Top secret Visa data center banks on security, even has moat

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2012-03-25/visa-data-center/53774904/1

By Jon Swartz
USA TODAY
March 25, 2012

SOMEWHERE ON THE EASTERN SEABOARD -- Prisons are easier to enter than 
Visa's top-secret Operations Center East, its biggest, newest and most 
advanced U.S. data center.

The 8-acre facility looks like any other industrial park in a sleepy 
suburb. But the serene setting masks hundreds of cameras and a crack 
team of former military personnel. Hydraulic bollards beneath the road 
leading to the OCE can be quickly raised to stop an intruding car going 
50 mph. Any speed faster, and the car can't navigate a hairpin turn, 
sending it into a drainage pond that functions as a modern-day moat.

The data center resembles a fortress, with dogged attention to detail. 
It can withstand earthquakes and hurricane-force winds of up to 170 mph. 
A 1.5-million-gallon storage tank cools the system. Diesel generators 
onsite have enough power, in the event of an outage, to keep the center 
running for nine days. They generate enough electricity for 25,000 
households.

Once you get clearance from a guard station, get an OK from a roving 
security guy in a golf cart, and surrender a photo and fingerprint 
inside, the adventure begins.

There are plenty of reasons for the airtight security. Billions, in 
fact.

[...]


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