Symantec is spending $1.3 million to create a new "security operations center" at its Springfield, Oregon facility to store sensitive customer data. The highly secure 3,364 square foot center will have stringent security measures like fingerprint scans and will be staffed by a dozen employees working in shifts around the clock. Officials chose the Springfield location because Symantec already has a large presence there supporting enterprise customers. The new center will back up sensitive customer data and serve as a backup for Symantec's other six global security operations centers.

1. Byline: Sherri Buri McDonald - Sunday, October 7th, 2012
SPRINGFIELD - Computer software firm
Symantec is spending $1.3 million to
create a "security operations center" at
the company's Springfield facility to
serve growing demand from its biggest
customers for storing sensitive data,
company officials said.
The center will handle highly sensitive
customer information, so center
employees will have to pass through
several security doors, including one with
a fingerprint or hand geometry scan,
company officials said.
Construction is expected to be
completed later this month or in
November, said Cris Paden, a spokesman
in Symantec's headquarters in Mountain
View, California. The highly secure,
3,364-square-foot windowless center -
officials aren't disclosing where it will be
in the Springfield facility - will have about
a dozen employees who will work in
shifts around the clock, 365 days a year.
Officials said they weren't sure how
many of those employees would be new
hires and how many might be
transferred from other jobs in
Springfield, or from other Symantec
sites.
Symantec's 1,170-employee Springfield
complex provides customer service
support for "enterprise customers" -
large businesses, universities,
government agencies and other
organizations - and performs a range of
back-office functions, such as finance
and information technology, for
Symantec's global operations. Over the
years, Symantec has shifted to or started
up in Springfield an ever-broadening
array of services.
The main function of the new security
center will be to back up sensitive data
for Symantec's enterprise customers,
said Paul Meijer, Symantec's senior
director of infrastructure operations in
Mountain View.
"Cybersecurity now - especially for
enterprises - is not so much about trying
to keep something bad from happening,"
Paden said. "It's not about building up a
brick wall around a building, or servers,
to make sure nothing can get in. That's
part of it. But another part is, if you do
get hit, have you backed up your
information? And is it accessible in a
quick and effective manner?"
Customers want reliable, effective back-
up systems and technology to ensure
secure financial transactions and
information exchange on the Web and
via "cloud" computing, he said.
Creating a security operations center in
Springfield was "a good fit," Paden said,
because "we've got a big presence up
there already for supporting our
enterprise customers."
"It speaks well for the folks in the
Eugene-Springfield area," he said. "This
stuff doesn't happen by accident. It had
to be a strategic decision. We had to put
it in a place where we felt it would be in
good hands."
Symantec's 400,000-square-foot
Springfield facility has plenty of space
and "in terms of cost it's a no-brainer,"
Paden said. "It's a little easier to build
things out in Springfield" than at
Symantec locations in California.
The Springfield security operations
center also will be a back-up for
Symantec's half-dozen other security
operations centers around the world,
including one in Mountain View, he said.
Employees who work in the security
operations center will need to pass a
criminal background check, as well as a
credit check "to make sure there's no
financial malfeasance in their
background," Meijer said.
The credit check would rule out
someone, for example, with a large
gambling debt, who might be tempted to
turn over customer information to
someone who promised to pay off that
debt, he said.
Just to gain access to the center,
employees will need to pass through
several sets of doors: one that reads a
magnetic badge, another which requires
the employee to enter a pin number and
another that, requires a "biometric"
check, such as a fingerprint or hand
geometry scan, Meijer said.
"We want to make sure that we're
treating the data the way that the
customer would want their own internal
people to treat it," he said.
Founded in 1982, Symantec built a name
for itself with its Norton antivirus
software. Over the years, it has acquired
expertise in Internet security, which has
become a major focus with the growing
trends of mobile devices and cloud
computing.
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