November 10, 2021
A series of bomb threats made against data centers in Canada and the United States during October, 2021 point to the increasing need for strong data center security to keep facilities safe.
The need for logical data center security has grown increasingly apparent for some time now, as hackers, “bad actors,” malware and other viruses make the risk of data breaches and actual data thefts almost expected. Perimeter and application firewalls, wireless access point configurations, 2FA (and MFA), network segmentation, encryption and data masking … these preventative data security tactics and strategies and becoming de rigueur in the age of online commercial transactions and remote-work scenarios. Indeed, a Gartner press release from May of this year predicts that information security and risk management will grow by over 12% in 2021 to $150.4 billion – data protection is big business! Altus covered some of the trends in data center information security in a recent blog post.
But protecting data itself is not enough, as recent reporting from Data Centre Dynamics reveals – actual physical data center security is also required for the facilities where all of this confidential data is being stored. Bomb threats to data center facilities both in Canada and throughout the USA – including two in Columbus, Ohio and Painesville, Ohio (Altus is headquartered in northeast Ohio) – happened in October and illustrate the necessity for data center premises security.
As DCD reports, “Such bomb threats are not to be taken lightly in light of other recent incidents. Earlier this month Seth Aaron Pendley was sentenced to 10 years for plotting to blow up an AWS data center in Northern Virginia. A 2020 Christmas Day suicide bomber in Nashville took out an AT&T facility, but seemingly wasn’t specifically targeting the telco. And in March the NYPD warned that white supremacists and conspiracy theorists are targeting cell towers, critical infrastructure to ‘incite fear, disrupt essential services, and cause economic damage with the United States and abroad.’ In Greece this month anarchists threw petrol bombs at a government data center in Athens in protest against surveillance.”
Physical data center security – buffer zones, crash barriers, redundant utilities, surveillance, mantraps, proximity sensors, biometrics security and more – are all becoming increasingly necessary as I.T. grows in importance and ubiquity. Guaranteeing – or at least demonstrating proactive steps towards facility protection – will only become more vital as time goes by and will be expected by those entities and enterprises that trust private and colocation data centers with the digital lifeblood of their businesses.
Altus offers data center security consulting for security analysis and implementation, as one of our core data center services. Serving Fortune 1000 and 500 companies throughout the United States since 1996, we’re ready to be of service for your IT needs. Reach us here and let’s have a conversation about your firm’s needs.
Please read the entire Data Centre Dynamics article by following this link.
