Chief information security officers (CISOs) have increasingly incorporated cyber storage resilience into their comprehensive corporate cybersecurity strategy, enabling enterprises to recover data more rapidly — free of corruption — after a cyberattack. This has paved the way for CISOs to implement a recovery-first “game plan” that boosts business recovery, especially in light of a ransomware or malware attack. Resilience within the enterprise storage infrastructure has become key to business continuity and the mitigation of a cyberattack’s impact.
In a survey conducted by The Register / Blocks & Files, 56.2% of large enterprises reported that their organizations have integrated their storage solution into their overall cybersecurity environment, with a further 15% either just beginning that integration journey or formulating plans to do so in the future (4.4%). Only just under a quarter either haven’t taken this step (17.5%) or have no plans to do so in the future (6.9%).
Just like a football coach who needs to have his team play offense and defense, today’s CISO needs to secure data infrastructure and combat cyberattacks (like offense), as well as ensure a strong defense. Enterprise cyber storage resilience offers both.
It can serve as an early warning indicator of a cyberattack, triggering immutable snapshots when seamlessly integrated with an enterprise’s Security Operations Center or cybersecurity software applications (i.e., SIEM and SOAR), and proactively cutting off a cybercriminal’s impact. But if a cyberattack does make its way further into the data infrastructure, cyber storage resilience acts as the last line of defense. Data can be recovered today in under one minute. (That’s like a touchdown for a CISO when it’s 4th and Goal.)
A third of survey respondents in The Register / Blocks & Files survey currently depend on storage system-based cyber recovery solutions, with an upward trend. Furthermore, approximately 43% of those surveyed cited storage and data protection as spending priorities, on par with investments in server or applications/workloads cybersecurity software.
Planning to Win
CISOs must be on top of their game to protect an organization’s data. Lapses in cybersecurity around the data infrastructure can be devastating. Therefore, securing infrastructure needs to be air-tight.
The “game plan” that leads a CISO to success must have the following elements:
- Immutable snapshots
- Logical air-gapping
- Fenced forensic environment
- Automated cyber protection
- Cyber detection
- Near-instantaneous recovery
These six elements constitute the new wave in protecting data: next-generation data protection. There has already been a shift from modern data protection to this substantially higher level of next-gen data protection.
A smart CISO would not knowingly leave their enterprise weaker. This is why adoption of automated cyber protection and cyber detection, built right into enterprise storage infrastructure, is increasing, as part of this move to next-gen data protection. Automated cyber protection and cyber detection are becoming a basic requirement for all enterprises that want to eliminate the impact of cyberattacks.
All of this is vital for the rapid recovery of data within an enterprise after a cyberattack. Respondents in The Register / Blocks & Files survey were asked how much downtime an enterprise business can bear before a disruption becomes “critical.”
Rapid recovery from a cyberattack on the IT infrastructure is a priority, ranging from minutes to hours. Over 30% said their recovery time objective is either “under one hour” or “under 30 minutes.” Another 30% of respondents indicated that it’s “between 1 and 12 hours,” while the remaining said “under 24 hours.”
Half-Time Adjustments
CISOs do not need to become experts in enterprise storage. So much of enterprise storage and next-generation data protection has become automated. It’s best to work with a supplier that enables a set-it-and-forget-it approach, leveraging AI/ML for intelligent data placement and cyber safeguarding.
But what would be smart for CISOs to do is to make adjustments based on what they currently have protecting their storage infrastructure. For example, even in a mixed storage environment, you can deploy automated cyber protection through software.
You don’t need to rip and replace the cybersecurity systems and applications that you already have in place. You can be strategic about how you roll out next-generation data protection for enterprise cyber storage resilience, reflecting a recovery-first approach.
You don’t need specialized instrumentation. And it’s an opportunity for you, as a CISO, to strengthen the collaboration with your senior colleagues, such as the CIO, CTO, and CFO. High-performance, cyber-resilient storage automates and accelerates applications, reduces costs, and ensures data-driven business recovery.
