Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2023. Read them in this 15th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
Data backup will experience a moment of reckoning on ransomware resiliency in 2023
By Anthony Cusimano, Director of Technical Marketing at Object First
The data storage, backup, and recovery market has had to quickly come to terms with increasingly sophisticated and frequent ransomware attacks that hit indiscriminately and have the power to debilitate a business if data backup best practices are not implemented. October 2022 ransomware disclosures included healthcare, transportation, IT, and education companies. Given the threat landscape over the past year, 2023 will be the year that executives look to new storage methods to protect their most valuable asset – their data.
Cybercriminals are always evolving their techniques to infiltrate organizations’ tech stacks. Despite the recent increase in investments in cybersecurity and data backup, ransomware groups will continue developing new methods to avoid detection, compromise sensitive company data, and make money. We will continue to see ransomware evolve in 2023, outpacing the industry’s ability to keep up. It is only a matter of time until one of the prominent cloud vendors is taken hostage by a bad actor, and how they respond could significantly sway the pendulum of cloud adoption. Pair this with increased natural disasters and an unreliable supply chain, and organizations will be looking at additional data storage options.
When they start looking, businesses will find that incorporating object storage into data backups is the answer. Because object storage is still considered new, there are many variables to consider when it comes to adoption, and many are using metadata features to help train artificial intelligence (AI). In contrast, others choose it out of convenience on the cloud to pair with distributed apps and infrastructure. There is no denying that the most robust use case for object storage comes from security through object lock (immutability), which offers the best business software solution to ensure ransomware cannot affect data stored within. Immutability means ensuring that the information in your database cannot be deleted, modified, or corrupted, instead of overwriting the older data when new data is inputted, essentially making your data ransomware-proof. That’s why it makes the perfect choice for data backups and why organizations will start to realize its potential and benefits beyond the cloud.
Another aspect that organizations are struggling with in the fight against ransomware is the tech talent shortage, which we anticipate is here to stay in 2023. The worldwide spike in cyberattacks and resulting strong demand for security tools and services means that the cybersecurity industry’s labor shortage will only worsen, and the need for expertise will increase further as the world becomes more reliant on technology. For example, a recent Proofpoint and the Cloud Security Alliance report found that most businesses cannot fully utilize cloud security solutions due to a lack of skilled staff members.
With consumer goods becoming more straightforward and abstract, skills like keyboarding, understanding operating systems, and basic technical concepts that used to come with owning technology are rare. We anticipate the recession getting worse as time goes on at the same time that technology consumption increases. This will also spurn a shift to developing better AI that can test, code, and build tech without relying on humans. As the workforce starts to become populated with generalists rather than specialists, it will bring with it a shift in what the industry is demanding from its vendors. Moving away from fancy and complex solutions, the IT industry needs effective tech that is simple to use and focused solely on its purpose in the tech stack. That way, IT professionals can properly employ a given solution without needing the highest degree of expertise.
With ransomware groups continuing to focus on data corruption tactics and targeting data backups, organizations will need to get serious in 2023 about protecting their data in a way that is simple enough to be taught to its existing workforce, cheap enough to implement in tough economic times, and powerful enough to ensure instant recovery.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anthony Cusimano has worked in many roles in tech for over a decade and currently serves as director of technical marketing for Object First – a new object storage startup on a mission to eliminate ransomware and simplify data protection. He started as a developer, shifted to sales, and masterfully moved into marketing. He is a passionate gamer who stays up to date on all things technology to ensure he can achieve as many frames per second as possible on his gaming PC. He enjoys speaking at events and has previously shared the stage with astronauts and MARVEL superheroes. Anthony enjoys the nerdier things in life, watching classic movies, building Gundams, and flying questionably legal FPV drones in abandoned mall parking lots. When he isn’t geeking out on the latest fad, he and his wife Sarah enjoy visiting lesser-known Florida destinations and spoiling their two dogs, Luna and Smudge.
