FBI returns Riseup server to May First/People Link cabinet
Found on May First on Thursday, 03 May 2012
Progressive Internet organization May First/People Link has released footage of what appears to be an FBI operation to return the Riseup.net server that they had seized two weeks ago from a colocation space shared by riseup.net and MF/PL.
Neither May First/People Link or Riseup was not notified that the server was being replaced. It was never notified that the server was taken in the first place.
May First/People Link has removed the server from the facility and is in the process of analyzing it. The server will not be put back into production.
Okay, maybe taking the server without notification was somewhat legal if the FBI had a valid warrant, but simply coming back and stuffing it into the rack is just wrong. Tinfoil-hats aside, there is no reason to trust the operating system on it (or the hardware itself even); especially not since the server is part of a anonymous email system. Collecting information from there would be really interesting for the FBI. What's more, even the other systems should now be considered insecure since a possibly backdoored system has been activated in that network, bypassing external security. Depening on how tight internal security is, all systems need to be checked and should be reinstalled just to be sure.