Reading Time: 5 minutes Data is perpetually at risk. Organizations face a constant barrage of sophisticated threats, from crippling ransomware attacks to insidious data breaches and data exfiltration and the value of today’s data means the stakes have never been higher.
Traditional security measures, often siloed from data storage strategies, are proving insufficient. Cyberstorage is a game-changing approach that tightly integrates advanced security directly into the storage infrastructure. By leveraging the power and flexibility of hybrid cloud storage , cyberstorage offers an active and resilient defense, ensuring data integrity, continuous availability, and swift recovery when the inevitable occurs.
In 2024, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) updated its Cybersecurity Framework , providing a comprehensive roadmap for managing digital risks through six core functions: Govern, Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover. Recognizing the critical need to move beyond perimeter-based security, cyberstorage embodies these principles by embedding security deep within the storage fabric itself.
According to Gartner, cyberstorage is one of the six top trends impacting infrastructure and Operations for 2025.
In our view, that's because the persistence, pervasiveness, and documented success of ransomware attacks and other cyber events demonstrates it probably isn’t possible to mount a complete first-line defense, even within well-resourced organizations.
It’s not just ransomware — data damage comes in many forms, from file corruption and accidental deletion of an individual file through to malicious large-scale data deletion. Every day, as data is created and edited, users hit ctrl+Z multiple times to undo edits they’ve just made. Moreover, many highly regulated industries require that every version of a file that is ever saved can be recovered, if required.
Our data dependence makes it essential that critical business data is as close to invulnerable as it can possibly be and that every byte of data can be restored at will. That is, if your environment is attacked, and even accessed, the data itself will not fall, nor will it be unavailable for any length of time.
Legacy storage is inherently vulnerable to ransomware and other data damage
Legacy, network-attached storage (NAS) was never designed to protect data against today’s threats, which range from exposure to large-scale damage. To understand the vulnerable position many enterprises are in with storage, consider that at the heart of every ransomware attack is the ability to damage files such that they cannot be accessed or recovered without paying a ransom to the attackers.
By virtue of storing data that needs to be editable, legacy file systems are inherently vulnerable to ransomware. When attacked, they do exactly what they are designed to do and allow files to be changed. Once this happens, the organization has little choice but to attempt to restore data from backups, assuming they are still available and have not already been damaged.
In many cases, the organization simply cannot achieve this in a reasonable timeframe and almost certainly faces data loss in any restoration process. In far too many cases, IT service level agreements for disaster recovery have simply not survived contact with the real world. Organizations aren’t merely hours off meeting their targets — they’ve been known to miss them by weeks and sometimes even months.
How cyberstorage and hybrid cloud file capabilities address the NIST Cybersecurity Framework
Cyberstorage, particularly when implemented with advanced hybrid cloud file platforms, directly addresses the six core functions of the NIST Cybersecurity Framework:
Govern: Hybrid cloud file platforms such as Panzura CloudFS provide centralized management and visibility across on-premises and cloud storage, enabling organizations to establish clear data governance policies, define access controls, and manage data lifecycle in alignment with business objectives and regulatory requirements.Identify: Sophisticated metadata management and indexing capabilities within hybrid cloud solutions allow for comprehensive data cataloging and classification. This enables organizations to identify sensitive data, understand data flows, and assess potential vulnerabilities across their distributed storage environment.Protect: Cyberstorage leverages immutable storage technologies, such as Write Once Read Many (WORM), often implemented within the object storage layer of a hybrid cloud architecture. This prevents data from being altered or deleted, forming a critical protective barrier against ransomware and accidental modifications. Encryption at rest and in transit, coupled with granular access controls, further strengthens data protection.Detect: Advanced monitoring and analytics integrated into hybrid cloud file platforms can detect anomalous user behavior, unusual file access patterns, and potential indicators of compromise. Real-time alerts provide early warnings of potential cyberattacks, allowing for timely investigation and response.Respond: The ability to take granular, point-in-time immutable snapshots within a hybrid cloud file system enables rapid recovery from cyber incidents. This allows organizations to quickly revert affected data to a clean state before an attack, minimizing downtime and data loss. Integrated audit trails provide valuable forensic information for incident analysis and remediation.Recover: Hybrid cloud architectures offer flexible recovery options, allowing organizations to restore data from immutable snapshots stored in the cloud or on-premises. Granular recovery capabilities enable the restoration of individual files or entire file systems with minimal disruption. The inherent redundancy and high availability of many hybrid cloud solutions also contribute to overall resilience and faster recovery times.
By integrating these capabilities, cyberstorage built on a robust hybrid cloud file platform moves beyond traditional passive backups to offer an active defense against the evolving threat landscape, directly supporting each pillar of the NIST Cybersecurity Framework and bolstering an organization's overall cyber resilience.
How cyberstorage protects against damage and business disruption
Cyberstorage employs a multi-faceted approach to safeguard businesses from data damage and operational downtime:
Proactive threat detection and prevention
Real-time monitoring and analysis: Cyberstorage solutions often incorporate AI and machine learning to continuously monitor data for anomalies, suspicious behavior, and known threat signatures. This allows for early detection of potential attacks before they can inflict significant damage.
Active defense mechanisms: Unlike passive backup solutions, cyberstorage actively works to block malicious activities, isolate infected files or users, and prevent data exfiltration in real time.
Immutable storage: A cornerstone of cyberstorage is the use of Write Once Read Many (WORM) technology to create immutable copies of data. This ensures that backups cannot be altered, deleted, or encrypted by attackers, providing a clean and reliable recovery point.
Zero-trust access: Cyberstorage often implements zero-trust security models, continuously validating user and application access to data, minimizing the risk of compromised credentials being exploited.
Enhanced data integrity and resilience
Data integrity checks: Regular automated checks ensure the integrity of stored data, identifying any unauthorized modifications or corruption.
Redundancy and high availability: Cyberstorage architectures typically include built-in redundancy (e.g., mirroring, RAID) and failover mechanisms to maintain continuous data availability even in the event of hardware failures or localized disruptions.
Logical air gapping: Advanced cyberstorage solutions can create logical, isolated environments for backup data, preventing attackers from accessing and compromising these critical recovery points, without the complexity of physical air gaps.
Rapid and granular recovery
Point-in-time recovery: Cyberstorage facilitates quick restoration of data to a specific point in time before an attack occurred, minimizing data loss and downtime.
Automated recovery processes: Orchestrated recovery workflows streamline the process of restoring systems and data, reducing manual intervention and accelerating the return to normal operations.
Fenced forensic networks: In the event of an attack, cyberstorage can provide isolated network environments to analyze compromised data and safely recover clean copies without reintroducing threats to the production environment.
Meeting compliance and governance requirements
Audit trails and reporting: Comprehensive logging and reporting capabilities help organizations meet regulatory compliance standards by providing a detailed history of data access and modifications.
Data sovereignty: Some cyberstorage solutions offer features to ensure data residency within specific geographic locations, addressing data sovereignty concerns.
In essence, cyberstorage built on a robust hybrid cloud file platform like Panzura CloudFS shifts the paradigm from simply backing up data to actively protecting it throughout its lifecycle. By integrating robust security features with advanced storage capabilities, it provides a critical layer of defense against the ever-evolving cyber threat landscape, minimizing the potential for devastating data damage and costly business disruptions.
This proactive approach ensures business continuity, safeguards invaluable assets, and fortifies customer trust in an increasingly treacherous digital landscape.
