Modernizing Data Protection – Florian Malecki, Arcserve

This is Textron TV. Hey guys. Thanks for the throw.

We're here with Florian. Maleki. Who's the CMO for Arc serve and we're talking about backup and recovery and data protection in the age of ransomware.

And just the number of attacks are amazing and we're still trying to figure out what to do about it Florian. Welcome to shop. Hey, thank you very much.

Good day to you. How are you? I'm well, we have been talking about cyber security and ransomware and data protection now for I don't know feels like half a decade.

Let's just say that probably longer and some places. and yet we're still having these issues and Obviously, we can't stop the attacks, but we seem to be having issues with just protecting our data recovering the data and generally good practices. So what is up with us?

I mean, are we our own worst enemies these days or what's going on? Well, you know what's happening is, you know, obviously, you know as a society we becoming more and more digitalized so many organization, you know smbs meeting size organization large organization from the public or the private sector obviously unbarking into the digitalization and to some different degrees. So as a result, you know, we are generating a lot of data, right?

We're talking seta bites of data and as a result we are I would say increasing the our you know attack surveys because data is probably today the most valuable I assets that any organization has and obviously that has value and therefore, you know, it's it's attractive to to the bad guys, whether you mentioned rent somewhere, you know, stealing data convenience of data industry or less, you know, he's definitely something organizations have been facing whether small medium or large and it's as I said, you know, that's not gonna stop because We generating so much data and that's gonna obviously grow a new thing about, you know, iot, optimization digitizations, you know, digitizensory the amount of data that you know, we are producing as you know, as an industry or as a society easy, they are increasing so obviously, you know that has a lot of values for the bad guys for the hackers because they can get financial gains from it. And you know, you mentioned you know that, you know rent somewhere and stuff. I've been going for some times and yes, they have been and and you look at the side crime in the street.

We may say, you know, it's exceeding easily any other bad Industries being drugs or whatnot. So and it's easier I guess today too long to rent somewhere right back then robbing a bank or any kind of stores, but they don't really have cash anymore. But I guess we get the gist so the number of attacks will not decrease obviously as you said organizations, Have been you know putting together it security.

Our solutions to try to keep the bad guys, you know out as much as they can but unfortunately there is always a backdoor somewhere where you know, obviously a hackers can come in and compromise the data whether it's for in some ways encrypting the data stealing the data or whatnot. So what is very important obviously is for these organizations regardless of the size. It's obviously still to try to do as much as they can to prevent the hackers coming in.

So we see prevention is better than cure. Right? So whether it's you know antiviruses Next Generation fine words, but the factor from education privileged account users identity and access management.

We see more and more I would say traction as well from vendor selling, you know, data security types of solutions analyzing the you know, who is accessing the data with downloaded the data that we see any specific data patterns and so forth because you said You know every day reading the news whether you are in, you know in the US in Europe and we're in Southeast Asia or in Australian New Zealand many companies are still getting compromised. Unfortunately, and and this is where obviously, you know backup. And recovery and immutable storage type Solutions can help and then just to put things into perspective.

Obviously. We actually run a survey earlier in the year. We surveyed about 1200, you know organizations.

Meet Enterprise organization 55 10,000 employees and 50% did say they've been victim over and somewhere attack for number one and out of these, you know, 11% did lose the data and that's that's a problem in terms of the value as well. I mean, it's always, you know, we hear about Ring summer attacks and organization have to pay the rent some you know from the people. We actually survey 35% had to pay over 100,000 euros about 95,000 pounds and actually 20% of them have been asked to pay anything between one million to 10 million dollars so that can bring an organization on its me and even though you may be asked to pay 50,000 dollars or 45,000 pounds.

If you are a small size business that will that might hate you want the line and he could put the company in a pretty you know. Comfortable situation from a financial for interview. So so that that is to be taken into account and obviously, you know backup in recovery is I would say the Cure.

So in in the event of your data being compromised obviously many organization will rely on the backup. The one of the things that is even more important than just backing up your data is hey, can you actually recover the data? You know, there's been unfortunately, you know, one of the Italian, you know public organization.

I'm not the name them because I guess they need a set for the law but they were doing backups. The problem is their backup server got compromised by their in somewhere. So yes, they were doing backups for the data was not you know, they couldn't use the data.

Luckily. They were using some Legacy Tech backup solution. They had from Oxford actually in that you scenario and they were able to recover some of the data.

So, you know from the people we actually surveyed, you know, only 23% only 20% failed very comfortable and confident in their ability to recover the data. So to me that's that's actually quite of a frightening number and and then out of these, you know, 58 almost 60% of these people. We spoke to what the decision because we spoke to say that they would rely on your on their backup and Recovery capabilities.

So, you know, Cup and Recovery is probably today your love the last line of defense and that is becoming more and more important as organization regardless of the size over the last I would say 20 years, you know, when we starting to have spam, you know through, you know, your email communication or late 90s or 2000. That's where it kind of started. You know, they've invested a lot into it Security Solutions.

And yes, they need to carry on don't give me your own mind. However, what they need to think about is reval making the backup and Recovery capabilities because we know that obviously, you know data is the gold and you are whatever you want to say, but it's the most valuable assets and the only way to I would say Minnie Mouse the impact of a rent somewhere type of attack or any other type of disasters to be honest. It's gonna be the backup and Recovery capabilities that an organ Station, you know will put in place and this is why it's becoming more and more important as well to.

tests test test and test and you know, whether it's every month every six month every year depending on the nature of the of the organization depending on how I would say vital their data or the nature of the data is I can only recommend is definitely to test So what is our challenge with actually testing and then recovering the data because to your survey Point 23% are confident and probably more than half of those people are kidding themselves. So the question then becomes, you know, given our history of shall we say limited success in recovering data what needs to change and how do we change? Yeah, I mean the one of the thing is well above and beyond that would say, you know, they seen your recovery capabilities.

He's to make sure you can recover that the data is he's usable and I would say over the last five years or so, you know, we starting to see a solution whether cloud-based or you know Appliance base. They're about immutable storage. So the main without going to do too many details, but the benefits of immutable storage whether you know, apply it so storage appliances or you know, looking in, you know, or looking at the cloud providers some of the hyper skaters in you know, they do offering with people stories and that's that.

He's basically the digital world or the irritable digital world that company is can live rage to protect the back of data and the reason of me seeing VCS immutable storage actually. Things that you know the data that is stored. Onto a new immutable storage products solution whether on premise or in the cloud.

means that the rent somewhere cannot compromise the data so as a result, whatever data might be stored onto these immutable Storage Solutions with whether on premism in the cloud will be 100% recoverable. And when we we see more and more in organization using the imitable, you know invitable storage boards as a key requirement and this is this is the answer and there is another insert. That is actually that's actually quite interesting to see Mike he's Came back up.

Came back up. You know many organization. I moved away from take backup, you know bringing and leveraging, you know Drive.

Type of backup storage Hardware or appliances all great. However, you know it decision makers who are becoming I would say more and more. sorrow and and yeah 40 in terms of their overall data resilience, you know will leverage their backup to this a bit of Take bucket Renaissance that we see especially at the mid to Enterprise level is larger type of organization.

Some of them have to do it obviously for compliance reasons and you know as many organizations again, you know, small medium or large or subscribing to cyber security cybersecurity Insurance, you know, that is becoming a requirements from some of these cyber insurance is because of the last couple of years they have to pay and remember the customers who have been obviously, you know, victim of rent somewhere and insurance is you know, they have to protect themselves as well. Wrong gear rightly that's not for me to say but as a result, the premium for cider insurance is going higher and the Cyber insurance is organization are becoming more. Let's say demanding and more picky when it comes down to ensuring any type of organizations and they will have specific requirements and one of them is definitely backup and and immutable storage.

You mentioned that tape but you know when I talk to people there's a lot more emphasis on the speed of recovery these days because when there's a ransomware attack, you know every minute seems to count and actually, you know impacts bottom line. So you already seeing people paying more attention to the rate at which data can be recovered. Correct.

I mean the CD recovery time object TV is very important and again depending on the nature and the size of addition that could be anything from you know, I don't know a couple of minutes to maybe your day. Um, and this is where you know, the the free two one one that goes for tijino free copies to different media and upside and location and the last one now is being in your table or Is becoming very important and obviously to minimize the recovery time. If you back up your data onto an on-premise, you know immutable storage Appliance.

We'll see that will allow you to recover much quicker. However, When it comes down to tape, obviously they you know things that evolved and you know, you can recover the data much faster, obviously not as far as that if you had an appliance, you know storage based on premise but that is being seen as your second layer of, you know, data security and that's you know, that is important. So to the point.

Yeah, you'll see the quicker you can recover the data based on your recovery time objective idea rtos, obviously, you know on premise. Appliancee stories of client sees will deliver will be able to allow these organization to meet their objectives. However, you know, you are not immune to any potential problems being ransomware or something else.

So having that back of data storing the outside world on tape in the event of a catastrophe on premise catastrophe and as you know, there's some organization or maybe close to some, you know airports, you're very losing able to risky but you know, a major major incident could destroy they said the data center, you know, and at that point if that happens Is they might have it out to you or maybe an hour two hours, but when things are really bad and I don't want to be do to negative here. But you know knowing that you have your back of data on on tape in a secondary location or in a remote site in a digital world. Sorry will will definitely allow the IT team to to have some pretty good good nights.

I would say probably be busy recovering everything but don't give me wrong. So it's to me it's a double it's about approach. And as I said, we see interestingly enough, you know organization adding the day back and layer to what they have from me, you know back up on premise backup Storage Solutions or the crowd.

Obviously, we know that depending on your connectivity in any yes, this Broadband everywhere and you know, it's fiber and so forth, but it's still organization around the world that you know, you know don't have that luxury among that that coverage so obviously the, you know getting data back from the cloud. Can take especially if you have larger amounts, I mean if you have like, you know, I don't know 30 60 TV, you know, that will take a while to recover. So the I think there's no right or wrong answer.

The mind is understanding your RTO understanding I would say the overall risks including external risks above and beyond, you know, rent somewhere or Hardware disasters and then layer the right solution or Solutions and running terms of protecting your backup data. Who's in charge of backup and Recovery these days? It used to be the lowest person on the it totem pole.

But you know has this kind of moved up the food chain a little bit because it is more critical. It easier and index. That's very good point actually when we you know back up and Recovery has no being recognized as a as a top mostly Solutions requirements and even of any disaster internet somewhere and it might not be you know, the sexiest kind of you know job to do however, it's becoming more and more critical as you know businesses all being more and more online being more and more digitalized.

You know, any Interruption to data access will compromise the organization. And another thing that we saw as a result. There is more I would say focus on backup recovery routine more story and something forth.

And at the end of the day, it's all about data is here and what we see actually Mike is the it security guys or it security decision maker commingling coming together with Modi, you know, operational and infrastructure employees or it decision makers within the organization. So it's becoming it's been backup and recovery and immutable storage is now being is now be taken into account or being part of an overall data security their resilience strategy as much as having, you know, the latest greatest, you know, EDR or next Generation on Tai virus Solutions. So it's definitely going up the stock ranking in terms of the importance.

That's that's for sure and it's not it's not a luxury anymore. It's it's a must have because it's not as many people say that nothing it's still valid is not if it's wine. And again, it goes above and beyond rent somewhere.

Yeah, I mean it could be, you know, power destructions floodings or bad weather or something else worse happening. So and and definitely the the overall data resilience requirements or or yeah requirements. It's coming to at the boat level.

You know. Now, you know whether you are a CEO or CFO or see you see I don't give me wrong or anyone who is not related with it and the sea level sweet. They will become more and more responsible for the overall data resilience of the business needs.

So that has reach that that level as much as it security has reached that neighbor over the last years because of because of malware virus season now or in somewhere, so that's it's been great to see and to me it's very critical from civilization to see that backup and Recovery as you said, he's not like, oh, you know something, you know the back of something else. It's a proper, you know strategic. pillar of any data resilience within any type of organization so lastly are the cybersecurity team is more involved in this conversation than we've seen in the past.

I mean, we've been talking about the convergence of data protection cybersecurity for two decades, but is it finally happened? It is happening. I mean the you know, we've seen in some of the project that we've been involved as our for storing data actually where the the budget and the decision is coming from the cisos or the it security director.

So as I said, it's these you know, where in the past you know, the it security guys were doing this stuff. Yeah, we protecting the bad guys and then the infrastructure guys operation guys of the backup and Recovery doing this stuff in the corner is there, you know servers and networking gears or whatnot and then they wouldn't talk or how they speak now they cannot because at the end of day it's all about data security and overall data resilience. So from what we see, you know from our partner Community or our MSP and and now we're in users and use a customers, you know, the it security teams are either becoming the DC or all the decision makers the budget.

Is or a big influence or in the type of decisions that are being made about the Solutions in terms of where the data? And how the data and more importantly the back of data is being stored and protected. All right, folks.

You heard it here back up in recovery that last line in defense. So appreciating with a little more respect and maybe we have in the past Florian. Thanks for being on the show.

Thank you very much. Like have a good day. All right back to you guys in the studio.