Why data centers now belong on the critical infrastructure list
Why data centers now belong on the critical infrastructure list
https://cyberscoop.com/data-centers-critical-infrastructure-ai-security-op-ed/
Publish Date: 2026-05-04 06:03:00
Source Domain: cyberscoop.com
Missile and drone attacks that took out cloud data centers in the Middle East underscored a critical vulnerability in the modern economy: reliance on digital infrastructure that sustains competitive advantage and operational continuity for corporations, nations, and militaries.
The outages and downstream disruption were a preview of a new form of strategic and operational risk. Data centers have long been the backbone of the digital economy. What is changing is the scale of dependence as AI workloads dramatically increase the compute power required to run businesses, supply chains, and national security systems.
Artificial intelligence has moved beyond business applications and into the core of warfare and national security. Last month, The New York Times reported that AI is “totally integrated” into the collection of intelligence and its use in strategic decision-making and military operations. Even if AI models are not directly firing weapons, AI-enabled analysis now plays a central role in how modern militaries gain visibility, find insights, and drive action.
That matters because it changes what should be considered critical infrastructure. If AI is a competitive advantage for companies and a battlefield advantage for warfighters, then the infrastructure that trains, hosts and runs AI becomes a high-value target. Attacks on the digital infrastructure organizations rely on can do more than inflict financial damage. They can slow decision-making, degrade logistics and reduce military effectiveness without ever engaging a conventional force.
Historically, nation-state campaigns targeting data centers and service providers focused on cyber intrusions for espionage or pre-positioning. What is different now is the emergence of physical attacks on digital infrastructure during active conflict. Russian military intelligence has been linked to campaigns aimed at digital infrastructure and managed services, often as part of a supply chain…
