By W. Curtis Preston, Chief Technical Evangelist, Druva
In the world of banking, the need to store and protect vast quantities of business critical data is essential. However, the growing threat of cyber criminals trying to take data hostage has become a serious concern to the entire financial sector. In 2021 alone, the banking industry experienced a shocking 1,318 percent increase in cyberattacks – UK included. In fact, new malicious strains like SharkBot pose a significant threat, having already been detected in international banks in the United Kingdom, Italy, and five different cryptocurrency services.
With cyber attacks seen as profitable for hackers, the problem at hand is only becoming worse. Against this backdrop, complacency can spell disaster, and attacks can lead to companies shutting down their business operations while they recover. This can cause both significant financial and reputational damage.
The challenge is, therefore, how to secure such vast quantities of business-critical information when targeted attacks are becoming more common and more sophisticated. The first step is accepting that backup alone is not enough to protect businesses. The good news, however, is that there are modern innovative solutions that can offer businesses cyber and data resiliency.
Businesses must therefore shift their thinking from just backup to a data resiliency model, where threats are proactively detected and neutralised through new and innovative technology.
The challenges of legacy data protection in a modern world
The financial industry has often lagged behind when it comes to digital adoption, relying on the same legacy systems for far too long. This has been especially true when it comes to protecting their data, often keeping it locked away in data centres under the misconception that the cloud is not secure.
Yet despite the slower start, banking institutions are beginning to shift their perspective on the cloud as they realise its many benefits, whether it’s the ease of securing sensitive data or the lack of infrastructure required for setup. However, many are still reliant on hardware backup, which entails a complex, error-prone, slow, and expensive approach. Even the most experienced backup administrators have made mistakes due to the complexity of the environment.
The legacy tools that are being used are ultimately not fit for today’s modern protection needs. Data resiliency that is autonomous and built for the cloud is the only way forward.
Autonomous data resiliency
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Modern data resiliency solutions deliver better results and eliminate the manual labour required for backup systems and effective protection.
For example, machine learning and AI can help to identify and tackle data problems automatically as they arise, subsequently helping protect businesses from threats while freeing up the workloads of increasingly valuable IT support teams.
If the worst does happen and an organisation is attacked, automation can dramatically speed up the recovery process, automatically scanning for tampered files and restoring clean copies without the need for a manual trawl through backups. This allows businesses to get back online in hours rather than weeks.
Modern systems also integrate with DevOps workflows to automate the protection of data as systems are built. These new innovations allow banking institutions to be agile and resilient, which not only protects them from today’s threats but equips them with the tools necessary to optimise and make the most out of their data.
Organisations within the financial sector are showing the initiative to become resilient with modern technology, but this shift in perspective must happen across the whole industry.
Resiliency starts with a shift in perspective
Business leaders should therefore see the threat to their data as very real and serious, and take the precautions necessary to combat them. In this sense, a key innovation in the protection of business data is not just a technical shift, but rather a change in attitude from business leaders.
Proactive CIOs that have already jumped ahead of this are reaping the benefits of data resiliency. Not only is their data protected across all workloads and environments, but they are able to operationalize security across their backup and primary environments, and rest easy knowing their recovery process following any data loss will be quick and efficient.
Looking ahead to the future
As we look ahead, it’s clear that cyber threats won’t be going away any time soon – they will only continue to advance and evolve. To survive, the ability to achieve true autonomous data resiliency is critical.
Innovation in data begins with innovative decision-makers and CIOs taking steps to go beyond the complacent models of the past. Adopt the right mindset to avoid the “resiliency regret” and implement the right solution now, before it’s too late.
