UK government announces new plans to protect data centers

Data centers powering the UK economy will be designated as Critical National Infrastructure alongside energy and water systems under new government plans.

This is the first Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) designation in almost a decade, since the space and defense sectors gained the same status in 2015.

The government has also welcomed a proposed £3.75 billion ($4.89 billion) investment in Europe’s largest data center, as plans have been submitted to Hertsmere Borough Council for construction in Hertfordshire by data company DC01UK which will directly create over 700 local jobs and support 13,740 data and tech jobs across the country.

Technology Secretary, Peter Kyle says:

Data centers are the engines of modern life, they power the digital economy and keep our most personal information safe.

Bringing data centers into the Critical National Infrastructure regime will allow better coordination and cooperation with the Government against cyber criminals and unexpected events.

The huge £3.75bn private investment announced today in Hertfordshire is a vote of confidence in those plans and a clear example of my determination to ensure technological advancements are helping to grow our economy and create wealth across the country.

The move is set to provide greater reassurance the UK is a safe place to invest in data centers. Putting data centers on an equal footing with water, energy and emergency services systems will mean the data centers sector can now expect greater Government support in recovering from and anticipating critical incidents, giving the industry greater reassurance when setting up business in UK and helping generate economic growth for all.

Andy Kays, CEO of cybersecurity company Socura, welcomed the announcement saying:

Recognizing data centers as critical infrastructure is an important step in improving the overall cyber resilience of the UK against critical incidents.

As we witnessed during the recent Crowdstrike outage this summer as well as attacks on public institutions such as the NHS -- IT and cyber-related incidents have the impact to cause significant disruption and endanger lives.

In truth, most data centres operated by large tech companies already meet the highest standards of security and operational resilience. However extra support from a dedicated CNI data infrastructure team, which can help anticipate attacks and support incident response, can only be viewed as a positive. The move also sends an important message to business leaders -- that the UK is looking to cement its position as one of the safest countries in the world to do business.

You can read more about the announcement on the government website.

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