Congress Considers Designating Data Centers as Critical Infrastructure Amid Security Concerns
The U.S. Congress is evaluating whether data centers should be designated as a standalone critical infrastructure sector due to increasing security threats. During a recent hearing by the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection, lawmakers and industry experts discussed the vulnerabilities of data centers to cyber and physical attacks. The discussion comes in the wake of incidents such as Iranian drone attacks on Amazon data centers, highlighting the potential for significant disruptions. Currently, three major providers—Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform—dominate the market, accounting for 63% of the share. The hearing underscored the need for a unified federal approach to data center security, as the current framework lacks clarity on agency responsibilities. Industry representatives suggested forming a unique coordinating council for data centers, similar to the UK's approach, which already recognizes them as critical infrastructure... 
