then revoke permits and whatnot. Worst case scenario you can’t get out of a contract but you can revoke police assistance and ban them from having security or something, would probably depend on how that type of shit works on the legal side of things which I am not familiar with.