Introducing our New Ransomware Protection Solution for Commvault Environments

Grant Jacobson

Grant Jacobson, Director of Technology Alliances, Cloudian

Did you know that cyberattacks are one of the Top 10 most-likely global risks according to The World Economic Forum*? This includes ransomware attacks that are accelerating in frequency. Cyberhackers are increasingly targeting an organization’s backup data and holding this data hostage in exchange for a ransom payment. Ransomware attacks work by encrypting the user’s data, rendering it useless with an aim to harm the business. Organizations that are attacked and lose access to both primary and backup data stores have had to shut down, unable to operate. News of ransomware attacks also adversely impact organizations’ brand and reputation.

Successful attacks continue unabated despite many defensive precautions taken, including firewalls, employee training about phishing, and other cybersecurity protections. Ransomware attacks have been devastating, with 51% of US organizations surveyed opting to pay the ransom after being hit with a successful attack, and 22% of US organizations that paid the ransom never receiving access to their data.**

Earlier this year, we wrote about how object storage protects against ransomware attacks and the importance of S3 Object Lock-enabled WORM storage for data immutability. We also wrote about the introduction of our ransomware protection solution with Veeam. This solution combines Veeam v10 with Cloudian HyperStore, with both Veeam and Cloudian supporting S3 Object Lock and ransomware protection at the storage level.

New Solution

Today, we’re adding to our solution portfolio, introducing a new ransomware protection solution serving our customers with Commvault environments. This solution combines Commvault Complete Backup & Recovery with Cloudian HyperStore and also makes use of the S3 Object Lock capability for built-in, end-to-end data protection.

Read the Solution Brief

With this solution, backups work exactly the same, with no change to the regular Commvault backup workflow. Users simply create the Object Lock-enabled Cloudian bucket and set the retention period for the backup. Once the data is backed up, the backup is immutable and cannot be deleted or changed during the retention period. This provides full protection and means ransomware hackers can’t encrypt it and hold it hostage. In the event of an attack, a clean backup copy is always available for data recovery and restoration.

Hardened Solution with Enhanced Security Protections

As with the ransomware protection solution for Veeam environments, this new solution benefits from the use of S3 Object Lock. Cloudian Object Lock is certified to meet the non-rewriteable, non-erasable storage requirements of SEC Rule 17a-4(f) and also meets the principles-based requirements of CFTC Rule 1.31(c)-(d) and the requirements of FINRA Rule 4511.

In addition to S3 Object Lock, Cloudian customers benefit from additional enhanced security capabilities. This includes Common Criteria EAL2 certification as well as FIPS 140-2 validation, both of which are recognized in countries around the world. Cloudian also supports AES-256 server-side encryption for data at rest and SSL for data in transit (HTTPS). Fine-grained storage policies — including encryption at object and bucket-levels — permit security settings to be individually configured for different users or data types in a shared storage environment. Cloudian also offers enhanced security features such as secure shell, integrated firewall and RBAC / IAM access controls to further protect backup copies.

Service-Provider Ready

Cloud Service Providers can address the urgent need to protect their customer data with this ransomware protection solution while also expanding their business with profitable revenue by offering new data protection services. Ransomware Protection as-a-Service provides assurance to service provider customers, with their own growing volume of data, that they are protected against threats, thefts and data loss.

Cloudian’s multi-tenancy lets you create multiple backup workflows within a single infrastructure without comprising security. Integrated billing and quality of service controls (QoS), makes this Cloudian | Commvault solution ideal for service providers and their customers.

Conclusion

The need for a new approach to data protection has never been greater or more urgent. The Cloudian | Commvault solution with S3 Object Lock data immutability and other security capabilities makes it simple and easy.

* “The Global Risk Report 2020, 15th Edition,” World Economic Forum 2020
**According to this 24 Jan 2020 article from TechTarget