Data Shows That 1 in 5 Data Center Assets Are “One Hop” Away From Being Accessible to Attackers
NEW YORK—July 29, 2026—Claroty, the cyber-physical systems (CPS) protection company, today announced new research on the riskiest exposures among the foundational assets that keep modern data centers operational. The new report from Claroty’s Team82, “State of CPS Security: Data Center Exposures,” analyzes more than 750,000 CPS assets across the world’s biggest data center facilities and found nearly 1 in 5 assets are “one hop” away from systems making outbound connections that could provide attackers a pathway to exposed data center assets.
Significant Exposures Within the Data Center CPS Ecosystem
Data centers contain a wide range of CPS assets – building management systems (BMS), building automation systems (BAS), power distribution, monitoring and control systems, uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), generators, cooling infrastructure, environmental monitoring platforms, and data center infrastructure management (DCIM) solutions – all of which support uptime and reliability requirements, service efficiency, and physical safety. The research uncovered the prevalent exposures in each of these areas, including:
Power distribution units (41%) and HVAC/cooling systems (32%) have the highest percentage of assets that are either directly exposed or one hop away from a risky connection to the public internet
88% of BMS are exposed via communication over insecure protocols, and 40% contain outdated firmware
More than 80% of OT control systems, power monitoring, and IoT systems communicate over legacy, insecure protocols such as BACnet and MODBUS
23% of IoT devices in data centers contain known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs)
“Data centers have evolved into critical infrastructure globally, and much like electric utilities or transportation, threat actors will see the high value in disrupting their operations,” said Amir Preminger, CTO and head of Team82 at Claroty. “As data center protection is vitally important on a societal scale in terms of the AI boom and economic and national security, building operational resilience is the best path forward for operators safeguarding these complex CPS ecosystems.”
CPS Protection Essentials for Data Center Operational Resilience
To protect uptime and achieve operational resilience that meets compliance standards, data center operators should adopt a robust CPS protection strategy focused on four key pillars:
Continuous exposure management to map internal attack paths
Zero-trust network segmentation to restrict lateral movement and shrink the blast radius
BMS hardening to isolate unpatchable legacy systems
Protocol-aware threat detection to continuously monitor for anomalies and lateral activity
By operationalizing these core pillars through a unified CPS protection program, data center operators can eliminate critical blind spots, contain lateral movement, and ensure uninterrupted continuity of the digital infrastructure that powers modern life.
To access Team82’s complete set of findings, in-depth analysis, and recommended security measures, download the “State of CPS Security: Data Center Exposures” report.
Learn more about protecting data centers with Claroty here.
Methodology
The “State of CPS Security: Data Center Exposures” report analyzes 750,000+ CPS assets across the world’s biggest data center facilities, including building and power management systems and infrastructure assets responsible for cooling, physical security, and fire protection systems. The research was conducted by Team82, Claroty's threat research team, and our data scientists.
About Claroty
Claroty empowers organizations to protect the mission-critical infrastructure that underpins modern life. The AI-powered Claroty Platform serves as the single source of operational truth, providing the deepest visibility and broadest protection across cyber-physical systems (CPS), leveraging five core solutions: asset inventory, exposure management, network protection, secure access, and threat detection. Claroty helps organizations operationalize CPS protection through a programmatic approach designed to reduce risk, maintain operational integrity, and meet compliance–whether in the cloud with Claroty xDome or on-premise with Claroty Continuous Threat Detection (CTD). Claroty is deployed by hundreds of organizations at thousands of sites globally. The company is headquartered in New York City and has a presence in Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America. To learn more, visit claroty.com.
