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Comment by tristanj

Instead of targeting data center itself, it's far easier to target the electrical substation that powers the datacenter. It's relatively simple to do. Transformers require oil to cool themselves, and if the coolant reservoir is damaged, then they overheat and shut off. This exact infrastructure attack occurred in North Carolina in 2022 [0], where someone fired bullets into the coolant reservoirs and caused a several day power outage. The perpetrator was never caught. It's speculated a foreign actor did this to gauge the response in a future wartime scenario.

Most data centers have a dedicated electrical substation that powers it, so it's possible to target the data center without affecting anywhere else.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore_County_substation_attack

parent tristanj 7 months ago

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