As enterprises rush to deploy AI, it’s important that third-party AI data centers start taking their cybersecurity measures seriously.
These facilities are lucrative targets for hackers and are potentially at risk of cyberattacks. Following a ransomware attack on Indonesia’s national data center in June 2024 in which malicious actors threatened US$8 million in ransom, cybersecurity experts warned data center leaders: We urge you to be extremely careful.
Data center cyberattacks can be devastating and can harm businesses, consumers, and investors alike.
To gain deeper insight, Data Center Magazine exclusively interviewed Michael Marcotte, co-founder of the National Cybersecurity Center (NCC), about the impact of cyber threats on the data center sector. As chair of the organization’s Rapid Response Center, Michael has been instrumental in shaping U.S. national cybersecurity policy.
In addition to founding artius.ID, a cybersecurity and identity company, he also serves as a senior advisor to several heads of state and a U.S. senator. In this interview, he discusses how third-party data centers are emerging as a “blind spot” in enterprise cybersecurity and how carriers can mitigate the growing digital threat. .
What do you think is the most pressing cybersecurity threat facing data center operators today?
Deepfakes are making all the headlines, but one overlooked threat is that most large companies now rely on third-party data centers.
CEOs often know little about their own company’s cybersecurity, much less about highly complex digital infrastructure like external AI data centers. But as companies rush to deploy AI systems, these data centers are becoming more comprehensively integrated into multinational enterprise architectures, and CEOs must understand them as new vulnerabilities.
It’s a visibility issue. These data centers and their operations are often highly opaque from a customer perspective, allowing executives at large companies to peer inside their operations to see what security measures are in place and where potential It is very difficult to understand what the dangers are. .
