Intelligent Data Centres Issue 05 | Page 41

EXPERT OPINION digital supply chains in which third-parties may need access to your servers. All of which means today’s data centres have an attack surface far larger than anything seen before. Stretched IT security teams and confusion over the shared responsibility model for cloud security only add to the potential risks of serious data loss or service outages. Data centres under fire Organisations must keep threats at bay from an increasingly agile and determined enemy, protecting the bottom line and corporate reputation while keeping the regulators happy. Fileless attacks are a popular tactic, using legitimate components like PowerShell, scripts and macros and unconventional file extensions to circumvent traditional filters. Often, they are used in the growing number of targeted attacks facing www.intelligentdatacentres.com modern data centres. We predict the black hats will increasingly turn to AI tools to make these even more successful, by profiling corporate processes and communications patterns to understand where and how to attack. Often, developers are their own worst enemy. Code reuse is a persistent security risk but remains a popular way to meet the insatiable demands of the digital enterprise. Last year it was revealed that 17 malicious images were downloaded more than five million times from Docker Hub. A newly revealed vulnerability in ubiquitous container runtime runC also shows us that these new architectures represent a growing threat that many firms may not yet have woken up to. Over 59,000 organisations across Europe have already reported data breaches to the GDPR regulators. But the threat to data centres goes beyond theft of customer DO SOME RISK MODELLING AND UNDERSTAND WHICH PARTS OF YOUR DATA CENTRE ARE ‘HIGH RISK ZONES’ AND WHICH ARE LOWER RISK. information or sensitive IP. Ransomware remains a major risk which could halt operations and severely impact operations. Europol last year warned that it would remain a key threat for many years. Issue 05 41