Are you getting ready for the upcoming RSA Conference, the world's leading information security conference and exposition?  The event is quickly approaching, taking place June 6-9, 2022, both digitally and yes, physically, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.  For four days, you'll gain insights, join conversations and experience solutions that could make a huge impact on your organization and your career.

Ahead of the show, VMblog received an exclusive interview with Caroline Seymour, VP of product marketing at Zerto, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, empowers customers to run an always-on business by simplifying the protection, recovery, and mobility of on-premises and cloud applications.

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VMblog:  To kick things off, give VMblog readers a quick overview of the company.

Caroline Seymour:  Zerto combines DR, backup, and data mobility into a simple single software solution. From ransomware, natural disasters, file deletions to migrations, Zerto has you covered. It eliminates data loss and downtime with its unique way of continuously protecting to and from any on-premises site or cloud of your choice. 

VMblog:  What is your message to RSA attendees and those individuals who won't be able to make the conference this year?

Seymour:  Preventing ransomware isn't always possible, but mitigating the threat is. Zerto's fully automated failover and failback allows you to recover encrypted files, VMs, applications or entire sites in minutes at scale to seconds before an attack. Simply select a checkpoint in your journal from before the attack and rollback to the uninfected state in no time.

VMblog:  What market needs or problems are you addressing in the security space?

Seymour:  Ransomware is a dominant threat, driving market demand not only for protection but also immediate recovery without data loss. Customers are increasingly replacing existing solutions with Zerto so that if attacked they can easily recover files, VMs, applications, and sites to a pre-infection checkpoint that's just seconds before an attack. Coupled with immutable archives, on-demand copies of production for data/post-incident forensics or running network reports within Zerto Analytics to identify anomalies, Zerto empowers organizations to neutralize ransomware.

VMblog:  Where/how can attendees find you at the show?

Seymour:  We're in the Moscone South Expo in booth #1065. Stop by and say hi!

VMblog:  What are some of the key takeaways of your solution that RSA conference goers should be aware of?  And what sets you apart from the competition?

Seymour:  As I've said, preventing ransomware is no longer enough. Increasingly, sophisticated malware can slip through your defenses, encrypt your critical data, and cripple your business. With data now in disparate locations and workloads-and in the hands of more users than ever-rapid recovery is key when an attack gets through.

No organization is immune from an attack. A recent study from IDC found that:

• 79% of those surveyed activated a disaster response
• 83% experienced data corruption from an attack
• Nearly 60% experienced unrecoverable data
  

Unlike typical backup solutions, only Zerto's continuous data protection (CDP) technology mitigates costly risks like data loss, downtime, and disruptive recovery testing.  

VMblog:  What will you be showing off at the show this year?

Seymour:  Along with the Zerto solution, we're offering a free edition of Zerto that we describe as a get out of ransomware jail free card.

The Zerto Free Edition provides 10VMs for one year of Zerto's premium Enterprise Cloud Edition (ECE) license.

VMblog: What are some top priorities for security leaders at RSA to consider this year?

Seymour:  Ransomware is a problem that impacts every level of an organization. Security leaders need to be asking questions such as ‘What is our strategy to prevent ransomware from impacting data backup and restoration plans?' and ‘What will it take to restore minimal operations after a compromise?'

These days, the question is not if but when an organization will be attacked and how often. Leaders of all industries must take preemptive steps to not only expect an attack but also bolster their ability to recover quickly and minimize disruption and data loss.

VMblog:  What are some of the security best practices you would deem critical?

Seymour:  It's crucial to have a recovery plan in place. It's been said over and over that it's not if but when your company is going to get hit by a ransomware attack, so how do you respond? When an attack happens, you'll notice that reports reference data loss as the primary repercussion. However, the real problem is how the loss of that data impacts operational continuity, eliminating the ability to serve customers.

Without downplaying the importance of data protection, it's more important to recognize that data is what powers your applications, and it can take weeks for an IT department to rebuild, clean up, and reconcile the issues.

To provide real-time recovery, companies need CDP that enables an ongoing backup of data. CDP can ensure the protection of every change to your applications as they occur, keeping the content current minute to minute, second to second.

Companies are dealing with a barrage of cyberattacks, and unfortunately some are successful. Achieving operational continuity after an attack is one of the most beneficial processes a company can establish.

VMblog:  I'm sure the keynotes will discuss big pictures, but what trends are you seeing that we should be aware of in 2022?

Seymour:  Recovery should be a focal point - Attackers are getting smarter, and the payouts are getting larger and more widespread. If you dissect the anatomy of recent attacks, you'll see that cybercriminals are targeting companies that can be the most hurt, are the most defenseless, or are the most likely to pay out large sums of money. So, if you are a CEO or CIO of an organization, it's irresponsible at this point not to have a proven ransomware response plan. Any organization can fit the target characteristics for today's cybercriminals, and it's become simply a matter of time until your organization's number is up.

Don't just assume you're protected - we will see a growth in the ransomware-as-a-service market, which is able to propagate new versions and new methods in a much faster way than before. Whether you are a small business or large enterprise, at some point you will be targeted by a ransomware attack that will try to get into your system and encrypt your critical data. We will continue to see an increase in state-backed criminal syndicates that carry out much more tailored and aggressive campaigns.

Disaster-recovery-as-a-service (DRaaS) will become crucial -Disaster-recovery-as-a-service (DRaaS) will become a key necessity for many organizations, and its adoption will skyrocket. The rise in volume and severity of ransomware attacks and growing threats due to climate change combined with the financial impact of downtime are driving organizations to take disaster recovery seriously.

Most organizations are looking to offload capital expenditures and only pay for what they use. DRaaS, managed or unmanaged, allows companies to eliminate the costs and administrative overhead of managing and maintaining their own purchased secondary sites.

VMblog:  Is your company giving away any interesting tchotchke?

Seymour:  Yes! Our customers and prospects always love our t-shirts, so come to our booth and pick up a free one. While you are there, don't forget to ask us about the Zerto Free edition.

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