back to article Visa shows off data centre 'moat'

Credit card company Visa has boasted that one of its US data centres possesses the ultimate security feature – a moat designed to trap would be ram-raiders from accessing the facility. As reported by USA Today and Fast Company, which both seem to have been invited to the facility, the company’s Operations Centre East (OCE) can …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    there

    Will always be a way......

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: there

      A simple matter of time..... Overfill the moat, cause a flood and watch the sparks fly.

      Water and electric don't mix.

      1. Detective Emil

        Re: there

        Reminds me of the fountain built in the middle of the BBC Television Centre, hurriedly emptied forever after it flooded the technical areas below.

        1. Danny 14

          Re: there

          The fountain outside Preston North end usually ends up witha washing up liquid bottle thrown in there each day. It is amazing how much foam one washing up bottle can produce in such a short period of time.

  2. Tom 35

    What!

    No sharks with frikin lasers attached to their heads?

    1. Jeebus

      Re: What!

      The sharks are inside the bank.

  3. Dan Harris
    Stop

    Shhhhhhh

    Obviously this is very secret - it wasn't reported in October last year by another journal as being

    http://bit.ly/HcJUv5

    El Reg - Fail

    1. VeganVegan

      Re: Shhhhhhh

      Are you hunting wabbits?

  4. P. Lee
    Meh

    Meh!

    One company I worked at had anti-tank defenses around its data centre.

    Its all fun and games until somebody brings a JCB...

  5. LinkOfHyrule
    WTF?

    Why not put one of those Occupy encampments outside it too? Pay a load of nouveau-hippies to be a human defence system. Just an idea - you gotta think outside the box in the tech industry after-all!

    1. Bill Neal
      FAIL

      @LinkO'Hyrule

      Why would they want to protect a financial institution, the very object of their oppression?

      Wouldn't that be like hiring Taliban to protect US military bases?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    is that a european car or an african car... dunno .. oh damn ..

    “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.”

    Clearly they're expected the bad guys to be driving US made vea-hicles ... Wonder what they plan to do if someone uses a car made by people who know what the word 'corner' means.

    1. IglooDude
      Joke

      Re: is that a european car or an african car... dunno .. oh damn ..

      To say nothing of the fact that USians historically are much much better at amphibious invasions than Europeans. So the only bad guys they'll catch this way are Asians, who - natch - are much better at cyber-hacking than physical assaults anyway.

  7. Natalie Gritpants
    FAIL

    So the building must contain something you can steal

    Presumably credit card details not encrypted.

  8. Feldagast
    Mushroom

    They thought they were secure until the BOFH showed up and created all kinds of havoc.

  9. Doug 14
    Mushroom

    Airlifted off site ?

    Huh ? How is it safer to airlift the mail room off site ? The mail room team can run for it when it's on the ground what can the helicopter crew do ?

    1. Dexter Berlekey
      Mushroom

      Re: Airlifted off site ?

      Didn't make sense to me either, imagine the conversation:

      Manager: Can you airlift that box please?

      Pilot: What's in it?

      Manager: A parcel with a bomb.

      Pilot: NO!

  10. Jop
    Mushroom

    Ooops

    That is not an EMP device in my backpack, im just glad to see you!

  11. slime

    ?

    " an off-site mail room that can be airlifted off-site "

  12. Arrrggghh-otron

    Moat? Cooling?

    Am I the only one who thought this was going to be about using a moat to store water to cool the data centre?

  13. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Whom

      Don't use "whom" just to sound intelligent, as when it is used incorrectly the opposite effect is achieved.

      If you don't know, look it up.

  14. Peter 39

    pity

    Pity that is almost directly in line with the runways at Dulles Airport.

  15. Jon H

    Easy to avoid the moat

    Are those links to the aerial photos of this place correct? Yeah, there's a pond in front of a hairpin bend on the "in" driveway, but anyone who really wants to get in could just take the far straighter "out" driveway smashing through the little barrier. Heck, if they had a 4x4 they can easily take to the bare ground next to the drive. It hardly looks that secure.

    1. Graham Marsden
      Mushroom

      Re: Easy to avoid the moat

      What? You would use the *out* road to get *in*??

      What are you, some kind of goddam commie subversive!!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Easy to avoid the moat

        Even if those are not the correct arial shots, the idea seems pretty easy to bypass.

        Use two vehicles.

        First one is a heavy, fitted with front end protection. Purpose, take out the bollards.

        Second vehicle is the actual strike team.

        If those are the correct shots, then that's not a moat, it's a poorly located health hazzard. Maybe I misunderstood "moat", but I thought a key component of it was that is significantly surround the structure. My local golf course has bigger water hazzards.

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