Data Centers, Satellites Could Gain Critical Infrastructure Label

Congress is considering designating artificial intelligence (AI) data centers and space-based technologies as critical infrastructure, following a House Homeland Security Cybersecurity Subcommittee hearing on Wednesday.  

While the idea isn’t entirely new to Congress – Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., has introduced proposals to designate space systems as critical infrastructure – lawmakers considered the idea after Retired Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery, a senior director and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation, pushed the recommendation. 

“If our nation does not properly secure these assets, our adversaries will steal, corrupt, and disrupt the data and communications that allow our economy to function,” Montgomery said. “The explosion of AI innovation has catapulted debates about the construction of data centers in the national spotlight, but I believe the cyber and physical resilience of those data centers merits an equal level of attention.” 

Threats against data centers include malicious attacks, natural disasters, and other unintentional incidents, according to IBM. Because of the sensitive personal information held by data centers, they can become a “juicy target for cybercriminals,” the company says, noting that if a data center experiences an outage, critical business operations and services can be disrupted. Critical services can also be severely impacted.  

With increasing cyber threats from adversaries like China and Russia, and the start of a war with Iran, congressional witnesses warned lawmakers that the federal government needs to do more to secure the nation’s systems. 

“We should remind each other that prior to Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the first thing they did the day before they crossed that border was, in fact, an attack on a commercial space-based satellite communication system,” Sam Visner, chair of the board of directors for the Space Information Sharing and Analysis Center, noted. 

Currently, the United Kingdom recognizes data centers, space, and telecommunications as separate sectors of critical infrastructure. All witnesses agreed with Rep. Vince Fong, R-Calif., who asked whether Congress should mirror the U.K.’s designations.  

For space systems and technologies, Montgomery recommended that Congress task NASA with overseeing the critical infrastructure designation. 

Meanwhile, data center-related infrastructure “is going to become an important part of the national landscape,” Visner said.  

“Our national defense will depend on these data centers,” Visner added. “Our economic security will depend on these data centers. Much of our critical infrastructure, particularly as we use AI-enabled smart cities and infrastructures [is] going to depend on these data centers.” 

Scott Algeier, executive director of the Information Technology-Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC), similarly agreed, noting that ISAC includes data center providers, which are “already into the critical infrastructure discussions.” 

Robert Mayer, senior vice president for cybersecurity and innovation at USTelecom, added that, “given the scrutiny that is required to make sure that those data centers are secure, there would be a benefit, I think, in having them work together as a unique coordinating council.” 

Beyond data centers and space-based systems, Montgomery said sub-sea cables also need more attention from Congress. He explained that attacking satellites and ground stations could result in cutting 5% of data flow, while hitting sub-sea cables would result in stopping 95% of data flow.  

“They are generally undefended assets. We know both Russia and China are aggressively designing weapon systems to attack them,” Montgomery said.