When data defense becomes national defense

"Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming the invisible infrastructure of modern society. It powers the grids that keep cities running, the algorithms that move supplies across continents, the systems that support national security decisions and the predictive engines that sense everything from disease outbreaks to drone trajectories. Yet beneath every AI capability lies something far more fundamental and far more fragile: data."

"This is why defending data is now synonymous with defending nations. The World Economic Forum ranks attacks on critical infrastructure among the most severe global risks, noting a sharp rise in cyber-physical incidents across energy, healthcare and transportation. And as federal assessments increasingly acknowledge, AI is now woven through the backbone of those same systems. When data pipelines fail - whether through ransomware, manipulation or targeted disruption - the impact is no longer limited to digital inconvenience. It cascades into the physical world."

"The boundary between cyber risk and national security has effectively dissolved. Cyber threats are no longer isolated breaches or digital vandalism; they have become tools of geopolitical leverage and societal disruption. In this environment, resilience is not an IT concern but a national imperative. Nations that fail to secure their data systems jeopardize not only their services and economies, but also their sovereignty and stability. The new intelligence infrastructure AI is only as capable as the data it can access and as trustworthy as the systems that store, process and protect that data."

Artificial intelligence now functions as the invisible infrastructure powering grids, supply chains, national security systems and predictive engines across society. Underlying every AI capability is data, which is both fundamental and fragile. Attacks on critical infrastructure have sharply increased across energy, healthcare and transportation, and federal assessments show AI is woven into those systems. When data pipelines fail through ransomware, manipulation or targeted disruption, impacts cascade from digital systems into the physical world. Cyber risk has blurred with national security, making resilience a national imperative. Failure to secure data systems jeopardizes services, economies, sovereignty and societal stability.

Read at Nextgov.com