UK datacentres to be designated critical infrastructure

"Datacentres in the UK are to be designated as critical national infrastructure in an effort to protect them from cyber-attacks and IT blackouts, the government has said.

The buildings store much of the data generated in the UK, including photos taken on smartphones, financial information and NHS records.

The critical national infrastructure (CNI) categorisation means datacentres will be on the same footing as water, energy and emergency service systems, and therefore receive greater government support to anticipate and recover from adverse incidents such as cyber-attacks, outages or environmental disasters.

The government said the move – the first CNI designation in almost a decade – would help protect critical data infrastructure and provide businesses with reassurance to help bolster economic growth in an increasingly digital world..."