GAO: OMB’s Data Center Policy Puts Agencies’ Networks at Risk of Cyberattacks

Following a shift in federal policy last year that pushed agencies to focus on closing major data centers over servers in closets and under desks, the Government Accountability Office released a report Thursday criticizing the new policy for decreasing visibility into the number of data centers operating across the government and making agencies more vulnerable to cyberattacks. The original Data Center Closure Initiative kicked off in 2010 during the Obama administration. The goal at the time was to identify and cap the explosion of data centers across the government, which had grown from 432 in 1998 to more than 2,000 in 2010. However, officials soon realized this number did not fully encompass all of the servers running throughout the government, including smaller “data centers” tucked in small rooms or otherwise maintained outside of traditional facilities.