Systems and methods are disclosed for data protection in a cluster of data processing accelerators (DPAs). The cluster of accelerators may include DPAs of a third party accelerator that may not be trusted. To ensure data protection in the cluster, a first DPA that receives a request from a second DPA to access a resource of the first DPA authenticates the second DPA. If the second DPA passes authentication, the second DPA is permitted to access non-sensitive resources of the first DPA, otherwise the second DPA is not permitted access to any resources of the first DPA and the first DPA breaks a communication link with the second DPA. Authentication is premised on a shared secret function between DPAs and a random number generated by the first DPA. The shared secret function is updateable by, e.g., a patch from a manufacturer of the DPA.