Overview
Data center security refers to the physical practices and virtual technologies used to protect a data center from external threats and attacks. It is the combination of policies, processes, procedures, and technologies that secure it from cyber attacks and other virtual threats. Proprietary information such as intellectual property and trade secrets, as well as customers’ personal and financial information are all examples of the types of data that might be found within a data center.
A data center is a facility that stores IT infrastructure, composed of network computers and storage used to organize, process, and store large amounts of data. It provides services such as data storage, backup and recovery, data management and networking. Due to the great significance of data centers, and the sensitive information they hold, sites have to be digitally and physically secured.
As a result of the complexities surrounding data center security issues, security components should be considered separately, but needs to follow one holistic security policy. Mostly, security can be divided into physical and software security. Physical security encompasses a wide range of strategies used to prevent outside interference. Software security prevents cyber-criminals from entering the network by bypassing the firewall, cracking passwords, or through loopholes.
The biggest challenge to data center security today is not physical threats but rather cyber threats. The proliferation of applications and burgeoning mounds of intellectual property and private information—often governed by regulators—makes data centers a central target for cyber criminals and even nation-states, hence the focus is on Software Security. Hacking, malware, and spyware are data center security threats and vulnerabilities. Manipulation of heating and ventilation controls (HVAC) could result in critical infrastructure systems being shut down or compromised. Physical cameras could be hacked and commandeered to disguise a robbery or unauthorized entry into a secure location.
A security information and event management tool (SIEM) offers a real-time view of a data center’s security posture. Before applications are deployed, certain tools may be used to scan them for vulnerabilities that can be easily exploited, and then provide metrics and remediation capabilities.
With the rise of cloud computing, visibility into data flows is a necessity, since there could be malware hiding inside of otherwise legitimate traffic.
Data is essential to running a business today. To ensure development, there is a need to keep information safe and minimize the risk of potential threats that could result in loss of money and reputation.
Every data center needs some form of security to ensure its continued use. Some aspects of “security” are actually made up of uptime features, such as multiple power sources, multiple environment control, and more.
Data center cybersecurity is very essential for any firm that houses confidential information in their data centers. There has to be a consideration from organizations that leveraged on data centers either directly or through a partner, to proffer solutions to the high rate of cyber-attacks.
Common Data Center Cyber Threats
Cyber-attackers are constantly looking for new strategies to defraud companies. Most of their strategies linger around the frequent threats to an organization’s cybersecurity. In computer security, a threat is a potential negative action or event facilitated by a vulnerability that results in an unwanted impact to a computer system or application.
The knowledge of data centre security threats broadens your knowledge concerning steps to take to prevent security issues. The following are widespread threats of cybersecurity:
Phishing Engineering Attacks
In the past few years, there’s been an enormous amount of phishing attacks against all kinds of targets. Phishing attacks are social engineering attacks where the cyber-attacker generates a fraudulent text, email, or website to mislead a victim into releasing sensitive information — which could involve login credentials for work, credit card details, or passwords to online accounts.
A phishing attack is one of the most dangerous cyber-attacks, as it can be used to deceive an employee to give up legitimate credentials and then use the privilege to wreck the company’s system.
Ransomware
Ransomware is a type of malicious software that’s designed to withhold access to an organization’s computer system until a sum of money is paid. These attacks generally involve the attacker infecting an organization’s data center with a piece of malware that encrypts all of their data. In 2020, ransomware attacks are more rampant than ever before. Organizations are being targeted more than private citizens due to the fact that they have money and motivation to pay ransoms.
IoT-Based Attacks
The use of smart devices in homes and organizations has increased this year. Employees are allowed to work from home. The challenge is that not all of the smart devices have strong security installed, thereby creating openings for cyber-attackers to hijack these devices to infiltrate business networks. This attack leverages a victim’s use of internet-connected devices to sneak malware onto a network.
Internal Attacks
The biggest cybersecurity threat that an organization can be faced with is their own employees cyber-attacking their data center. Some employees can abuse the access they have been given to inflict harm on the organization’s network, for their personal gain. Whether intentionally or by unwitting accidents, internal attacks remain the biggest risk to watch out for every year because they have an enormous potential to cause damage.
Unpatched Security Vulnerabilities and Bugs
This is an unintentional programming glitch in computer software or operating system that cyber-attackers can use to illicitly access systems. In most cases, these flaws may not arise from a single operating system, but from interactions from two or more different programs, making it difficult to predict when a bug will appear.
How To Prevent Cyber Attacks
Even as recent data breaches indicate that businesses are at a high risk of cyber-attacks at any given time, there’s a relief that these attacks can be curbed. Some of the ways to prevent cyber-attacks on a data center security include:
Implement two-factor or multi-factor authentication : Many data centers rely on local authentication options in the event of an emergency. These local authentication channels are not logged and the same login credentials are often shared across hosts and workloads (for simplicity). This exposes them to bad actors, who, once they have stolen them, can use them to gain access to the data center. Adding multiple layers of authentication for a single user through two-factor or multi-factor authentication will ensure a higher level of security, making it much more difficult for an intruder to access systems they are not allowed to access.
Secure your hardware : Most companies only concentrate on the protection of their software, without giving attention to the security of their hardware. As this is overlooked, the company tends to lose its devices to theft and this only makes it easy for confidential information to be manipulated.
Encrypt and backup data : Companies can prevent access to sensitive data through concealing information by means of a code. Data encryption remains the “‘most efficient fix”’ for data breaches if they occur. This helps to keep sensitive information, including customers’ and employees’ information, as well as all business data.
Create a security-focused workplace culture : Since we have explained earlier that employees can be a common cause of data breaches, intentionally or unintentionally, there’ll be a need to make employees have a good understanding of the daily actions that leave a company vulnerable to a cyber-attack. Organizations should ensure sufficient security training and education for members of staff.
Invest in cybersecurity insurance : As cyber-criminals work tirelessly to find advanced ways of breaching security defenses, it is advisable for companies to minimize risk by seeking a cybersecurity expert’s help to select the best type of insurance for your company, based on your risk of attack and the financial impact of such an event.
Benefits Of Cybersecurity
Today, securing the data center has never been more important. The best cybersecurity firm helps to prevent attacks from taking effect and ensures that your company’s data remains confidential. The benefits of cybersecurity cannot be overemphasized. Here are a few benefits of cybersecurity:
1. Protection of your business
Cybersecurity solution provides digital protection to your business, this ensures that your information isn’t at a risk from potential threats.
2. Increased productivity
Data center security issues slow down production capability and this can stop employees from carrying out their jobs effectively. Once cybersecurity issues are taken care of, employees will be able to work effectively.
3. Inspire confidence in your customers
Once you have proven that your business is effectively protected against all kinds of cyber-attacks, this makes customers more confident in using your services.
4. Protection of your customers
Ensuring that your business is secure from data center security threats, helps to protect your customers, who could be susceptible to a cyber breach by proxy.
Future of Data Centre Security
Looking to the future, data center leaders need to embrace additional cyber and physical security strategies. At the forefront and reaching across the entire security fabric is the integration of cyber and physical security. Data centers need to ensure that their cyber and physical security is seamlessly integrated. Physical systems and devices must reside on secure networks and behind firewalls. This helps protect them from malicious attacks, while providing seamless incident response capabilities in the event of an intrusion. Other security strategies that data center leaders should have in place include:
Data governance—at rest and in transit, across and between multiple cloud environments : Most enterprises are experiencing 40-50% annual growth in unstructured data. To protect this information, whether on-premises or the cloud, organizations need to implement data governance policies in control—for moving data across and between different environments and between applications.
Cloud transparency and controls : For public clouds, organizations need to ensure they have the right governance policies and controls in place. These are important. Gartner predicts that 60 percent of enterprises with cloud governance will experience 33 percent fewer security incidents.
Security integration : 83 percent of IT leaders cite organizational complexities as putting them most at risk. Only 48% have security policies in place to manage data access amongst employees and third parties. A new, integrated security framework is needed. Traditional security architectures are fragmented, and it is difficult to share information across and between the different elements. This includes new data center attack surface areas such as DevOps and the cloud for full transparency and centralized controls.
Protecting the edge of the network : 5G increases the ease and speed at which devices attach to the network as well as the amount of data that can be accessed and moved. IoT poses substantial risk (as these devices cannot be managed via traditional security models), and lateral intrusions can impact data center security. Software-defined wide area networks (SD-WAN) leverage 5G as an additional bandwidth channel, which bypasses traditional data center security controls. This increases risk that can back-funnel into the data center via lateral movement.
Threat intelligence: artificial intelligence and machine learning : 85% of organizations indicate threat intelligence is critical to a strong security posture. But only 42% believe they are very effective in using threat intelligence. Part of the problem is lack of in-house expertise (50%). To keep pace with security threats that are using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) and are polymorphic and multi-vector, cybersecurity leaders must employ ML and AI capabilities themselves, or switch to tools that have AI/ML enhanced capabilities. This enables them to reduce the attack surface for prevention, detection, and remediation.