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In 2005, Symantec – the world's leading Internet security company, famed for its anti-virus software – acquired an old decommissioned Cold War nuclear command bunker 50 miles south west of London in the Hampshire countryside and established its European Security Operations Centre (SOC). It plays a key part in providing Symantec's global monitoring services and also supports the company's European managed services customers.
As explained in a special feature in the Guardian newspaper and in a detailed report plus photo gallery on ZDNET.co.uk, teams of security analysts work 12-hour shifts sitting at computer screens, monitoring global security vulnerabilities (viruses, worms and trojans, etc.) and also keeping an eye on TV news feeds for relevant political stories.
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The Symantec SOC bunker can be found in a field alongside a single track road, Watley Lane, which heads south east out of the village of Twyford between Winchester and Southampton. A huge underground water reservoir is immediately adjacent.
Five other Symantec SOCs are located around the world in Sydney, Tokyo, Munich and two in USA: one at San Antonio in Texas and one within Symantec's main offices at 2800 Eisenhower Avenue, Alexandria, Virginia.
Another former top secret UK Cold War Regional Government Headquarters (RGHQ), hidden deep inside a bunker underneath the Lincolnshire Wolds near Skegness, got a fascinating new lease of life in Summer 2005 following two years of refurbishment work.
As reported by BBC News at the time of the sale in 2003, the decommissioned emergency command bunker - for use by military chiefs of staff and Government officials in the event of nuclear war - was snapped-up for £400,000 by a specialist computer data security company, Centrinet, with its global operations centre in Lincoln. If the bunker had been built today from scratch, the cost would have easily exceeded £20 million!
The company wanted to use the massive facility to keep their clients' sensitive data safe from threats such as TEMPEST and Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) attack, as described in one of Alan Turnbull's UK Secrets series of articles for Eye Spy Magazine. Centrinet's client list is reported to include airlines, banks and government departments in more than 40 countries worldwide.
Guardian Article:
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The fight against malicious internet hackers and viruses is being organised from a former nuclear shelter. Ken Young reports
ZD Net Article:
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/security/0,1000000189,39237560,00.htm
ZD Net Photos: The Symantec bunker
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/security/0,1000000189,39237556,00.htm
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The Symantec bunker was built by the UK government in the early 1990s to shelter key utilities workers in the event of a nuclear attack and was originally a reservoir. The entrance is set into a hill near Winchester.