Vince Fong Asks Experts If U.S. Should Designate Data Centers As 'Critical National Infrastructures'

During a House Homeland Security Committee hearing, Representative Vince Fong (R-CA) initiated a discussion with experts regarding the potential designation of data centers as 'Critical National Infrastructures' in the United States. Mr. Mayor elaborated on how CISA (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency) has improved intelligence sharing with the private sector, particularly in the communications and information technology sectors, but noted a need to better convey information to local and regional providers. Admiral Montgomery emphasized the critical importance of physically and cyber-secure data centers, citing concerns about adversarial threats like drone attacks, supply chain vulnerabilities, and the need for robust security standards. She strongly advocated for data centers and cloud services to be recognized as a separate critical infrastructure, similar to how the UK has done, independent of general communications infrastructure. She, along with Mr. Mayor and Mr. Wiener, underscored the exponential growth of data centers, their massive energy requirements (potentially powered by small modular nuclear reactors), and their integral role in national defense, economic security, and future AI-enabled smart cities. Mr. Adjei noted that the data center community is already integrated into critical infrastructure discussions through the Information Technology ISAC, facilitating threat intelligence and security practice sharing.