Weak security processes can increase impact of failures

One of the essential roles of cybersecurity systems and processes in data centers is to ensure that only authorized users can access critical systems and data. When an outage occurs, power issues can disrupt these systems and make recovery more difficult.

Unlike cyberattacks, which are associated with external breaches and large-scale data theft, a cybersecurity incident can include situations where system errors deny legitimate users with access to critical IT platforms. Results from the Uptime Institute Data Center Security Survey 2024 have revealed that around 10% of these incidents are caused by power-related issues, which affect the networking and software systems that security measures rely on — and result in extended downtime (Figure 1).