T 0.41 Sabotage

Sabotage is the deliberate manipulation of or damage to objects or processes with the aim of inflicting damage to the victim by acting this way. Particularly attractive targets can be data centres and the communication connections of public bodies or companies, since there a great effect can be achieved with relatively few resources.

The complex infrastructure of a computer centre can be affected by selective manipulation, when possibly external perpetrators but also primarily intruders from inside actively influence important components to provoke operational disruptions. In this regard, insufficiently protected technical building systems and communication infrastructure as well as central supply points are particularly threatened if they are left unobserved in organisational and technical terms and can be easily accessed by externals without being noticed.

Examples:

• In a mainframe computer centre, a manipulation of the uninterrupted power supply led to a temporary total failure. The perpetrator had repeatedly manually switched the uninterrupted power supply to bypass mode and then manipulated the main power supply of the building. Altogether there were four failures within three years. Even hardware was partially damaged. The disruption took between 40 and 130 minutes.

• Sanitary facilities were also located within a data centre. Due to blockage of the drains and the simultaneous opening of the water supply, water penetrated into central technology components. Damage caused this way resulted in interruptions of operation in the production system.

• Electronic archives present a particular risk of sabotage, since there, many sensitive documents are kept on a small floor space. Because of this aspect, by targeted unsophisticated manipulation a great deal of damage can be incurred under certain circumstances.