A cybercrime data center that was shut down by German authorities was housed inside a former NATO bunker in a sleepy riverside town, police revealed on Friday.
More than 600 law enforcement personnel including the GSG 9, Germany's elite federal police unit, were involved in an anti-cybercrime operation that took place in the town of Traben-Trarbach on the banks of the Moselle River.
Police officers succeeded in penetrating the building, a 5,000-square-meter former NATO bunker with iron doors, which goes five floors deep underground. The building was located on a 1.3-hectare (3.2-acre) property secured with a fence and surveillance cameras.
"We had to overcome not only real, or analog, protections; we also cracked the digital protections of the data center," said regional police chief Johannes Kunz.
Read more: Darknet operator gets six years in connection with 2016 German shooting rampage
The target of the operation was a so-called "bulletproof hosting" service provider. Bulletproof hosters provide IT infrastructure that protects online criminal activity from government intervention.
In the raid, police seized 200 servers along with documents, cellphones and large quantities of cash. Thursday's operation was the first time German investigators were able to apprehend a bulletproof hoster, according to German media outlets.
https://www.dw.com/en/darknet-cybercrime-servers-hosted-in-former-nato-bunker-in-germany/a-50618469