Defending the bodily infrastructure of a knowledge middle is a central concern for securing the ability’s servers, networks, and hosted knowledge and functions.
In any case, knowledge facilities are bodily buildings with real-world vulnerabilities based mostly on all their connections for good HVAC programs, hearth suppression controls, electrical units, and even safety cameras.
Any digital machine inside a knowledge middle that’s related to a community may change into a pathway for cyber-attacks, other than the central racks of laptop tools and community gear itself.
Information middle infrastructure administration (DCIM) platforms present facility managers with a capability to watch and management the bodily infrastructure inside a knowledge middle.
Nevertheless, these similar software program platforms might also present unauthorized entry factors for hackers to provoke unconventional cyber-attacks, corresponding to importing malicious backup information through payloads which might be put in by means of bodily units.
In different circumstances, attackers might attempt to achieve entry and disrupt the cooling programs in a knowledge middle, inflicting servers to overheat and fail.
One other ongoing risk for knowledge facilities entails their want for an uninterruptible energy provide (UPS). CISA has warned that unhealthy actors are recognized to achieve entry to internet-connected UPS units stemming from lax safety measures that permit unchanged default usernames and passwords.
Greater than 20,000 cases of DCIM software program, clever monitoring units, thermal cooling administration management programs, and rack energy displays had been public-facing and weak to cyberattacks in 2022, based on Cyble Analysis Labs.
Since then, greater than half of information middle operators (55%) have reported some type of outage, based on the Uptime Institute’s World Data Center Survey 2023.
Taking Steps to Shield Continuous Data Center Uptime
Avoiding a cyber-attack on a bodily knowledge middle requires operators to be exhaustive when mapping out the ability’s operational expertise (OT), together with its many related units and factors of entry.
To make sure continuous uptime, facility managers ought to evaluate their safety protocols for vital programs involving infrastructure administration, electrical administration, constructing administration, and safety administration.
DCIM software program takes a holistic view to watch, analyze, and handle a facility’s total energy and cooling programs, together with its server utilization, asset monitoring, and different very important features. OT networks make use of devoted communications protocols and redundant programs to keep up reliability and resilience.
Customary safety procedures embody recurrently updating and patching software program functions. One other efficient measure is community segmentation: knowledge middle OT networks also needs to be segmented other than IT networks to additional enhance safety.
Newer instruments for knowledge middle OT safety embody unidirectional gateway expertise options encased in {hardware} to keep up a singular one-way switch of information between two networks, not backwards and forwards. The software program shops copies of lively servers and units from the OT community to share with the enterprise community in actual time.
As a result of the {hardware} can solely ship knowledge in a single path, newer assault vectors can by no means attain again into the community by means of the gateway server.
Electrical administration programs are mission-critical for sustaining continuous uptime in any knowledge middle. Assaults on electrical energy era and distribution programs can result in disruptions or outright energy failures. Information facilities that get taken offline face pricey service interruptions, {hardware} damages, buyer knowledge losses, and even potential lawsuits.
One other safety concern for a knowledge middle entails constructing administration programs that management constructing environments for temperature, humidity, airflow, and hearth suppression. Every machine and level of entry can introduce alternatives for unauthorized entry.
Likewise, if safety administration programs for video surveillance, entry controls, and risk detection are compromised, unauthorized people would possibly achieve entry to knowledge middle controls and operations.
Mitigating a Danger First Requires Understanding Its Penalties
To guard the vital bodily infrastructure of a knowledge middle from cyber-attacks, facility managers first have to undertake a robust cyber danger framework as a part of their total safety posture.
Good cyber danger governance begins by translating potential dangers into financial phrases after which prioritizing the worst dangers for remediation.
New methods for danger mitigation embody cyber danger quantification and administration (CRQM) instruments that may assist knowledge middle operators assess the complete vary of enterprise damages ensuing from OT vulnerabilities.
CRQM instruments totally analyze the impacts of any potential cyber incidents after which prioritize the highest sources of danger for mitigation.
Cyber danger assessments may also improve cybersecurity assessments by including deeper contextual data to the analysis. On this approach, knowledge middle operators can proactively handle their cyber danger portfolio to prioritize danger mitigation tasks and make extra knowledgeable cybersecurity funding choices.
Jose Seara is CEO of DeNexus.
