I guess it never occurred to me before, but with the increased amounts of attacks lately it's been near the top of my mind. These guys seem to be throwing around the physical addresses of data centers pretty freely. What is the security of these places like? How decentralized are we really? It seems like a few strategic strikes could deal a devastating blow to our edge infrastructure. I know personally, my servers are only hosted in a single datacenter. The company I work for is in 3 datacenters, but I'm not sure the other 2 data centers could handle the full load for an extended period of time if the primary one was completely taken down.
Granted not as big of deal as power plants etc, but if you're looking for soft targets, it's a scary thought.
These are all very well-known datacenters with several layers of physical security (there are standards and certifications for datacenters). Their locations aren't exactly secret.
Most datacenters have fences/gates, require access cards and/or biometrics to get in and move around inside the building. Once inside, you can only get into your own cages.
It's not like you can walk up, knock the door in with a battering ram, and then have access to everything inside.
>It's not like you can walk up, knock the door in with a battering ram, and then have access to everything inside.
Well, I mean, yes you can. The actual doors/gates used aren't 'milspec' intrusion rated. They're `better-than-home-depot` doors (all steel, steel door frames, reinforced). Cage door are often hilarious flimsy (thing metal sheet/bars).
Certainly breachable by even modestly equipped attackers.
The reason you pick real DCs and not the basement of your fortified house is because there's human security in addition to the physical security measures. Which means, some one will notice if you try to bust down the door
And here I thought the reasons to choose a DC over my basement was multi-homing, abundant bandwidth, redundant air conditioning and battery/diesel electrical backup.
Granted not as big of deal as power plants etc, but if you're looking for soft targets, it's a scary thought.