As featured on Homeland Security Today,
Modern conflict is evolving faster than our preparations. Today’s emerging battlefields are digital, silent, and without borders – where cyber warfare can be waged with a single keystroke from virtually anywhere. The next battle may not begin with explosions, but with a silent strike: a data breach, a blackout, or a system compromise. If we continue to train solely for yesterday’s wars, we risk being blindsided by tomorrow’s threats.
Leaders in AI and Defense understand the danger of uninvited access and surveillance by adversaries. The most potent weapons now travel through fiber-optic networks and cloud systems—advanced cyber tools engineered to disrupt and destabilize critical infrastructure, with devastating ripple effects on the public. Here’s a closer look at the new realities shaping modern infrastructure security.
AI: The New Front in Infrastructure Security
America’s July 2025 AI Action Plan casts AI as the next great strategic terrain—“a race to achieve global dominance in artificial intelligence,” where the nation that builds the largest AI ecosystem will set the technical, economic, and military rules of the road. To win, the White House has introduced a roadmap for industry, government, and allies built on three pillars: Innovation, Infrastructure, and International AI Diplomacy & Security.
The plan’s urgency is clear: U.S. systems are being incrementally probed and breached by foreign adversaries. By the time a major attack occurs, it may already have crippled our ability to react—a truly catastrophic outcome.
The Action Plan treats algorithmic power as national power. By integrating industrial policy, export controls, and frontier R&D, it aims to lock in an American advantage, protect critical systems, and align allies on a secure AI footing—before competitors impose their own, less-free rules of engagement.
Traditional Infrastructure Faces New Threats
Historically, U.S. installations—power grids, dams, reservoirs, transportation hubs, military bases, and communications centers—have been the backbone of national security and stability. From New Deal projects like Hoover Dam, to modern facilities such as Fort Bragg and AT&T’s Network Operations Center, these “bricks-and-steel” assets remain vital.
Each site requires tailored physical and technical security to balance accessibility with protection. Post-9/11 upgrades exemplify the model: layered fencing, blast-rated gates, on-site security personnel, and 24/7 surveillance that ensure restricted access while maintaining operations.
Today, however, critical installations must think in 360 degrees. Drones and unmanned systems pose both threats and advantages—providing surveillance but also enabling incursions by state and non-state actors.
Meanwhile, cybersecurity has become inseparable from physical security. Until the late 1990s, protections were limited to simple firewalls and access controls. Now, critical systems—from grid management to logistics—depend on data that increasingly resides in off-site, hyperscale data centers.
The rise of cloud computing redefined what “vital installations” mean. Data centers now store, process, and protect the nation’s most sensitive information. As the Director of National Intelligence reported in early 2024, Iran-affiliated and pro-Russia actors accessed and manipulated critical U.S. industrial control systems (ICS) across multiple sectors, posing direct threats to public safety and service continuity.
Similarly, Ret. Gen. Tim Haugh, former NSA director, has warned that China continues targeting U.S. military, industrial, and infrastructure systems, noting in a 60 Minutes interview: “They targeted water, electrical power, transportation… and in many cases they’re vulnerable.”
Data Centers: The New Critical Infrastructure
Data centers have become full-fledged critical infrastructure. Since Amazon’s 2006 launch of S3 and EC2, storage and computing have migrated to vast hyperscale campuses—housing the telemetry, logistics, and AI models that power traditional installations, often from hundreds of miles away.
Mega centers by AWS, Google, Meta, and Oracle manage enormous datasets for AI, analytics, and operational continuity. Facilities in Virginia (4,000 MW), Texas (1,125 MW), and California store mission-critical data for remote installations. They require biometric access, perimeter sensors, encryption, and AI-based threat detection to safeguard against breaches that can cost hundreds of millions.
High-value data makes these “digital fortresses” prime targets. The Equifax breach cost $425 million, and a single compromised VPN password in 2021 shut down the Colonial Pipeline, disrupting fuel supplies across 17 states.
As operators embed AI into operations, risks grow. AI models and training data can be stolen, and personally identifiable information (PII) is a high-value prize. Data centers now use AI to forecast trends like weather and energy demand, but their expanded role also increases exposure.
Because cloud campuses are remote, they depend on secure fiber-optic transmission and compliance with privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA. Protecting them requires a fusion of physical fortification and AI-driven cyber defense tools, such as FoxGPT for real-time threat hunting, along with safeguarding the physical cables themselves. Recent Baltic Sea cable cuts illustrate how one act in the physical world can cripple digital operations.
Defense Needs in the Age of Digital Threats
In the U.S., between 50% – 85% of critical infrastructure is privately owned. That mix of public and private control makes protection highly complex.
Modern data centers now demand fortified perimeters, redundant power, advanced cooling systems, and continuous monitoring—akin to military installations but with specialized server security. AI-driven cybersecurity tools and multi-layered defenses are essential to prevent breaches.
Protecting PII and operational data also requires proactive dark-web and exposure monitoring to detect and remove leaked information.
As the global race for AI dominance accelerates, Day & Zimmermann, SOC, and Mason & Hanger remain at the forefront—shielding the nation’s critical infrastructure and keeping assets resilient.
As more of our lives move online, we comfort ourselves with the idea that our information sits safely “in the cloud.” But those “clouds” are actually vast, ground-level complexes—run by Microsoft, AWS, Google, Oracle, xAI, and others—where walls of servers demand the same ironclad defenses that SOC and Mason & Hanger provide as Day & Zimmermann companies.
These vulnerabilities extend to the systems that sustain daily life—water, power, and communications—interconnected lifelines that uphold both community and national security. The rise in threats to critical infrastructure reminds us: these are not isolated risks, but connected vulnerabilities, where a single breach can send ripples across the nation’s most vital systems.
Read the article in Homeland Security Today