A Look at Microsoft's Security War Room
Josh Fink writes "C|Net has an interesting piece about Microsoft's Security War Room, or rather, shall I say rooms. This room came about when Microsoft's security chief, Mike Nash, had issues finding open conference rooms. The response; a dedicated room only for him and his staff to handle emergencies. "And while he was at it, why not have two? That way, the folks working on fixing a security crisis could have a little breathing room from those drafting the public and customer communications around the issue. ""
In somebody's defense, they probably just picked up the concept and terminology from large telcos. If you go to a large network operations center (say like what AT&T operates in Piscataway, NJ) you will find two or more good-sized conference rooms provisioned with 10-15 workstations each that sit idle 99 percent of the time. Just used in cases of major outages/problems or sometimes for network upgrades. Known as the "war rooms" for as long as I am aware.