CYBERBUNKER FILES // incident archivestatus: decommissioned · Nederlands

CyberBunker: the full story / BunkerInfra

Follow-up report · 2010 to 2015

After CyberBunker: BunkerInfra and the Kloetinge bunker

When CyberBunker made headlines in 2013, the Zeeland bunker it was named after already had a new occupant. A company called BunkerInfra spent five years trying to turn Cold War bunkers into high-security data centres. It got the Kloetinge bunker open, bought more bunkers, and went bankrupt in 2015.

2010
BunkerInfra takes over Kloetinge
14
private data rooms planned
€350k
paid for a bunker in The Hague
Jun 2015
operator declared bankrupt

01 / NL-ZEELANDA new owner for an old bunker

The bunker on the Zomerweg in Kloetinge, near Goes, was finished in 1955 as a Cold War command post and sold by the Ministry of Defence in 1994. [9] For years it was best known as the home of CyberBunker.

In 2010 BunkerInfra took over the site. [2] The company later said it had owned the bunker since 2010, and that CyberBunker's claims to still be operating from it were false. [1]

02 / CONSTRUCTION"Rebuilding the bunker"

BunkerInfra ran a separate website, rebuildingthebunker.com, to show off the work. In January 2011 it promised the "highest standard in survivability, security & availability", showed 3D renders of a concrete block with rings of rooms around a core of server floors, and pointed to bunkerinfra.com for its "Tier-IV Datacenter Profile". The footer described the plan: "Rebuilding Nuclear Bunkers in the Netherlands, Germany, UK and USA". [4]

By May 2012 the site invited visitors to "follow the construction of the world's most secured datacenters" and showed three bunkers: an aerial view of the headquarters bunker NL-I, the entrance of a second bunker in Oegstgeest (NL-II), and a nuclear blast door in a German bunker (DE-I). A row of contractors and suppliers was listed as "made possible by". [5]

  1. Feb 2012WARN

    Council stops the works

    The municipality of Goes halted the conversion of the former CyberBunker building because there was no environmental permit. No application had even been filed. The council found out because the company had sought publicity itself. The plan was 14 private data rooms, a NOC and a SOC. BunkerInfra said the application had since been filed and the permit only covered part of the work. [3]

03 / INCIDENT 2013-03"CyberBunker is not here"

In March 2013 CyberBunker was linked to the record DDoS attack on Spamhaus, and the world's press went looking for the bunker in Zeeland. BunkerInfra used the moment to say CyberBunker was no longer there. According to AG Connect the start-up had spent several million euros turning the bunker into an extremely secure data centre, meant to protect data against natural disasters or a meltdown like Fukushima, and would focus on "protecting vital infrastructure". It was due to open that summer. [2]

04 / EXPANSIONOpen, and buying more bunkers

  1. May 2014OK

    Kloetinge opens

    The operating company, Data Protectors B.V., opened its first bunker data centre in Kloetinge. [6]

  2. 2014INFO

    A bunker in The Hague for €350,000

    The Dutch state sold a Second World War bunker on the Van Ouwenlaan in The Hague to Data Protectors, the highest bidder, for €350,000. It is part of the Atlantic Wall and a municipal monument: two floors, about 2,160 m². It had been squatted, until a court ruled it unfit to live in. The company planned to convert it into a data centre. It had also bought a bunker in Oegstgeest, and had bunkers in Germany and England. [6]

05 / STATUSBankruptcy

In June 2015 the district court of The Hague declared Data Protectors B.V., the operator behind BunkerInfra Datacenters, bankrupt. The Kloetinge data centre, reopened in 2014, was part of it. [7] BunkerInfra was not alone: in the weeks after, ISPam counted several other Dutch data centre operators that had gone under, and looked at financing as the common problem. [7]

06 / NOWThe bunker after BunkerInfra

After the bankruptcy the Kloetinge site passed to Holland Datacenters B.V. [8] In 2019 it made a new start: trees were cleared to make the bunker visible again, and the site got an asphalt road, fencing, cameras and a solar park. Inside, cabling and cooling were redone. Part of the original command centre survives, including a wall of 24 monitors. [9] In 2020 two investors took minority stakes, and the company aimed at local government, healthcare and other organisations that want their data kept in the Netherlands. [8] It now advertises the bunker at Zomerweg 67 as an ISO 27001-certified data centre. [10]

Another Dutch bunker data-centre plan from the same years was GOVNOC (2009–2010), aimed at government customers. Nothing in the sources links GOVNOC to BunkerInfra.

FAQFrequently asked questions

What was BunkerInfra?

A Dutch company that tried to turn Cold War and Second World War bunkers into high-security data centres between about 2010 and 2015, run by Data Protectors B.V. Its main site was the former CyberBunker bunker in Kloetinge, Zeeland. [2] [7]

Was CyberBunker still in the Kloetinge bunker after 2010?

BunkerInfra said no: it took over the bunker in 2010 and called CyberBunker's claims to still operate there false. By the 2013 Spamhaus attack, CyberBunker was no longer in the bunker. [1] [2]

Which bunkers did BunkerInfra have?

Kloetinge (its headquarters, NL-I), a bunker in Oegstgeest (NL-II), a bunker in Germany (DE-I), and from 2014 an Atlantic Wall bunker on the Van Ouwenlaan in The Hague, bought from the state for €350,000. Reports also mention a bunker in England. [5] [6]

When did BunkerInfra go bankrupt?

In June 2015 the district court of The Hague declared Data Protectors B.V., the operator behind BunkerInfra Datacenters, bankrupt. [7]

Is the Kloetinge bunker still a data centre?

Yes. Holland Datacenters B.V. took over the site after the bankruptcy, renovated it from 2019 and runs it as a data centre at Zomerweg 67. [8] [9] [10]

REFSources

  1. Wikipedia: CyberBunker
  2. AG Connect: Cyberbunker niet meer in bunker Kloetinge (29 Mar 2013)
  3. ISPam: Gemeente legt verbouwing 'Cyberbunker' datacenter stil (10 Feb 2012)
  4. Internet Archive: rebuildingthebunker.com (12 Jan 2011)
  5. Internet Archive: rebuildingthebunker.com (29 May 2012)
  6. Computable: Rijk verkoopt bunker aan Data Protectors (23 Jan 2015)
  7. ISPam: Bunkerinfra Datacenters failliet (16 Jun 2015) and follow-up (19 Jun 2015)
  8. Computable: Nieuwe investeerders voor datacenterbunker Kloetinge (25 Nov 2020)
  9. Computable: Facelift voor een atoombunker vol servers (19 Jul 2021)
  10. Data Center Map: Holland Datacenters B.V., Zomerweg 67, Kloetinge