What is Immutable Storage?
Immutable storage refers to a type of data storage in which the data cannot be modified or deleted once it has been written. This means that once a file is stored in an immutable storage system, it remains unchanged for the entire duration of its retention period. This concept is essential for industries and businesses that require data integrity, security, and compliance.
The term “immutable” comes from the Latin word “immutabilis,” which means unchangeable. In the context of data storage, this means that once a file is written to an immutable storage system, it cannot be altered or deleted by anyone, not even the owner or administrator of the system. This unique feature sets immutable storage apart from traditional forms of data storage.
The concept of immutable storage may seem counterintuitive as we are used to having the ability to edit or delete our data at any time. However, there are several reasons why organizations and individuals choose to use immutable storage solutions.
Benefits of Immutable Storage
1. Protection Against Cyber Attacks: One great benefit to immutable storage is its ability to withstand all forms of cyber attacks. In the case of attacks on regular storage, the sensitive information may be edited or completely erased. This poses great operational and reputational damage to the organization. Immutability on storage prevents attackers from being able to erase or edit crucial information, even after gaining access to the sistema.
2. Data Integrity and Authenticity: With immutable storage, the data remains uneditable and withstands any form of manipulation. It offers evidential value in case of disputes or legal matters since immutable data remains original. This is crucial in the finance and healthcare industries, or any other industry where precise and accurate record keeping is a necessity.
3. Regulatory Compliance: Many industries such as healthcare and data storage industries operate under strict guidelines of data retention. Immutable storage assists in retention compliance. It will guarantee reliable records in their original unaltered format.
4. Simplified Data Backup: With traditional storage methods, organizations must regularly back up their data to prevent loss due to hardware failures or human error. However, with immutable storage, backups are no longer necessary since all previous versions of the stored data remain intact.
5. Cost-Effective Solution: Immutable storage can also be a cost-effective solution for businesses in terms of both time and money saved on backups and disaster recovery efforts. It eliminates the need for expensive backup systems while providing added cybersecurity measures at a lower cost than other security solutions.
6. Long-Term Data Preservation: Data that needs to be preserved for long periods can benefit greatly from immutable storage. As the data remains unchangeable, it can be stored for years without any risk of being corrupted or altered.
The Dangers of Ransomware Attacks
Ransomware attacks have become an increasingly prevalent and dangerous threat to individuals, businesses, and organizations worldwide. In fact, according to a report by Cybersecurity Ventures, ransomware attacks are estimated to cost the world over $20 billion in 2021 alone. These malicious attacks involve hackers gaining access to a system or network and encrypting important data, rendering it inaccessible unless a ransom is paid.
The consequences of falling victim to a ransomware attack can be devastating. Organizations may face significant financial losses due to downtime and disruption of operations. Furthermore, sensitive information such as customer data or trade secrets may fall into the wrong hands, leading to reputational damage and potential legal repercussions.
One of the primary dangers of ransomware attacks is the potential loss of crucial data. Whether it’s personal photos or critical business files, once encrypted by attackers, there is no guarantee that the data will be recovered even after paying the demanded ransom. This not only puts individuals at risk of losing precious memories but also poses a serious threat to businesses’ continuity and productivity.
Moreover, paying the ransom does not guarantee that attackers will release your data. In some cases, they may demand further payments or simply disappear without providing any decryption keys, leaving victims with both financial and data loss.
Another danger of ransomware attacks is their ability to spread quickly through interconnected systems within an organization’s network. Once one device is infected with malware, it can easily spread throughout the entire network without proper security measures in place. This not only increases the risk of more devices being affected but also makes it challenging for organizations to contain and mitigate the attack.
Additionally, depending on the nature of an organization’s operations and its compliance requirements (such as HIPAA for healthcare organizations), falling victim to a ransomware attack could result in severe legal consequences if confidential patient or client information becomes compromised.
Ransomware attacks pose significant dangers to both individuals and organizations. The cost of paying the ransom and potential loss of critical data are just some of the consequences that victims may face. Therefore, implementing additional security measures such as immutable storage can provide an added layer of data protection against these malicious attacks. By ensuring that your data remains unchangeable, you can prevent attackers from encrypting or altering your valuable information, providing peace of mind and safeguarding your business’s continuity.
How Immutable Storage Protects Against Ransomware
One effective way to protect against ransomware attacks is by utilizing immutable storage. Immutable storage refers to a type of data storage that prevents any changes from being made once the data is written. This means that even if an attacker gains access to the system, they will not be able to modify or delete any existing data stored in this manner.
Write Once Read Many (WORM) Technology.
WORM is one of the building blocks of immutable storage. If data ‘exists’ in storage, it can never be changed, deleted, or overwritten, regardless of the tier of access. It can be priced any any any rationale, it is a ransomware attacker’s bane.
Versioning.
Immutable storage also features versioning, that is, each time an original file is changed or deleted, a new version is created, separate from the original file, automatically. Even if an attacker is successful at encrypting multiple versions of your files, you can always avail your other versions without payment to restores ransom.
Offline Storage.
Immutable storage works in an offline mode whereby it is physically disconnected from the network and storage devices. It is potentially advantageous as it increases the time needed for attackers to gain access to critical systems.
Object-based Storage Architecture
You can think of object-based storage systems as more advanced than file systems. While the latter would apply a folder and a hierarchy to individual parts of data, object-based storage systems would keep each one as a separate object. An object, paarticularly in storage systems, denotes a piece of information that has been stored. Each object would also have a unique ID that classifies and distinguishes it from the other stored objects.
This advanced form of data storage would work as a security measure for data at rest. In the case of a ransomware attack, the Donald Duck syndrome that they would have to face would be to determine and encrypt every single data piece stored, organized as separate objects. This would greatly limit the ransomware attacker’s ability and ease.
Benefits of Immutable Storage for Data Security
In recent years, immutable storage has emerged as a powerful solution for enhancing data security. Immutable storage refers to the capability of storing data in a way that prevents it from being modified or deleted. In this section, we will delve into the benefits of immutable storage for data security.
- Protection against malicious attacks: One of the primary advantages of immutable storage is its ability to protect data against malicious attacks such as ransomware or hacking attempts. By making it impossible to alter or delete stored information, immutable storage essentially creates an impenetrable barrier around your data. This means that even if an attacker gains access to your system, they cannot modify or manipulate your sensitive information.
- Compliance with regulatory requirements: Many industries have strict regulations regarding how organizations should store and manage their data. Immutable storage can help companies meet these compliance standards by ensuring that all changes made to the stored information are recorded and auditable. This not only helps in maintaining accountability but also provides evidence in case of any legal disputes.
- Protection against accidental deletions: Human errors are inevitable and can lead to accidental deletion of crucial data. With immutable storage, organizations can safeguard themselves against such incidents by preventing any modifications or deletions from occurring in the first place. This ensures that vital information remains intact and accessible when needed.
- Safeguarding against insider threats: Insider threats pose a significant risk to organizations as employees with authorized access may intentionally or unintentionally make changes to sensitive information for their benefit or out of negligence. Immutable storage mitigates this risk by limiting an individual’s ability to modify or delete stored data without proper authorization.
- Data integrity and authenticity: Immutable storage ensures the integrity and authenticity of stored information by providing a tamper-proof record of all changes made to the data. This means that organizations can trust the accuracy and reliability of their data, which is crucial for making informed business decisions.
Future of Immutable Storage in Data Protection
One major factor driving the future of immutable storage is the rise of cyber threats and attacks. With technology constantly advancing and becoming more complex, hackers have also become more sophisticated in their methods. As a result, traditional forms of data protection such as firewalls and encryption are no longer enough to keep sensitive information safe. Immutable storage offers an additional layer of security by preventing any unauthorized changes to data. This makes it an essential component in protecting against cyber attacks.
Furthermore, with the increasing adoption of cloud computing and remote work arrangements, data is being accessed from various locations and devices – making it difficult for organizations to control who has access to their critical information. Immutable storage helps mitigate this risk by ensuring that once data is stored, it cannot be altered or deleted without proper authorization. This adds an extra level of assurance for businesses that their confidential information remains intact regardless of where it is being accessed from.
Another key driver for the future of immutable storage is regulatory compliance requirements. In recent years, there has been a significant increase in regulations surrounding data privacy and protection – such as GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) in Europe and CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) in the United States. These regulations mandate strict guidelines on how organizations handle personal data, with severe consequences for non-compliance. Immutable storage provides a transparent audit trail that tracks all changes made to data, making it easier for companies to demonstrate compliance with these regulations.
With the exponential growth of digital information globally comes an increased need for efficient management solutions – including secure long-term archiving options. Immutable storage offers a cost-effective solution for preserving important data over extended periods, without the risk of accidental or malicious alterations. This makes it an attractive option for businesses looking to streamline their data storage and management processes.
Immutable Storage Solutions with Nfina
Backups are typically intrusive and only run after hours, performing a single rollback point per day. However, if the backup immutability pool is not large enough, it can be overwritten daily, leading to potential ransomware disaster. This risk increases if the production data is reachable from the storage unit. Nfina offers a key advantage with its snapshot technology, which can be run frequently due to its Copy-on-Write technology. Unlike backups, snapshots are non-intrusive and do not slow down production. In fact, many Nfina customers take advantage of this by running snapshots every 15 minutes throughout the workday, providing numerous restore points.
The first snapshot, or baseline, captures the original state of the file system. The Original Block Tree contains the initial version, while any changes are stored in the live file system. This process does not use additional space on your system. As new data is written to the live file system, it is allocated to new blocks. For example, block C has been modified and is now represented as C+. Whenever a block is changed, added, or deleted, the parent blocks are also updated in the live file system. This results in a New State (Block Tree-1), which combines the previous snapshot with the current live file system and any updated blocks. This cycle repeats at set intervals.
In Nfina’s clustered systems, users have the ability to program policies for the frequency and retention of their immutable snapshots. These snapshots can be sent to multiple geo-redundant restoration locations simultaneously. For our standard hybrid cloud option, we suggest using 4-way mirroring for both on-prem and cloud production systems. As shown in Figure 2, this results in 12 copies of data being stored at any point-in-time a snapshot is taken in our geo-redundant hybrid cloud. This level of redundancy guarantees 99.999% uptime and allows for quick recovery in the event of a disaster, providing peace of mind when you need it most.