LOCATION Vita Berg Park, Stockholm, Sweden
NEAREST POPULATION HUB Stockholm
ECRECY OVERVIEW High-security location: a secure data center best known for hosting the servers of WikiLeaks.
A spectacular underground facility drilled into the granite beneath Vita Berg Park (White Mountain Park) in the Södermalm district of Stockholm, Pionen White Mountains is one of the world’s most advanced computer centers. It hosts the servers of numerous companies, including, since the end of 2010, the controversial WikiLeaks organization.
Within a year of launching its website in 2007, WikiLeaks boasted a database of almost 1.25 million secret and confidential documents, often deposited by anonymous whistle-blowers from around the world.
Led by an enigmatic Australian called Julian Assange, the organization quickly became a major thorn in the side of authorities on every continent. It won particular notoriety when it released extensive material relating to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, prompting serious examination of Allied conduct during those conflicts.
In 2010, WikiLeaks also released vast numbers of confidential US diplomatic cables, causing Washington severe embarrassment since many prominent public figures were described in less-than-flattering terms. Originally, the documents were published with certain key information excluded to protect the identity of individuals, but this precaution was later lifted by Assange (who had by then been indicted for sex offenses in Sweden). His decision drew widespread opprobrium from critics, who claimed he was putting the safety of named individuals at risk for his own idealistic belief in “openness.” Some called his actions treasonous, and WikiLeaks became the focus of renewed attention from governments across the globe.
The hosting of the expanding WikiLeaks database had already moved several times, and was then thrown off Amazon’s servers, apparently for breaching its terms of service. In late 2010, the organization relocated its hosting to Bahnhof, one of Sweden’s oldest internet companies (founded by Oscar Swartz in 1994) and the owners of the Pionen White Mountains.
The Vita Berg facility was originally built during the Second World War and was later converted to be able to withstand a Soviet nuclear attack. It lies under 30 meters (100 ft) of bedrock beneath the city, protected by armor-plated metal doors almost half a meter (20 in) thick. Accessible by a single entrance, the bunker has 24-hour surveillance cameras in operation to ensure that no visitors go unrecorded.
UNDER THE MOUNTAIN Pionen combines a secure server farm with state-of-the-art conference facilities.
Key: 1. Servers, 2. Conference room on upper level, 3. Offices, 4. Generators and fan room, 5. Conference rooms off access tunnel, 6. Refrigeration plant, 7. Main entrance.
This distinctly unglamorous Cold Warera space had long been out of operation when, in 2007-08, Albert France-Lanord Architects completely overhauled and significantly expanded it for Bahnhof. It now covers 1,200 square meters (13,000 sq ft), and is often likened to the lair of a James Bond villain, with good reason. The space is filled with exotic jungle-like foliage, artificial waterfalls and solar lighting, while the floors are designed to resemble spacescapes. There is a futuristic “floating” conference room, suspended glass corridors and even two German V12 diesel submarine engines providing a back-up power supply. It is about as sexy as cutting-edge internet technology can hope to get.
The relationship between Bahnhof and Assange seems well matched. Assange is undoubtedly fond of the dramatic gesture and no doubt the spectacular design of Pionen White Mountains appeals to that side of him. Perhaps more significantly. Sweden has particularly strong legislation protecting journalistic sources. Assange has confirmed that he set out to nurture a relationship with the country (along with others such as Switzerland and Iceland) “specifically because those nations offer legal protection to the disclosures made on the site.”
In other words, the servers at Pionen White Mountains, which no doubt contain yet more information to make life difficult for powerful figures across the planet, have statutory legal protection to go along with the extensive security systems guarding this subterranean Hollywood set.
Meanwhile, Bahnhof is clear that WikiLeaks is treated with the same discretion and respect as any of the other clients who rent its hosting services. As Jon Karlung, Bahnhof’s head (and unsurprisingly, an avowed fan of the Bond movies) told Forbes magazine in 2010: “The internet should be an open source for freedom of speech, and the role of an ISP [Internet Service Provider] is to be a neutral technological tool of access, not an instrument for collecting information from customers.”
1 BRAINSTORMING Even if you’re only reviewing the latest quarterly profit figures, Pionen offers a range of ultramodern conference facilities fit for a Bond villain—guaranteed to make you feel like global domination is only a breath away.
2 SNOWY MOUNTAIN The main entrance to the Bahnhof server rooms is embedded in the side of the Vita Bergen hill in Stockholm’s Södermalm district. In winter, hot exhaust from the air conditioning envelopes the entrance in mist.
