"Our product is information...

Information that charges airline tickets, hotel rooms, dining out, the newest fashions...
information that grows money funds buys and sells equities...
information that pays life insurance annuities...
information that schedules entertainment on cable television and electronically guards houses...
information that changes kroners into guilders and figures tax rates in Bermuda..."

(American Express advertisement, 1982)

Information is everything. In the information society, this has become the faith which unites the most diverse social groups. Business companies and trade unions, universities and governments, military officers and peace campaigners, stock brokers and bus drivers: there are few who would not adopt modern society's latest creed.

Data bunkers. Places where large amounts of data are concentrated are vulnerable to disruption. The potential damage which can be caused through data loss means that concentrations of data are housed in fortress-like structures.

Which data are stored where?

Data related to an individual's life is stored in thousands of different databases. The size, growth rate and performance of these databases depends on the degree to which a society has moved into databody economy.