The Convergent Attack Surface: IT, OT, and Physical
An AI facility is a cyber-physical system, and the adversary treats it as one. The old wall between the information network and the machinery that keeps the building alive has collapsed. Power, cooling, and access control are now software, and software is now a path to power, cooling, and access control. Whoever owns the operational-technology layer can end a training run without touching a single model file, by simply making the room too hot to compute in. Defend the whole system or you defend nothing. The most expensive rack in the world is worthless when its chiller answers to an attacker.
Knowledge check
Why can compromising a facility's cooling controls be as damaging as breaching its data network, even though no data is stolen?
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Because high-density AI compute generates enormous heat and depends on continuous cooling to keep operating. An attacker who controls the cooling system can force accelerators to throttle or shut down to prevent damage, destroying an in-progress training run and its scarce compute time. The harm is to availability and capability, not confidentiality, and it needs no access to the data itself.