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Gartner Shines a Light on Storage Security


Enterprises are creating and storing massive amounts of data, with some sources citing a 28% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) directly to enterprise data. At the same time, we see that ransomware attacks that steal, encrypt and hold data for ransom have grown exponentially.

Threatpost reports that the first half of 2021 experienced a 151 percent uptick in ransomware attacks in the first half of 2021 compared to the same timeframe a year prior. And in the U.S. FBI has reported that there are now more than 100 different strains of ransomware causing chaos around the globe.

We know that keeping storage and backup systems secure needs to be a top priority for enterprises, yet securing the network and compute portions of our infrastructure receive the bulk of what the cybersecurity industry has to offer.

No real thought has been put toward scanning and protecting our storage and backup systems, which is why we created StorageGuard and are working to help build a market category around storage security.

It’s one thing for us to try to create a market category for enterprise storage security, but it’s quite another when a world-renowned research and analyst firm brings attention to the same topic: ‘cyberstorage’.

In October 2021, Gartner published its “Innovation Insight for Cyberstorage Solutions to Protect Unstructured Data Against Ransomware.” We were thrilled to see the authors shine a light on the need to put active defenses around a company’s most valuable asset – the data it houses in storage and backup systems.

Garner’s position is that the frequency and commonality of ransomware attacks has gotten to the point that enterprises need to consider new options for defending data, and even note the lack of protection for centralized storage. They cite:

Although numerous solutions are available for endpoint protection, centralized storage lacks active protection against malicious attacks. Unstructured data platforms like network-attached storage, scale-out file systems and object storage provide inadequate protection from malicious deletion, encryption and data exfiltration, making it an easy-to-attack target. Some vendors position traditional storage technologies like snapshots, as a single answer for ransomware protection, which is inadequate to meet the new challenges faced by ransomware.”

Gartner’s take on this is spot on. A snapshot is not enough to protect the data that runs an organization or makes it unique amongst its competitors.

In fact, Gartner’s report goes on to reference the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Security Guidelines for Storage Infrastructure, which was co-written by Continuity’s chief technology officer, Doron Pinhas.

This framework hits on those security management areas that are specific to storage infrastructure such as data protection, isolation, restoration assurance, and encryption.

The attention Gartner is shining on cyberstorage is critical and brings awareness to a commonly unrealized threat. We appreciate Gartner’s attention and encourage all of you to not only read the Innovation Insight but share it widely with your networks.

Securing enterprise assets is not the job of one individual and we must share the knowledge we have to help protect all organizations from the plague of ransomware.

To learn more about averting a ransomware attack and preparing your organization for a storage attack, download The Storage Security Handbook from Continuity today. 

NIST Special Publication on Securing Storage

The guide – co-authored by Continuity’s CTO – provides an overview of the evolution of storage technology, recent security threats, and the risks they pose.

The post Gartner Shines a Light on Storage Security appeared first on Continuity™.

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Continuity™ authored by Gil Hecht. Read the original post at: https://www.continuitysoftware.com/blog/gartner-shines-a-light-on-storage-security/