Technology News

UK Designates Data Centers as Critical Infrastructure to Enhance Cybersecurity

12 September 2024

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Zaker Adham

Summary

The United Kingdom has officially classified data centers as critical infrastructure, a move aimed at strengthening the nation's cybersecurity. This new designation will facilitate collaboration between data center operators and the government to safeguard data against cyber threats and outages.

British Technology Minister Peter Kyle announced that data centers will now receive the "Critical National Infrastructure" (CNI) status, a label typically reserved for essential sectors like energy, nuclear power, defense, space, and emergency services.

"Data centers are the backbone of modern life, powering the digital economy and safeguarding our most personal information," Kyle stated.

With this new status, the government can better coordinate efforts to defend against cyberattacks and unexpected cyber incidents. Data center operators will have a direct line to the government for preparing and responding to data threats. This is the first time in nearly a decade that a new sector has been granted CNI status, with space and defense being the last to receive it in 2015.

£4 Billion Data Center Investment

In addition, the UK has approved a plan by DC01UK to develop an 85-acre data center in Hertfordshire, which is set to become the largest in Europe. The project will see an investment of £3.75 billion ($4.9 billion) and is expected to create over 700 local jobs and support 13,740 data and tech jobs across the UK.

This announcement follows Amazon's commitment to invest £8 billion ($10.45 billion) through its AWS cloud computing division over the next five years to build and operate data centers in the UK.

Data centers are crucial for the modern internet, enabling cloud computing and the delivery of internet services on a large scale. When these centers experience downtime, it can lead to significant outages affecting critical services.

The UK government emphasized the importance of focusing on critical data infrastructure following a major global IT outage earlier this year, which disrupted most doctors' practices in the country. The outage was caused by a faulty software update from U.S. cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.

The UK has broader plans to enhance cybersecurity. As part of the King's Speech earlier this summer, a new Cyber Security and Resilience Bill was announced, which will mandate that essential IT infrastructure providers protect their supply chains from cyberattacks.