Empowering cyber resilience in the digital age

In today's high-stakes digital age, cyber resilience isn't just an IT concern—it's a boardroom imperative. Protecting sensitive information is essential because organizations face a myriad of threats, including cyberattacks and data breaches. 

Cyber resilience goes beyond merely defending against threats; it’s also about ensuring business continuity and productivity even when cybersecurity incidents occur. Safeguarding the perimeter from threat actors is crucial, but preventing data loss, corruption, or theft requires a different set of tools—a blend of data governance, ransomware protection, and data backup and recovery. 

In a recent Futurum group survey commissioned by NetApp, 48% of respondents indicated that the evolving threat landscape (cybercriminals innovating their approaches) has the greatest impact on their organization's cyber resilience. And 38% reported having paid a ransom after experiencing a cyberattack. 

These statistics paint a clear picture: Cyber resilience is no longer optional—it's essential for business continuity and stakeholder trust. 

Picture your data as a valuable artifact that is protected by a secure vault. The vault is designed to be strong and secure, protecting your artifact against unforeseen disasters. However, relying solely on the vault’s strength isn't enough. What if someone manages to get inside by hacking credentials? More than just defending, the fortress is built to recover from attacks. If the artifact is stolen, the fortress has a strategy to recover or replace it. 

NetApp's approach to cyber resilience is built on five core pillars, aligning with the NIST Cybersecurity Framework with capabilities orchestrated by NetApp BlueXP ransomware protection:

• Identify. NetApp's BlueXP data classification solution leverages AI to provide real-time insights into data landscapes across hybrid and multicloud environments. This executive-level visibility is crucial for informed decision making and resource allocation.

• Protect. NetApp® ONTAP® software offers industry-leading encryption, multifactor authentication, and role-based access controls. These features, combined with SnapMirror®, SnapLock® retention, workload backups with SnapCenter®, and NetApp Cyber vault architecture, create a formidable defense against both external threats and insider risks. 

• Detect.NetApp's solutions for ransomware detection and response leverage advanced machine learning algorithms to provide early warning systems for potential threats. This proactive approach allows the company’s security apparatus to stay ahead of emerging risks and make data-driven decisions in real time.

• Respond. NetApp's integrated response mechanisms allow immediate containment and mitigation in the event of a breach. Automated alerts enable rapid, coordinated responses across the organization. 

• Recover. NetApp's products help to identify the source of threats so that critical data and systems can be restored quickly, minimizing operational disruptions and financial impacts. 

Organizations can adopt this comprehensive framework to safeguard against malicious actors, swiftly recover from incidents, and maintain continuous operations. 

Data governance and compliance (identify). 37% of respondents in the new Futurum survey reported that identifying and prioritizing the most critical data for recovery was their organization's top challenge related to cybersecurity. Data sprawl across hybrid multicloud environments was a close second. 

Data classification is a vital process that helps organizations prioritize which data and applications should be recovered first in the event of a cybersecurity incident. By systematically categorizing data based on its sensitivity, importance, and business value, organizations can identify critical assets that need immediate attention during recovery efforts. This prioritization ensures that essential operations can resume quickly, minimizing downtime and reducing the impact on business continuity.

Moreover, safeguarding sensitive data during recovery processes bolsters compliance with data protection laws, regulations, and best practices. 

Ransomware protection (protect and detect). Autonomous Ransomware Protection is a cutting-edge solution that uses machine learning and advanced analytics to safeguard data from ransomware attacks. It continuously monitors for anomalies within the file system, detecting potential threats in real time. When suspicious activity is identified, the system immediately triggers alerts and initiates protective measures, such as blocking unauthorized access and maintaining data integrity. 

The majority of the Futurum survey respondents, 47%, have indicated that they plan to use AI-based detection of anomalous user activity in the production and secondary/protection environments.

Additionally, NetApp Data Infrastructure Insights (formerly Cloud Insights) offers customers a clear overview of their workload security. This at-a-glance information enables rapid decision making and enhances the ability to respond effectively to potential threats. 

It is important to note that no ransomware detection or recovery system can completely guarantee safety from a ransomware attack. While it’s possible an attack might go undetected, NetApp technology acts as an important additional layer of defense. 

Backup and recovery (respond and recover). With NetApp’s backup and recovery solution, customers have integrated access to the built-in write once, read many (WORM) capabilities of their cloud provider's object storage or NetApp's object storage platform in their data center. WORM storage means that data cannot be deleted or altered, keeping it immutable even during a ransomware attack. Retention periods can be extended until a future date or infinitely, but they cannot be decreased. This capability is crucial for protecting backup data from being tampered with, so that it stays secure, unchangeable, and easily accessible. 

NetApp's Cyber Vault architecture can defend against sophisticated cyberthreats, with an emphasis on ransomware. It creates a logically air-gapped, immutable, and tamper-proof data repository that is secure from threats targeting the primary network. By using NetApp Snapshot™ copies protected with SnapLock Compliance, the solution means that data remains unalterable and undeletable, even by administrators or NetApp Support. Combining secure storage, automated real-time ransomware detection, and rapid data recovery, NetApp provides a comprehensive defense strategy for safeguarding critical organizational data. 

In an era where data is the lifeblood of business, cyber resilience is non-negotiable. The Futurum survey indicates that customers are feeling overwhelmed, with 31% reporting difficulty in identifying compromised data, leading to increased reinfections, and 21% are slowed down by cumbersome and manual recovery operations. NetApp's comprehensive approach offers more than just protection—it provides the confidence to innovate and grow in an increasingly complex digital landscape. 

Furthermore, we have forged strategic alliances with leading cybersecurity companies, such as SentinelOne, Trend Micro, Veritas, Stealthbits, Splunk, and Varonis. These partnerships enable us to provide comprehensive cybersecurity solutions that combine storage security with state-of-the-art threat detection and response capabilities. 

By leveraging NetApp's cyber resilience solutions, organizations can: 

• Minimize downtime and maintain productivity during cyber incidents 

• Protect valuable data from theft or corruption 

• Quickly recover from attacks without paying ransoms 

• Maintain customer trust and avoid reputational damage 

• Strengthen their compliance posture in the face of increasingly stringent data protection regulations 

NetApp solutions empower you to turn cyber resilience from a challenge into a competitive advantage, helping your business to remain agile, secure, and poised for success in the face of any cyberthreat. 

Take the next step in your cyber resilience journey with NetApp. 

To explore further, watch the video series where we dive into the challenges in the cyber resilience landscape, including the criticality of visibility and data classification, constant change that requires flexibility and agility by design, and rapid orchestrated recovery. 

Read more in the NetApp e-book, Fortify your defense with NIST-aligned solutions.