F E A T U R E
the National Institute of Standards and Technology’ s Cybersecurity Framework( NIST CSF 2.0) or ISO / IEC 27001, leadership teams can better evaluate risks, balance them against resolution costs and determine the most practical path to a defensible position.
• Risk assessment and testing: Conducting regular risk assessments helps organisations identify vulnerabilities and mitigate them before malicious actors exploit them. Regular testing, such as penetration tests, reveals whether current tools and strategies will perform effectively when needed and guides improvement strategy.
Tools and technologies
Defenders are seizing the power of AI as well, rapidly building an arsenal of AIpowered solutions to proactively safeguard data and ensure prompt threat detection and response. However, data centres face a dual challenge: as they adopt AI tools to strengthen cybersecurity, they must create policies and processes to ringfence those systems in order to keep both internal and outside threat actors from manipulating them. If security leaders of an organisation haven’ t yet begun to address this side of AI security, they should start considering it as soon as possible.
Active threats today
Human vulnerability remains the most significant threat to data centre security. Despite advanced technological defences, employees, contractors and other IT users remain susceptible to manipulation. Indeed, many unwittingly divulge passwords and sensitive information in response to phishing and social media campaigns.
In addition, data centres are prime targets for ransomware attacks, since they face immense pressure to restore operations as swiftly as possible.
Insider threats are another significant risk to data centres, including both malicious actors within the organisation and well-intentioned employees who make unintentional errors.
Building a resilient security architecture
Given the critical nature of data centre processes and the potentially drastic consequences of interruptions, resiliency must be woven into the fabric of all architectural designs. Some key components of a resilient design include:
• Layered security: A multilayered security strategy involves implementing multiple controls at different levels to protect digital assets. This defence-in-depth approach helps ensure that even if one layer is breached, others remain in place to provide protection.
• A proven security framework: By adopting an established framework like
A robust, multilayered security strategy should integrate both digital and physical security measures, including firewalls and advanced access controls. It’ s also important to ensure that security tools are effective across the environment, whether it’ s on-premises, in the cloud or hybrid, and that they work together to ensure seamless integration and co-ordination.
Security tools for threat detection and response also need to provide effective behaviour analysis to baseline normal user routines, network traffic and other activity. Using that information, they can more accurately identify anomalies that could indicate a threat in progress and alert security teams, reducing response time and minimising damage.
Addressing the human element
Building a strong defence starts with training the team. Your employees, contractors and other IT users are the first line of defence against cyberattacks, so they must be equipped to recognise and respond effectively to phishing attempts, deepfake vishing and anything else that seems off. An alert and knowledgeable workforce can often detect threats and prevent security breaches before automated systems can.
To defend against both compromised employee accounts and malicious insiders, it’ s essential to enforce the principle of least privilege, which requires that each user be granted only
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