Managing Data centre security for competitive advantage

Organisations are generating and storing increasing amounts of data in today’s dynamic business environment.

Technology has redefined the way we manage, analyse and store data with everyday activities generating huge volumes of data that must be available and accessible instantaneously for social, entertainment or business reasons. From health records to shopping transactions, from customer’s bio-data to company financial information, the security of these huge volumes of data is critical and has become a key concern and challenge for many organisations.

In today’s world, companies cannot afford to lose its data as it impacts its ability to conduct and transact business, and could imply huge liability claims and pose reputational risks to doing business going forward. As such, one of the easiest ways to cripple a business, government or an individual is to attack their data. As a result, company’s Data Centers are a constant target and subject to attacks from malicious hackers or other adversaries, with the intention to inflict harm.

Attacks on a Data Center can be physical or virtual.

As an example, there was the 2013 incident where the C I Host Colocation facility in Chicago had a security breach. In this attack, server hardware was physically stolen from the Data Center. While the value of the hardware alone was $100,000, the estimated value of its contents was unquantifiable.

Another example is Primedia who disclosed in May 2014 that an independent contractor had stolen hardware that had information on about 56,000 employees, former employees, and job applicants. In both instances, the data centre operated weak governance processes that made it easy for these crimes to be committed. Physical attacks such as these are common because most data centres at some point require new hardware to be installed, electrical or mechanical maintenance and upgrades of systems and applications.

Therefore, unless data centre staff are properly trained and managed with tight controls, third party contractors usually present a loop hole that exposes critical data centre operations or the information they house to security risks.

Attacks can also be virtual where hackers exploit vulnerabilities in network or application level security. In these instances, the hackers use the openness of the internet or insufficiently secure private networks to introduce automated tools that facilitate the identification and exploitation of Data Centre vulnerabilities. Many attack tools are widely available on the internet and are designed to execute highly sophisticated attacks using simple user interfaces. According to the IBM Cyber security intelligence index, there were 1.5 million cyber-attacks in the United States in 2013. Additionally companies are being attacked an average of 16,856 times a year. This trend is expected to increase with the amount of data that is moving between corporate networks, mobile devices, and the cloud. In order to protect the Data Centre against network security issues such as advanced and dangerous malware, APTs, insider threats and Denial of Service (DoS), organisation must imbibe strict security policies and use advanced security tools that provide in-depth visibility into the internal network to efficiently identify anomalies.

Today, companies use a combination of access control, firewalls and antivirus to virtually secure their Data Centres at a network and application level, but increasingly these are simply not enough. Despite the obvious risks, Data Center security is often an afterthought for most businesses. According to a recent study published by Network World Study, 67 percent of organisations experienced a downtime due to a security incident at their data centre Another 58 percent find it challenging to add or update security without impeding the goals of the business. 73 percent are not highly confident that their virtual firewall can meet today’s increased performance requirements.

Hence data centre security remains a universal challenge in today’s rapidly changing business environment. An option to consider for optimum Data Center security, is the option of outsourcing their data centre operations to a certified collocation service provider that imbibes the best security policies and procedures to mitigate security risks of physical attacks. In addition, further value is provided if the Colocation Company also provides managed network services with adequate security to complement the security policies adopted by its customers.

Main One’s World Class Data Centre facilities are designed to incorporate multiple levels of security and redundancy to ensure availability of your mission-critical applications.

MainOne offers round the clock physical and network security.

There are several robust processes in place that are in line with International standards. These processes ensure that the human element of our physical security framework is properly managed. The MainOne Data Center security solutions integrate with client’s existing security infrastructure, enabling cost reduction while protecting sensitive data and achieving compliance objectives.

Ben Uzor