The rising number of data centers means more business critical information is vulnerable to threats. Facilities with inadequate security features are at risk to potential data breaches. In May 2020, Tokopedia, one of Indonesia’s biggest e-commerce platforms admitted that some data related to names, e-mails and telephone numbers were accessed by hackers. This breach of user information drew criticism from the public, as Tokopedia was an established and trusted technology company.
“Like banks, the sheer volume of valuable assets data centers contain make them a flashing beacon for attack.”
Here are key areas you need to consider and audit when selecting a facility to ensure your data remains secure:
Physical threats
Physical attacks or terror attacks to undermine data centers are far more common in certain geographical regions, particularly in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia. These violent intrusions can cause damage resulting in businesses downtime and loss of trust from stakeholders.
Natural disasters are one of the top concerns of data centers around the world. With 44% of the world’s natural disasters coming from Asia, ResearchGate shared that this region is most vulnerable to unforeseen circumstances such as storms and floods. Thus, it is important that data centers in Asia develop disaster recovery and business continuity plans. For example, in 2009, Vodafone’s facility in Istanbul, Turkey was flooded during a torrential downpour. CCTV footage caught the watery onslaught filling up the server room, but Vodafone had implemented a disaster recovery plan, which allowed them to restore most of the data that was affected.
Such happenings are not something companies can afford to simply ignore and data centers should be proactive in their planning for physical threats.
Economic Corruption
Certain regions around the world are faced with higher levels of economic corruptions, making theft and sale of sensitive digital data a reality. The consequences of a data breach could be damaging to both the business and company reputation.
When selecting a facility, ensure it has multiple layers of security that would effectively protect your data. For example, visitors must ask for access at least 1 day prior to arriving at the data center, and will be escorted throughout their time there. Strict security procedures mean there is no opportunity for an individual to access the data in your racks without permission.
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are committed by malicious third parties to damage significant infrastructure as an attempt to cause disturbance to business activities. Unlike theft of data, DDoS attacks steal time and operability, causing outages to the company’s data. This is extremely detrimental to many companies that have a 99.99% uptime guarantee.
In September 2020, a series of DDoS attacks plagued online learning in Miami-Dade County public schools by overloading the district’s data center and disabling the system, preventing students and teachers from logging in. With workarounds, the schools have been able to continue with online classes, but a permanent solution has yet to be found.
Without a proper security infrastructure to deal with DDoS attacks, many businesses that rely on the data center would experience difficulties proceeding with daily businesses.
Neglect of security
As the number of data users rapidly grows in the region, solution providers will need to accommodate at the same pace. This results in risk of speed being prioritized over security, leading to weaker infrastructure, less comprehensively planned systems and increased human error.
SpaceDC understands the seriousness of these threats when it comes to building our data center and implements the very latest in terms of physical security standards. Companies can trust our data centers, as we have the best possible IT infrastructure and top tier facilities that can withstand these threats and protect the interests of your businesses.
If you would like to find out how SpaceDC ensures maximum security for our data center, read our whitepaper or contact us today.
