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The IEMI threat is insidious because it can be implemented with readily available, uncontrolled and non-traceable components available on the internet, or with purchased devices now available for sale in the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere. Unlike other cyber threats to data security, IEMI is extremely covert and difficult to detect and trace, with no footprints readily amenable to forensics.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) divides critical civilian infrastructure into 18 categories, all of which have varying degrees of vulnerability to IEMI. Two of the categories, Information Technology and Banking/Finance, encompass data center technology directly, and most of the other DHS infrastructure categories have significant elements that rely heavily on electronics based systems and data integrity. Other facilities at substantial levels of risk include refineries, chemical processing plants, and the like that employ Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) and similar control systems technology. The IEMI threat to electronic systems has quickly evolved from laboratory and military applications into a peril that is currently readily available to a host of potential domestic and international perpetrators of damage to infrastructure.

Data centers and other critical electronics facilities in other worldwide locations being planned or refurbished will be in a proactive position with respect to the growing IEMI concerns for civilian infrastructure. International companies have protected hundreds of civilian data centers to some extent from electromagnetic radiation threats like IEMI by IDC. “Western Europe will increase spending on IT security products despite the shaky economic conditions caused by the credit crisis, according to new figures released ….” (http://www.csoonline.com/article/339219/Economic_Woes_Won_t_Affect_Europe_Security_Spending)

It appears that the European initiative has resulted from closer proximity to actual IEMI events in Eastern Europe, the Netherlands, the UK, and elsewhere. The US Navy has issued a report detailing this threat to the U.S. infrastructure. (http://www.emprimus.com/pdf/NavyReportRFWeapons.pdf)

The World Economic Forum meeting on Global Risk in Geneva (in 2006 warned that increasing use of asymmetrical warfare techniques is to be expected by fractional groups in the near future. IEMI is a key example of these asymmetrical threats being taken seriously in Europe at present. It is becoming clear that data center operations that properly take IEMI into consideration and have appropriate proven remediation against it will have significant competitive advantages in tomorrow’s marketplace over those that continue with “business as usual.”

Link ( http://www.weforum.org/pdf/CSI/Global_Risk_Report.pdf)

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