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Cyber-physical Security for Data Centers

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Cyber-physical Security for Data Centers Securing the Infrastructure that Powers AI

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Cyber-physical Security for Data Centers

Data center construction is booming, driven by cloud migration and the

surge in AI workloads that demand massive compute power, storage space,

network bandwidth — not to mention precise environmental control to

ensure uninterrupted uptime.

Given their business criticality, data centers have become high-value

targets for sophisticated cyberattacks. But cybersecurity priorities focus on

protecting the crown jewels; that is, the rows and rows of always-on servers,

often tenant-owned but under the data center’s watch. Meanwhile, the

building management, physical security and OT systems that control power

and cooling to keep data centers humming remain a blind spot.

Whether you’re responsible for the end-to-end performance of the

data center or its overall cyber risk posture, securing the OT, IoT and

building management systems that ensure high availability and precise

environmental conditions must be in scope.

Data Center Infrastructure: The Overlooked Attack Surface

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Cyber-physical Security for Data Centers

Vast unprotected OT/IoT attack surfaces

Dependence on a stable energy supply

Critical infrastructure regulatory requirements

Reducing Cyber Risk and Maintaining Operational Resilience

THE CHALLENGE

Data centers face three primary cyber-physical security challenges:

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Cyber-physical Security for Data Centers

Large data centers commonly rely on thousands of OT/IoT controls to function reliably. These systems are increasingly connected for centralized

monitoring, energy optimization, remote access and predictive maintenance, significantly expanding the attack surface.

The Connected Data Center

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Cybersecurity Across Converged OT, IoT and IT Systems

Top Cyber-Physical Risks for Data Centers

IT cyber incidents may affect data confidentiality, integrity or

availability, but attacks on OT and IoT systems can have harmful

physical consequences.

Modern data centers leverage hundreds of cyber-physical systems

to monitor and manage everything from heating ventilation to

cooling systems to the uninterrupted power supply systems. Add

to this CCTVs, badge access, fire suppression and other IoT systems

found throughout the data center campus. These systems are more

connected than ever to both IT networks and the internet, often

unknowingly and with default credentials unchanged. Many of them

are managed and maintained remotely by third-party vendors with

round-the-clock access. Others may not be maintained at all.

When not managed as part of holistic data center cyber risk, this

complex network can easily be exploited by threat actors intent on

triggering cascading failures. For example, a compromise in the

cooling system could overload circuits, requiring a shutdown.

As geopolitical crises morph into chronic tensions, cyberattacks on

critical infrastructure meant to disrupt services and undermine public

trust have become the norm.

Increasingly connected, remotely serviced and internet exposed, OT

and IoT assets and networks provide access points and attack paths

for threat actors that bypass IT controls, potentially causing disruption

or widespread outages.

Internet-exposed DCIMs at the core of operations

Cooling systems that maintain precise conditions

Exploitable OT/IoT devices

Remote maintenance by third-party vendors

The data center infrastructure management system (DCIM) integrates IT and facility management systems to monitor power, cooling, server racks and environmental sensors. Because it sits in a gray zone, it's often overlooked – and often exposed to the internet.

Whether related to a cyberattack or malfunction, a cooling system outage would lead to a rapid temperature increase, allowing just 15 or 20 minutes to shut down servers before they’re damaged beyond repair.

Assets like CCTV cameras and temperature sensors use stripped-down OSs and minimal encryption or authentication, enabling hackers to bypass perimeter controls to gain initial access and pivot to critical systems.

Dozens of vendors have remote access to OT and IoT systems throughout the data center. On any given day, there’s a steady stream of technicians logging into the network for maintenance, with scant security.

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Cybersecurity Regulatory Compliance for Critical Infrastructure

Data centers are now formally classified or

regulated as critical infrastructure/critical

national infrastructure (CNI) across most

major economies. Cybersecurity oversight

and regulations are common everywhere

that data centers are common.

EMEA

APJ

Americas

EU - Treated as Essential Entities under the NIS2

Australia - Subject to the SOCI Act

Singapore - Regulated under the Cybersecurity Act, with a Digital

Infrastructure Act proposed to bring data centers and cloud into scope

U.S. - CISA oversight as critical infrastructure; FedRAMP certification

required for federal cloud providers

South Korea - Covered under the Act on the Protection of

Information and Communications Infrastructure

Brazil - Included under the National Critical Infrastructure policy

Japan - Relevant under the Economic Security Promotion Act, which

regulates designated essential-infrastructure operators

Canada - Covered under the Critical Cyber Systems Protection Act

(Bill C-8, the successor to Bill C-26)

India - Designated as “Protected Systems” under the IT Act UK - Designated as CNI, regulated under the Cyber

Security and Resilience Bill

UAE - Treated as critical infrastructure under Information

Assurance standards

Saudi Arabia - Subject to the NCA’s Essential Cybersecurity

Controls and Critical Systems Cybersecurity Controls

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Cyber-physical Security for Data Centers

Cybersecurity requires visibility across the system

of systems. The power plant, backup power,

cooling and physical access systems each have

potential for misuse that could affect data center

and grid stability.”

– World Economic Forum

Securing the Substation that Powers AI

Data centers need a continuous and stable supply of energy to operate, namely

because AI workloads are extremely energy intensive. To meet this insatiable

demand, larger data centers need a dedicated power grid that they can control,

especially regarding redundancy, uptime and cost.

Hyperscale data centers almost always have their own purpose-built substation.

A single hyperscale campus can demand city-scale power. Colocation facilities

may also build and operate their own substations. In both scenarios, data center

operators must satisfy additional cyber regulations for utilities such as NERC CIP

in North America, which requires ongoing, defensible proof of compliance.

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Asset visibility and

vulnerability management

Continuous threat and

anomaly detection

Prioritized remediation for

measurable risk reduction

A Complete Platform for OT/IoT Cyber Resilience

THE SOLUTION

To achieve operational resilience and meet compliance requirements, data center owners and operators need:

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Cyber-physical Security for Data Centers

The Leading AI-powered Platform for OT and IoT Visibility and Security​

The Nozomi platform helps data centers comply

with regulations and meet uptime guarantees

by providing a complete, accurate inventory

of OT and IoT assets, risk-based vulnerability

management, continuous threat and anomaly

detection, and AI-powered SOC assistance to

keeps analysts focused on what matters most.

Gain Context with Unparalleled Asset Visibility and Vulnerability Management

• Build an accurate, real-time asset inventory with passive and active

discovery techniques for wired and wireless networks and fluency

in over 200 OT and IoT protocols, along with active scanning on

sensitive OT endpoints that IT security agents may damage.

• Asset profiles are enriched via data integrations and an AI engine that

learns from millions of globally monitored assets to fill in information

and provide complete visibility into asset status and behavior.

• Automatically detect and assess vulnerabilities in “insecure-by-design”

OT and IoT devices, many of which lack authentication, encryption and

other security standards. Benefit from regularly updated vulnerability

databases and OT and IoT security research from Nozomi Networks Labs.

Prevent Incidents from Becoming Outages with Continuous Threat and Anomaly Detection

• Leverage signature-based threat detection and the Nozomi Threat

Intelligence feed to detect known threats, with sensors continuously

updated with emerging malware and IOCs specific to OT and IoT

• Use AI-powered behavior-based anomaly detection techniques, including

deep packet inspection, to detect operational anomalies and zero-days.

Prioritize Remediation Efforts So SOC Teams Never Miss a Critical Issue

• Calculate risk by asset, sensor, zone, site and enterprise using

weighted risk factors that reflect asset criticality and exploitability,

including CVSS, EPSS and KEV scores and more.

• Reduce alert fatigue with an AI engine that continuously identifies,

analyzes, correlates and prioritizes issues across your environment,

focusing attention on the threats with the greatest potential impact.

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If anyone needs an “easy button,” it’s the overwhelmed SOC analyst new to OT and IoT security. Nozomi’s AI-powered assistant provides deep

insights and clear remediation advice specific to your environment in response to prompts like these:

Show me every OT and IoT device on my network that isn't in my CMDB or asset inventory. Group them by site and by the critical system they support — cooling, power, physical access or fire suppression."

Find any device in my IT environment communicating with OT systems that control power, cooling, or physical access. Flag flows that violate my Purdue model or segmentation policy, and rank by potential blast radius to tenant SLAs."

Which external vendors have connected to my BMS, UPS, PDU, or HVAC controllers in the last 30 days? Show me the session duration, protocols used, and any commands executed on safety-critical devices."

List all OT and IoT devices running firmware with vulnerabilities on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list. Rank by criticality to power and cooling availability, and tell me which ones have a patch available versus require compensating controls."

SOC Efficiency: Closing the OT/IoT Cybersecurity Gap

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Where Are You on Your OT/IoT Cyber Journey? Where Do You Need to Be?

Asset Visibility Incident Response Risk Management

Actively Manage Vulnerabilities

□ Classify and prioritize vulnerabilities based on asset criticality and exploitability

□ Exposure, vulnerability trends, and predicted risks are tracked

Have Continuous Asset Discovery

□ AI-powered asset enrichment □ Targeted active queries to collect OS, firmware,

patch level, etc. safely.

Automated & Centralized Asset Tracking

□ Have basic vulnerability mapping

□ Can visualize basic network topology, zones, and protocol use

□ Global asset database

□ Wired, wireless, & endpoint sensors

□ CMDB integrations

Assets Tracked Manually

□ Excel-based □ Sales orders

OT/IoT Risk Identification, Prioritization, & Reduction

□ Can communicate OT/IoT risk in business terms to the board

□ Investments are prioritized based on quantified risk reduction

Regulatory & Standards Compliance Reporting & Tracking

□ Produce auditor‑ready reports for site‑level and enterprise‑level controls

□ Can map detections and dashboards to specific controls

□ Maintain customizable, multi‑level risk scoring by asset, zone, site

Policy & Rule Management

□ OT security policies exist but are not actively implemented or audited

□ Audit evidence is difficult to collect

Proactive OT/IoT Incident Response

□ Automated remediation □ AI-assisted incident response □ SOC integrated IR playbooks □ Detect and respond to wireless threats □ Threat intel is presented via threat actor

profiles with recommended mitigations

Intel-driven OT/IoT SecOps

□ OT/IoT specific threat intel integrated into SOC workflows

□ Have deployed OT/IoT detections

□ Have operational baselining of our environment

Fragmented OT/IoT Threat Response

□ Rely on IT scanners that lack OT/IoT context

□ Response playbooks are informal or inconsistent

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TH IR

D -P

A R

TY IN

TE G

R A

TI O

N S

POWERED BY AI

Asset Management

Incident Response

Risk Reduction

VANTAGE

SENSORS:

+OT IoT

Endpoint Embedded Remote DatabasesWirelessWired

A Complete Platform for OT/IoT Cyber Resilience

Unparalleled visibility - the

foundation for operational and

cyber resilience

Prevent incidents from

becoming outages with OT/IoT-

specific threat intel, detections

and proactive response

Quantify, improve and

communicate OT/IoT risk for

continued cyber resilience

The only hybrid & resilient

architecture that scales with your

business and an evolving threat

landscape

Powered by purpose-built AI that

transforms OT/IoT telemetry into

actionable intelligence

The Nozomi platform gives data centers the context, control and confidence to withstand cyber

threats and keep running smoothly.

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Cyber-physical Security for Data Centers

Find out how Nozomi Networks can help

you gain context, control and confidence

to withstand cyber threats — without

impacting reliability and safety.

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Next Steps

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nozominetworks.com

Cybersecurity for OT, IoT and Critical Infrastructure Nozomi Networks protects the world’s critical infrastructure from

cyber threats. Our platform uniquely combines network and endpoint

visibility, threat detection, and AI-powered analysis for faster, more

effective incident response. Customers rely on us to minimize risk and

complexity while maximizing operational resilience.

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