That's rather old news, and was even rather old news when the newspapers discovered it; the "anarchist protestors" PR spin was just taking advantage of current events to hook an article on. Ben Laurie and thebunker.net are well known in cypherpunks circles, and you'll find a fair bit of discussion in the cypherpunks archives. IIRC, they were even bidding on a second bunker for expansion space, though given the last 3 months' transition in the US internet hosting space market (from "We're all building like mad!" to "Ohhh, noooo! What a glut!") I hope they're able to make the right financial choices. The UK is probably not flooded with the things yet, and while a nuclear-proof bunker may be overkill for offsite backup space, you do need a certain level of security and reliable power if you're in a business like banking that can't afford to lose data. Also see the last month's worth of userfriendly.org/static cartoons.... At 12:21 PM 08/22/2001 -0400, Matthew Gaylor wrote:
From: "Moon Kat" <lavalake@hotmail.com> To: freematt@coil.com Subject: Top firms retreat into bunker to ward off 'Anarchists' Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 12:46:41 +0000
Hi Matt
Not sure if you've seen this one already but here goes. Quite where the anti-capitalists are going to get a thermonuclear bomb from isn't explained in the article but surely such a device would compromise their "Neo-Luddite" principles anyway?
Yours, in a fallout shelter, somewhere west of London
dK
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TOP FIRMS RETREAT INTO BUNKER TO WARD OFF 'ANARCHISTS'
"Some of Britain's biggest companies are running their Internet operations on systems installed in a 300ft-deep nuclear blast-proof bunker to protect customers from violent anti-capitalist campaigners. They are renting space in hermetically sealed rooms capable of withstanding a one Kiloton explosion, electro-magnetic 'pulse bombs', electronic eavesdropping and chemical and biological warfare."