The bunker deep in the Swiss Alps, an hour’s drive south of Zurich, was designed to withstand nuclear blasts and protect soldiers from a foreign invasion that never came. Today, it’s used to guard digital data.

As Switzerland yields to pressure from the U.S. and the European Union to relax its bank secrecy rules, it’s repositioning itself as the global vault for online identities. With consumers and companies uploading ever more confidential information to make online transactions, there’s increasing demand for services that keep data out of reach of criminals and government spies.