The Nuclear Bunker Where Wikileaks Will Be Located 187
An anonymous reader writes "Engadget has photos of 'Pionen White Mountains, the nuclear bunker in which Wikileaks will locate some of its servers. It was excavated 98 feet underground, in a rock hill in the center of Stockholm, Sweden, during the Cold War.' It looks like they hired the same interior designer who decorated Batman's lair."
Why? (Score:4, Insightful)
What benefit is there to using these bunkers? If Wikileaks is shut down it will be by court order, not by nuclear missile. I don't see the purpose of paying for their fancy fountain/lighting set up with your server maintenance fees.
Servers? What servers? (Score:2, Insightful)
We ain't got no steenkin' servers. We spent all our money with Gary, our Designer.
Re:Why? (Score:4, Insightful)
Although some of it is frills, doing it underground does largely eliminate seasonal variation and might make security and general environmental control easier. For ordinary server rooms that can be a big expense.
What's the point? (Score:5, Insightful)
The survivability of Wikileaks in Sweden is entirely dependent on the Swedish government's willingness to let them be there, and nothing else. The servers could exist in a cave underground or a data center with a big sign that says "Wikileaks is here" in downtown Stockholm. Either way, if the Swedish governments decides they want it gone, it's going to be gone.
no a bunker makes it easy to cut the data / power (Score:4, Insightful)
no a bunker makes it easy to cut the data / power cable!
Because they can (Score:3, Insightful)
That is enough.
Re:Why? (Score:3, Insightful)
Structurally sound? (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm looking at this photo of one of the rooms [gawkerassets.com]. Is having a glass room suspended from the ceiling really such a good idea for a bunker designed to withstand blasts? It seems like a very bad idea to make a structurally sound bunker with that kind of room. Unless you want your manager to be the first one to die in his office
weakest link is the external data cable (Score:3, Insightful)
two words: "heat dissipation" (Score:4, Insightful)
bunkers or caves usually ARE cool and don't swing radically up or down in temperature...
until you put a bunch of servers in them
then they heat up, and STAY hot, and are harder to cool than on the surface because there is nowhere to dissipate the heat
also: they are hard to get supplies to and build in, they have air quality issues, etc
yeah: they look really cool and they sound really cool, but in actual practicality, the idea of servers in caves or bunkers sucks
Re:Disappointed (Score:2, Insightful)
What is the point of it being underground like this?
To survive some kind of explosive attack?
Anybody that is at all determined to disable access to this server would just need to snip the internet cable running into this bunker (and yes, jam/intercept any wireless connection it may have) and then prevent WikiLeaks from fixing it.
Re:Disappointed (Score:3, Insightful)
It's there:
1. To make the servers physically safer
2. Because it impresses investors
It's not in a bunker to ensure uptime, but to ensure istime.
Re:Disappointed (Score:3, Insightful)
If the Swedish Police, or US government, for some reason decides that Wikileaks must be shut down an underground bunker won't help at all. It seems pointless, but then Wikileaks is all about the drama.
Re:Why? (Score:3, Insightful)
If Wikileaks is shut down it will be by court order, not by nuclear missile.
Or they could just cut the network cable. No use running a web server that's not connected to a network.
Re:Seriously? (Score:4, Insightful)
There are probably some European countries where they could be prosecuted but they have not violated any USA law.
Re:Disappointed (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Who's paying for all of this (Score:3, Insightful)
They're buying space in an existing colo facility with probably hundreds of other paying customers. Probably just a couple of cabinets. They're not building the thing.
Re:What's the point? (Score:3, Insightful)
Your contention is that people will side with Wikileaks if they get caught up in a dragnet approach by the government. Country point: it is at least equally likely that people affected by such a move would side against Wikileaks, blaming Wikileaks for putting them (Johan Six-Herring) in such a position and wish them gone so as to stop inconveniencing everyone else.
Re:Disappointed (Score:3, Insightful)
Someone should tag it pionenforthefjords, though.
Re:two words: "heat dissipation" (Score:3, Insightful)
....You know, that really would work!