Statement of Ransomware Resilience

Introduction

Panzura’s CloudFS™ is a modern global file system that is inherently resilient to ransomware and other malware threats. In the event that a ransomware attack breaches an organization’s defense, data stored by CloudFS cannot be encrypted. Instead, CloudFS maintains a pristine data set that can be restored quickly, without incurring consequential downtime or data loss.

Technical Capability

CloudFS stores file data as blocks in cloud object storage, as a single authoritative data set that every user in the organization works from.

Using CloudFS, once data is in the cloud object store, it cannot be changed, overwritten, or damaged in any way. Every 60 seconds, file changes are written as new data blocks, which have no effect on existing data. As new data is saved, CloudFS updates file pointers to record which data blocks comprise a file at any given time.

Panzura’s lightweight, read-only snapshots – taken at configurable intervals – then provide a granular, point-in-time ability to recover any data, by restoring from the applicable snapshot. Individual files, folders, or even the entire file system can be restored in this way.

Because both the snapshots and the data itself are immutable, ransomware and other malware attacks do not damage files in the Panzura global file system. Instead, attacks are shrugged off by quickly reverting back to previous data blocks, to make up uninfected files.*

Organizations can extend this ransomware protection beyond file (unstructured) data to database (structured) data by storing database backups in Panzura CloudFS.

Conclusion

Organizations with data secured by CloudFS are less likely to be placed in a position where they may need to pay a ransom to regain access to data, even if subjected to a ransomware attack.  Equally, they are unlikely to suffer data loss as a result of a ransomware or other malware attack.

Data immutability protects stored data from encryption.  Immutable snapshots protect against data loss^# and enable restoration of pristine data without substantial data loss.

* Panzura’s approach to managing and protecting file data is protected by 37 patents, including but not limited to:
– Performing Anti-Virus Checks For A Distributed Filesystem
– Using Overlay Metadata In A Cloud Controller To Generate Incremental Snapshots For A Distributed Filesystem
– Managing Metadata And Data Storage For A Cloud Controller In A Distributed Filesystem
– Distributed Change Notifications For A Distributed Filesystem
– Facilitating The Recovery Of A Virtual Machine Using A Distributed Filesystem
–  Providing Disaster Recovery For A Distributed Filesystem

# Snapshots are retained according to client-set retention policy.