Rare peek inside Symantec's security fortress
The journey to the heart of the operation reminded me of the late '60s TV show "Get Smart," where one heavily fortified door leads to another locked entryway followed by more complicated defenses in a seemingly never ending series of entry points requiring PINs, badges, and irises or fingers scans. I balked at the DNA test. Joking. Actually, I was just along for the exclusive tour, flanked by a group of engineers and executives with high-level security clearances.
This is the belly of Symantec's Certificate Authority operations, where the company creates digital certificates and keys that prove Web sites are who they say they are and not an impostor trying to steal your data or spy on you.
Picture the scene. There's a building with no signage tucked amid a cluster of beige buildings on the Symantec campus. Your generic office park, but one that houses vital data that pretty much anyone who surfs the Net comes into contact with in one way or another. Nestled within safety deposit boxes, hidden in nine safes, locked in a cage, housed in a secret room in the middle of the building are stored a million digital keys and cryptographic certificates.
