Recent attacks on Russian data centres have disrupted Ukraine's internet economy, from mobile payments to rideshare apps. Yet Ukraine is not the first power to hit its adversaries' data centres this year. Russia has attacked Ukraine's data centre infrastructure, as well. And Iran has damaged facilities from Bahrain to the United Arab Emirates, including major centres operated by leading US cloud-computing firms.
When US officials first described computing power as a national security asset, some analysts interpreted this as Washington's penchant for seeing everything through a security lens. Now, it turns out, the Iranians, Russians and Ukrainians agree — and are aiming their drones and missiles accordingly.
One reason for this is that it is getting tougher to distinguish military from civilian data centre infrastructure. A second is that data centres are getting bigger and more expensive. A drone that costs thousands of dollars can produce millions of dollars of disruption. Finally, data centres are growing more politically salient.
New designs may incorporate blast-resistant concrete, jamming gear and missile-defence systems. Others could be placed underground. Around the world, data centre operators are asking whether guards and high fences provide sufficient security. Russia is now mandating that data centres defend themselves. This is bad news for the AI infrastructure build-out, particularly for the small- to medium-sized countries seeking to build "sovereign AI".
Source: Financial Times Companies · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing