Cybersecurity and cyber resilience…aren’t they the same thing?
Addressing misconceptions between cybersecurity and cyber resilience
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Sandra Dunbar
You probably hear the terms “cybersecurity” and “cyber resilience” used quite a bit, especially as cyberthreats become increasingly common—and costly. These terms don’t describe exactly the same thing, and there are a lot of misconceptions about the differences between them. So let’s make sure that we’re all on the same page.
Why the difference matters
Cybersecurity is a pretty broad term, but it generally refers to system defenses that protect against unauthorized access from attackers. Cyber resilience goes beyond defenses and describes an infrastructure that proactively protects data with built-in security measures, rapidly detects and responds to suspicious activity, and enables organizations to rapidly recover from disruptions, whether natural or human-made.
Why does this difference matter?
- Cyberattacks don’t come only from the perimeter. Data exfiltration, user errors, vendor data theft, negligence—these threats all come from within. If the attack never has to make its way inside, cybersecurity measures that are focused on external actors have limited ability to help.
- Cyberthreats span way beyond ransomware. Data breaches, malware, and phishing attacks are just a few examples of the broad threat landscape. With layers of threats all after your data, you need multilayered solutions that protect against any type of threat.
- Cybersecurity can’t bring back lost data. You can have the most formidable cyberfortress on the planet, but if an attacker destroys your data, cybersecurity alone can’t recover what you lost. A cyber resilient organization has built-in redundancies, immutable snapshot copies, and rapid recovery measures in place so that cyberthreats can’t destroy data.
When you build cyber resilience into your infrastructure, you secure your data from its very foundation. NetApp® solutions are built in, never bolted on, so you can create multilayered protection, proactively detect potential threats, and quickly recover to get back to business.
More information
Check out our cyber resilience solutions to see how you can go beyond cybersecurity and protect your data from threats of all shapes and sizes.
Sandra Dunbar
Sandra leads the hybrid multicloud product marketing for alliance partners like VMware. Her career has been focused on building and executing fully integrated marketing programs for the enterprise audience. Based in Los Angeles, she has previously held senior level positions with Nutanix, OpenDrives, Cisco, EMC, Sun Microsystems, IBM and various startups.
