Preparing for the "Internet Apocalypse": Data Centres and the Space Weather Threat

Abstract

Over the last decade, space weather has become a key target of critical infrastructure protection efforts. Space weather produces disturbances in Earth’s upper atmosphere that can disrupt technology systems such as satellites and aircraft. The geomagnetic currents generated can also damage ground-surface infrastructure, including power grids and pipelines. This chapter traces an expanding cosmology of internet security by exploring how the space weather threat is being addressed in the data centre industry. Data centres support and enable the internet services that underpin digital societies. Amidst growing awareness of the space weather threat in the industry, some data centres are now taking precautions to increase their resilience to this risk. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork, this chapter investigates how space weather arises as both a threat and a marketing opportunity in the data centre industry, generating preparedness measures but also providing data centres with a means to promote their security.