Intelligent Data Centres Issue 51 | Page 63

UNCOVERING THE LAYERS
Ian Lim , Field Chief Security Officer , Asia Pacific , Palo Alto Networks
for data management and storage , you would likely use a public cloud data centre . It is essential to research the security standards of your service provider and ensure that they have achieved security standards and certifications that are on par or better than their peers .
Threats impacting the physical security of data centres can be equally damaging . Hence , businesses must also validate that data centres are committed to securing their physical network infrastructure .
Can cyberattacks bring data centre operations to a standstill ?
The financial consequences of data centre outages can be high . The Uptime Institute Global Survey of IT and Data Centre Managers 2020 revealed fourin-10 outages cost between US $ 100,000 and US $ 1 million – and about one-in-six costs over US $ 1 million .
A cybersecurity breach in data centres has the potential to stall operations , leading to serious financial losses . It can also harm workers , equipment and the environment , along with some irreparable damage such as the destruction of data and much more .
For example , an attack on a data centre ’ s HVAC system could compromise the ability of a data centre to cool its servers . Without cooling , the data centre has to power-down its equipment to avoid a greater catastrophe . This recently happened in our region at the beginning of the year . It wasn ’ t a cyberattack but we saw how issues with HVAC brought important business operations down across the region . To conclude , cyberattacks can cause significant business interruption , disruption and lost revenues . www . intelligentdatacentres . com
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