Rubrik, Forbes Cloud 100 leader shields data against ransonware attacks

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – With data being increasingly valuable to a company’s organisations, ransomware attacks are surging around the world, including in South Africa. It is becoming incredibly lucrative for attackers to target businesses for their data, and at the same time, the ransomware being used is becoming more sophisticated.

This means that more enterprises will feel the need to pay the ransom in the case of a breach. So says Risna Steenkamp, General Manager: ESM Division at Networks Unlimited, which distributes Rubrik solutions throughout Africa.

“It is unfortunate,” she explains, “that in the event of a breach, paying the ransom is no guarantee that the threat actors will actually honour the agreement and release the data. This potentially leaves a breached organisation in the unenviable position of being both out-of-pocket as well as having had its data stolen.

“We are seeing that the breakdown of the perimeter is driving a Zero Trust approach to cybersecurity, which assumes that all users, devices and applications are untrustworthy and can be compromised. In other words, trust nothing, always verify. According to this model, only multi-factor authenticated users get access to data, permissions are limited, and the ability to maliciously affect data is specifically removed.”

The Rubrik Zero Trust Data Security platform is designed to protect business data against surging ransomware attacks, enabling IT teams to rapidly recover their applications and resume normal business operations. As a testimony to the strength of its offering, Rubrik was recently named in the 2021 Forbes Cloud 100, the annual ranking of the world’s top private cloud companies. This is the fifth year that Rubrik has been placed on the Forbes Cloud 100 list.

Bipul Sinha, Rubrik CEO and co-founder, clarifies, “As the pioneer of Zero Trust Data Security™ and the pace setter of innovation for the industry, this recognition is a testament to Rubrik’s continued momentum as a business, as we help the world’s leading organisations manage their data and recover from ransomware.”

Sinha says this past year has proven that a new approach to data security is needed in the face of increasingly sophisticated cyberthreats, which are also growing in number. He notes that traditional security defences are failing and hackers are getting in.

“Bad actors are getting smarter and they understand that data is so core to running a successful business that companies will pay thousands or even millions of dollars to get their data back if stolen. In 2020 alone, an estimated $18 billion in ransoms were paid globally as a result of ransomware attacks. Perimeter security defences are being compromised, firewalls are being breached and now ransomware hackers are commonly going directly for backup data, knowing full well the leverage they have if a company isn’t well equipped with a ransomware recovery plan that allows them to get back up and running quickly after an attack.

“This is exactly why Rubrik takes a Zero Trust approach to data security.”

“Once data is written to the Rubrik system, it cannot be modified, deleted or encrypted by an attack, ensuring a clean copy of data is always available for recovery,” explains Steenkamp. “Rubrik’s Zero Trust Data Management approach to data security has helped dozens of customers recover from ransomware, including examples whereby Rubrik’s solutions allowed customers to recover their data after a ransomware attack without paying a cent of ransom to cyber criminals,” she concludes.

In the quest to reach the highest standards of data security excellence, and also in an industry first, Rubrik has announced a Ransomware Recovery Warranty of up to $5 million for Rubrik Enterprise Edition customers.

This warranty will be available for customers who are running Rubrik Enterprise Edition, and also working with a Rubrik Customer Experience Manager (CEM) to ensure that security best practices are in place. The warranty will cover expenses related to data recovery and restoration in the event that Rubrik is unable to recover protected data in the event of a ransomware attack. For more information, contact Janco Taljaard at +27 (0) 11 202 8400, [email protected].