In an era of drone attacks on data centres, digital resilience is key

As digital infrastructure becomes a target in modern conflict, countries like Ireland that depend heavily on shared digital systems must begin treating resilience as national infrastructure

When a drone strikes a data centre, resilience stops being a purely technical concern and becomes a matter of sovereign capability, particularly where several sectors unknowingly depend on the same digital platforms or service providers and disruption within a single system can cascade rapidly across the economy. 

When drones begin striking data centres, every digitally-dependent nation must sit up and take notice. 

Recent attacks on digital infrastructure during the ongoing conflict in the Middle East highlight a reality that governments and businesses can no longer ignore — the systems sustaining modern economies are increasingly digital. 

When those systems are disrupted, the consequences extend far beyond technology into the functioning of society itself.

While the focus is rightly on the people impacted by the conflict in the Middle East and when and how hostilities will cease, these attacks mark the first time data centres have been deliberately targeted by physical means during conflict. 

What we are witnessing is the emergence of a new form of systemic vulnerability in which disruption to digital infrastructure can ripple rapidly across economies and societies. 

In tandem with these physical attacks on digital infrastructure, we are also seeing the velocity of cyber incidents continuing to increase, with some linked to nation-state backed hackers. On top of this, AI-powered attacks have increasingly shown the ability to identify and exploit system vulnerabilities with precision and at speed.

Taken together, the question facing leaders today therefore is no longer simply whether systems can be defended but whether resilience has been deliberately engineered into the systems on which society now depends.

How we depend on technology

Modern economies increasingly run on shared digital infrastructure, with cloud platforms, identity services, managed services, software supply chains and connected operational technologies embedded within the services that sustain daily life. 

Health systems rely on digital platforms to co-ordinate care, financial markets depend on resilient systems to maintain trust and stability, while energy networks, transport systems and water utilities increasingly operate through digitally connected infrastructure.

Ireland occupies a particularly important position within this landscape, having become one of Europe’s largest hubs for data centres, data cables, cloud platforms and digital infrastructure that support not only Irish services but large parts of the European digital economy. 

This concentration has delivered enormous economic value while positioning Ireland at the centre of global technology networks. It also means resilience within the systems operating here carries implications well beyond individual organisations.

For Ireland, the question is simple but urgent: can the services on which society relies continue operating if the digital infrastructure underpinning our economy were suddenly disrupted — whether as a result of a drone attack, weather event, or cyber incident.

The shared digital infrastructure model has delivered enormous benefits, allowing organisations to innovate faster, scale services efficiently and deliver better outcomes. 

Drone strikes

The challenge does not arise from the existence of these systems but from the widespread assumption that resilience within them is inherent.

When a drone strikes a data centre, however, resilience stops being a purely technical concern and becomes a matter of sovereign capability, particularly where several sectors unknowingly depend on the same digital platforms or service providers and disruption within a single system can cascade rapidly across the economy. 

In highly digitised societies the resilience of shared infrastructure increasingly determines whether essential services can continue functioning during crisis.

The most significant vulnerabilities rarely emerge through dramatic attacks. 

More often they arise through hidden dependencies that organisations have not fully mapped or understood, where a cloud outage, a software update failure, disruption affecting a key supplier or a connectivity breakdown can spread rapidly across organisations that share the same digital foundations, allowing what begins as a technical incident to evolve into a disruption affecting multiple essential services. 

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This is the reality of concentration risk in a digital economy.

For this reason resilience can no longer be treated as something that can simply be delegated to technology providers or suppliers, because in an economy built on shared digital systems resilience must be deliberately engineered.

Resilience engineered 

'Resilience engineered' begins with understanding how the services we rely upon actually function and what level of operation must be sustained when disruption occurs. 

In practice this means defining a minimum viable operating capacity for critical services, recognising that during severe disruption the objective is not to maintain every system at full capacity but to ensure that essential services continue operating at a level that protects citizens, markets and core societal functions.

For Ireland this challenge carries particular significance. 

Puneet Kukreja: 'What we are witnessing is the emergence of a new form of systemic vulnerability in which disruption to digital infrastructure can ripple rapidly across economies and societies. '

As the country prepares to assume the presidency of the Council of the European Union from July, there is not only an urgent requirement to look closely at the resilience of our critical digital infrastructure, but there is also an opportunity to help shape the European conversation around digital resilience and critical infrastructure.

In a world increasingly defined by artificial intelligence, globally connected technology platforms and complex digital ecosystems, ensuring that essential services can continue operating during disruption must become a shared priority across governments, regulators and industry.

A resilient nation is not one that avoids disruption but one that deliberately engineers resilience into the systems on which society depends, recognising that the systems sustaining modern economies have themselves become part of national infrastructure and must therefore be treated accordingly.

• Puneet Kukreja is EY Ireland Resilient Nation leader and head of Cyber