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23 February 2024

Understanding Recovery Assurance Software: Its Significance and Impact

Every day, there’s news about another big cyber-attack.   

Hackers are getting bolder, and their methods more sophisticated – leaving businesses scrambling to defend their critical data and systems.   

Every time there’s a breach, it’s a reminder of just how valuable your backups can be.

There’s a genuine possibility you’ll need to call on them to save the day – and potentially your business.

Here’s the problem. The hackers know it too.  

93% of cyber-attacks now target backups to destroy your last line of defence and successfully impair their victims’ ability to recover in 75% of those attacks.

That’s where Recovery Assurance Software (RAS) comes in.  

What is a Recovery Assurance Software?   

To put it simply, RAS is a type of software designed to prove that you can recover your data and critical IT systems, should your organisation be hit by a cyber-attack or other data loss event.   

It acts as your tireless auditor, automatically testing your backups for recoverability and cleanliness, and removing any hidden malware, giving you confidence that you can recover your data when you need to.

Think of it like this… you wouldn’t want to wait until your house was burning down to find out if your smoke detectors work.

That’s why the advice is to test them regularly.

Using Recovery Assurance Software delivers the same peace of mind for your digital infrastructure, no matter what cybercriminals throw your way.

RAS will continually validate the recoverability and integrity of your data following the inevitable data breach. 

Just as the legendary phoenix rises from its ashes, reborn and rejuvenated, RAS ensures your organization can emerge stronger and more resilient from the aftermath of a cyber-attack.

5 Benefits of Recovery Assurance Software  

Having certainty of your recoverability is important, but RAS offers lots of additional benefits for your organisation too.

Let’s take a look at a few of them:

1. Reduced downtime: 

Speed of recovery following a cyber-attack is critical for minimising the negative impacts on your organisation.

By proactively identifying and eliminating malware in your storage environment, RAS minimises disruptions by accelerating your response and recovery time. 

This translates to a reduction in operational downtime, a reduction in lost revenue, and a reduction in lost productivity.  

2. Improved regulatory compliance: 

New data protection regulations such as DORA (Digital Operational Resilience Act) are leading the way in ensuring data resiliency.  

DORA applies to Financial Services Institutions in Europe and demands proof of the ability to recover data after a data loss event.

Regulators in other Industries and countries are sure to follow. 

A Recovery Assurance platform can provide documented evidence of regular testing and verification, simplifying compliance audits and helping your business avoid hefty fines.  

3. Streamlined operations: 

Say goodbye to tedious manual Disaster Recovery tests.  

A Recovery Assurance platform will automate those time-consuming, repetitive tasks including planning, verification, and reporting – freeing up your IT team’s valuable time to focus on other priorities.

4. Continuous improvement and optimisation: 

By continuously monitoring your storage environment, RAS provides valuable insights into the overall health of your backups and your resiliency posture.

This data empowers you to continuously refine and optimise your procedures, ensuring they remain effective as your business evolves.  

Advanced RAS solutions that incorporate Machine Learning will automatically enhance your resiliency over time.

5. Better visibility and collaboration between security and IT:

Utilising RAS can help you bridge the collaboration gap between your IT and infrastructure team, especially if the solution you choose integrates with your organisation’s SIEM platform.

The right RAS can turn storage metadata into cybersecurity intelligence. 

Who Needs Recovery Assurance Software?   

Industries that are at the highest risk of attack such as manufacturing and finance, and those with the highest remediation costs such as the critical infrastructure and education sector stand the most to gain from Recovery Assurance technology.

But the simple truth is, EVERY organisation that values its data needs Recovery Assurance!  

Wrapping up:  

Whether you’re facing the threat of cyberattacks, hardware failures, or natural disasters, recovery assurance software empowers you to face them head-on.

It’s the investment that pays off when it matters most, ensuring your business continuity and protecting your critical assets from the impact of an inevitable data loss event.  

Ready to take control of your disaster preparedness?  

Predatar is leading the way in Recovery Assurance.

Forward-thinking enterprises worldwide are already using Predatar Cyber Recovery Orchestration to continually validate the integrity of their data and the speed of recovery.  

Don’t wait for disaster to strike before acting.  

Start your journey towards a more secure and resilient organisation today by downloading our eBook here.

Learn more about
Predatar recovery assurance

13 February 2024

Knocked Down But Not Out: Building Cyber Resilience for the Inevitable Breach

In our previous post, “What is the Recovery Gap?”, we discussed a silent threat lurking within many businesses – the recovery gap.

This gap leaves them vulnerable and unable to recover thoroughly after a data loss event.

Remember the crippling cyber attack on MGM?

Despite their cyber defences, attackers infiltrated their systems, forcing them to shut down hotel and casino operations, impacting revenue and guest experiences.

This isn’t an isolated incident.

Major businesses like British Airways, Boots, and even the BBC have faced similar challenges, highlighting the critical need for a more comprehensive approach to security.

But why does the recovery gap exist in the first place?

The recovery gap primarily stems from a lack of coordination between security teams, who are focused on countering evolving threats, and infrastructure teams, who manage complex storage environments.

As a result, responsibility for resilience is often overlooked, leaving organisations ill-prepared for the inevitable breaches that are on the horizon.

To fully understand this, let’s explore the concepts of Cybersecurity and Cyber Resilience further.

What is Cybersecurity?

Cybersecurity is the practice of protecting systems, networks, and data from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, modification, or destruction.

It involves a wide range of activities, technologies, and processes to ensure that digital assets remain secure and confidential and maintain their integrity.

The primary goal of the cybersecurity team is to create a fortress around your organisation’s digital assets, making it as difficult as possible for unauthorized individuals to gain access.

What is Cyber Resilience?

On the other hand, cyber resilience is an organisation’s ability to protect itself from the impacts of a cyber-attack – to be ready to mount an effective recovery when the worst happens.

In essence, it goes beyond building walls by integrating the concepts of response and recovery into the mix.

This holistic approach ensures that an organisation is not only prepared to defend against potential threats but is also equipped to bounce back swiftly after a data loss event.

Enhancing Security with Cyber Resilience

Businesses must build resilience instead of solely relying on defences (cybersecurity).

Think of it like being a boxer.

You can’t block all punches. Some will land, and occasionally, you’ll get knocked down.

Great boxers are tough AND resilient. They get up, shake themselves off, and get back to work.

By preparing for the entire lifecycle of a cyber threat – from prevention and detection to response and recovery – businesses can enhance their overall security architecture, and importantly, their resilience.

Wrapping Up

Understanding the importance of cyber resilience is fundamental to helping businesses better protect themselves in the digital age.

Cybersecurity is essential for preventing breaches, but it’s only one part of the equation.

Cyber resilience extends beyond prevention, ensuring businesses can continue operating during an attack and recover quickly afterwards.

By focusing more on cyber resilience, businesses can eliminate their “recovery gap” and boost their ability to defend against and recover from cyber threats.

Want to learn more about closing the Recovery Gap in your business?

We’ve created an eBook that shows you how you can close the recovery gap in your organisation.

This guide provides valuable insights and practical steps for anyone looking to make their organisation more resilient.

Start your journey towards a more secure and resilient organisation today by downloading the eBook here.

Learn more about
Predatar recovery assurance

08 February 2024

Taking backup ‘scanning’ to the next level in the Predatar CleanRoom.

You’ve probably heard the term ‘scanning’ used in the backup and recovery space.

The chances are, you’re hearing it more and more as storage vendors increasingly tout their data resiliency capabilities.

But not all scanning is created equal. Predatar elevates scanning to the next level to help you find and eliminate dormant ransomware and viruses that traditional methods might overlook.

Traditional Scanning in Backup Systems

Today, the term ‘scanning’ is often overused—and even misused—in the context of backup and storage. Typically, storage vendors use the term to refer to searching data for anomalies using Shannon entropy.

If you are not familiar with Shannon entropy, you can learn more about it in our previous blog.

In a nutshell, Shannon entropy is a relatively basic mathematical equation used to spot random or unusual behaviour in data.

This method is a good starting point for spotting immediate anomalies but falls short of providing deeper insights or predicting future threats.

Predatar’s Advanced Scanning Approach

Predatar adopts a different perspective, viewing scanning as a comprehensive process using several tools and techniques to interrogate data in multiple ways in an isolated CleanRoom environment.

This multi-stage process goes way beyond the traditional scanning approach to identify and neutralize threats, using techniques including:

  • File signature scanning.
  • Machine learning for encryption detection.
  • In-memory analysis for uncovering fileless malware.
  • Behavioral analysis to combat scripts, injections, and ransomware.
  • EDR to find and remove known malware variants.

Comparative Analysis

Threat Detection:

  • Traditional: Focuses on detecting data unpredictability, and missing dormant threats.
  • Predatar: Uses a multifaceted approach to uncover a wide range of threats, including dormant ones.

Predictive Capabilities and Recovery:

  • Traditional: Offers no predictive insights and is limited to analyzing the current state.
  • Predatar: Predicts anomalies with Predatar Signal and provides a comprehensive recovery process in the CleanRoom.

Advanced Techniques:

  • Traditional: Lacks sophisticated malware detection methods.
  • Predatar: Incorporates a variety of advanced techniques for proactive threat detection and mitigation.

Conclusion

The traditional method of scanning in backup systems, mainly tied to Shannon entropy, is inadequate for today’s complex cybersecurity challenges.

Predatar’s approach includes anomaly detection and encompasses recovery and advanced threat analysis, offering a more thorough and proactive solution for safeguarding against sophisticated cyber threats.

What next?

Predatar empowers businesses to shrink their recovery gap and gives them confidence in their ability to mount a fast and effective recovery.  

Our Machine Learning-powered platform automates daily recovery testing, identifying issues and malware infiltration within your storage environment.  

Don’t let the recovery gap become your downfall. Take control, secure your data, and embrace recovery assurance with Predatar.  

Download our free e-book to learn more and bridge the gap to complete confidence. 

Learn more about
Predatar recovery assurance

02 February 2024

Beyond Shannon Entropy – Pushing the boundaries of anomaly detection

In today’s world of relentless cyber threats, it’s important that all backup and storage systems can detect unusual and suspicious activity in the data they’re protecting. 

To do this, most major storage vendors use a traditional mathematical concept called Shannon entropy to measure how unexpected, or random the behaviour of the data is. 

However, with innovative machine learning techniques, there are new, more intelligent ways to analyse data.  

Predatar Signal™ puts these techniques to work.

So let’s take a look at the limitations of Shannon Entropy, and the benefits of the new techniques that Predatar brings into play.

Introduction

Shannon entropy, conceptualised by engineer and mathematician Claude Shannon in 1949, is a fundamental metric in information theory.

Since its conception, Shannon Entropy has become the go-to method for detecting behavioural anomalies in large data sets.

Today, it’s the prevalent method used by all major storage technology vendors to underpin their anomaly detection capabilities.

While effective in measuring the current state of data, Shannon entropy lacks predictive capabilities and complex pattern recognition.

As data becomes more complex, and cyber threats evolve to avoid detection, we need more sophisticated analysis methods.

Predatar Signal is the intelligence engine under the hood of Predatar Recovery Assurance Technology.

It uses three different machine learning models (LSTM Autoencoder, LSTM Traditional, and ARIMA) to detect anomalies in storage systems. The result – faster, more precise threat identification that will continue to get smarter and more effective.

Predatar Signal: An Advanced Approach 

Predatar Signal integrates three advanced machine learning models, each contributing uniquely to anomaly detection: 

  1. LSTM Autoencoder: This model excels in identifying intricate patterns within backup data. Unlike Shannon entropy, it can detect subtle abnormalities that might otherwise go unnoticed.
  2. LSTM Traditional: Utilising historical data, this model forecasts future backup behaviours. It provides proactive anomaly detection, a feature absent in Shannon entropy’s approach.
  3. ARIMA: Specialising in time series forecasting, ARIMA offers in-depth statistical insights into backup trends, something beyond the scope of Shannon entropy. 

Comparative Analysis 

Complex Pattern Recognition 

  • Shannon Entropy: Limited to measuring unpredictability, lacks the sophistication to identify complex patterns. 
  • Predatar Signal: The LSTM Autoencoder’s advanced pattern recognition capabilities provide a more nuanced and thorough analysis of backup data. 

Predictive Capabilities 

  • Shannon Entropy: Offers no predictive insights, solely focusing on the current state of data. 
  • Predatar Signal: LSTM Traditional model predicts future anomalies, enabling pre-emptive measures for cyber resilience. 

Time Series Analysis 

  • Shannon Entropy: Does not provide detailed temporal analysis. 
  • Predatar Signal: The ARIMA model excels in this area, offering valuable insights into time-dependent data trends. 

Conclusion 

While Shannon Entropy remains a valuable tool for understanding data randomness, Predatar Signal offers a significantly more comprehensive and predictive analysis.  

Integrating LSTM Autoencoder, LSTM Traditional, and ARIMA models, marks a paradigm shift in backup system anomaly detection.  

This advanced approach is not just about detecting anomalies; it’s about predicting and preparing for them, thus reinforcing the pillars of cyber resilience in an increasingly complex data landscape. 

What’s next? 

Predatar empowers businesses to shrink their recovery gap and gives them confidence in their ability to mount a fast and effective recovery. 

Our Machine Learning-powered platform automates daily recovery testing, identifying issues and malware infiltration within your storage environment. 

Don’t let the recovery gap become your downfall. Take control, secure your data, and embrace recovery assurance with Predatar. 

Download our free e-book to learn more and bridge the gap to complete confidence. 

Learn more about
Predatar recovery assurance