Technology & Data Security

Keeping digital systems and networks running

Digital infrastructure, including data centres, cloud systems, and IT networks, may be exposed to extreme weather events such as flooding, heatwaves, and storms, which can disrupt power supply and system availability. Enabling functions are highly dependent on real-time, accurate data, and integrated systems.

Data or system failures can disrupt financial reporting, compliance processes, workforce management, and strategic planning simultaneously, leading to organisation-wide decision-making breakdowns.

Vulnerabilities

What are the climate risks to technology and data security?

The climate and nature pressures that can make technology, connectivity, and data systems more vulnerable to disruption.

Climate and nature-related hazards can disrupt the infrastructure that underpins business’s digital operations. Extreme weather events can damage power networks, telecommunications infrastructure – like fibre optic cables and cell towers – and data centres, increasing the risk of power and signal outages and data loss. Severe droughts and heatwaves place additional stress on water-based cooling systems.

How exposed are technology and data networks?

Some businesses and networks are more exposed to climate disruption – including extreme weather which can damage infrastructure – than others.

Businesses are more exposed when their technology and data systems are geographically concentrated or located in climate-vulnerable regions, or when they rely on a small number of external providers which puts them at risk even when an organisation’s own infrastructure is not directly impacted.

How sensitive are technology and data systems to climate disruption?

A Business can take action to bounce-back from climate risks to technology and data systems.

Weak cybersecurity, limited backup capacity, and poor recovery protocols place businesses at higher risk of network disruption. Systems that have limited redundancy (where systems lack back-up hardware or software), centralised platforms, or tightly coupled components are more sensitive to single-point failures, which can cause widespread outages which put users and businesses at risk.

What wider impacts could technology and data disruption have?

How technology and data failures can create wider operational, financial, compliance and strategic impacts across the business.

Climate and nature-related disruption to technology and data systems rarely remains confined to IT functions. A loss of system availability can interrupt financial reporting, payroll processing, compliance monitoring, customer services, supply chain management, and strategic decision-making.

At the same time, disruptions can increase cybersecurity vulnerabilities as businesses rely on emergency workarounds, alternative communication channels, or degraded system controls. Over time, repeated disruptions can reduce confidence in business continuity, weaken organisational resilience, and limit the ability to respond effectively to future climate and nature-related shocks.

Solutions

How can businesses secure their technology, connectivity, and data systems?

Businesses can protect their digital systems by separating recovery capacity from exposed sites, securing off-site copies of data and testing whether essential applications can be restored. These examples show how IT teams are preparing for physical disruption to the systems that support everyday decisions and transactions.

Examples of business adaptations and responses

British Airways

Moving critical systems to the cloud to improve resilience

British Airways migrated approximately 95% of the systems previously hosted in its UK data centres to the cloud, reducing dependence on its own physical infrastructure and supporting greater digital stability.

Airtel Africa

Separating critical systems across locations to maintain service continuity

Airtel Africa uses geographically separated recovery sites and regular switchover testing to maintain access to network and IT systems when extreme weather or other disruption affects its infrastructure.

Oklahoma Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance

Testing recovery before severe weather strikes

Oklahoma Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance introduced managed disaster recovery and regular exercises to protect the claims, policy and payment systems it needs when severe storms affect its customers and operations.

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