ShardSecure Recognized as a Sample Vendor in Two Gartner® Hype Cycle™ Reports

We’re very pleased to announce that ShardSecure has been recognized as a Sample Vendor for Cyberstorage in both the 2024 Gartner® Hype Cycle™ for Storage Technologies and the 2024 Gartner® Hype Cycle™ for Backup and Data Protection Technologies. 

This news follows our recognition as a Cool Vendor in the 2023 Gartner® Cool Vendors™ in Privacy last August. As per the report, “The five vendors featured in this publication represent developments required for a sustainable privacy program, one built on the solid base that every organization should already have.”

Below, we explain the key drivers in the growth of the cyberstorage and data protection sectors and explore how ShardSecure’s solution is addressing major cybersecurity challenges.

Unstructured data and organized cybercrime: key drivers of cyberattacks

In the world of data protection, unstructured data has flown under the radar for years. As we note in our guide to unstructured data, unstructured datasets at the enterprise level can contain tens of billions of items, ranging from a few bytes to terabytes in size.

Between 80 and 90% of data today is unstructured, but it’s often underprotected. Structured data can be secured relatively easily by restricting access to databases, but unstructured data exists in many formats and across many programs, storage systems, and devices. This makes it more difficult both to keep track of and to protect. 

Unstructured data is more likely to contain sensitive information, from legal contracts and patient information to source code, R&D files, and other IP. It’s also growing rapidly: The amount of unstructured data is expected to hit 175 zettabytes by 2025.

Now, cyberattackers have begun to focus on unstructured data precisely because they’re aware that it has major vulnerabilities. As large file repositories are the easiest to attack for both ransomware and data extortion, hackers are leveraging elevated credentials to access standard network access protocols, e.g. Server Message Block (SMB) and Network File System (NFS).

The resulting rise in ransomware, data exfiltration, and other attacks on unstructured data is affecting on-prem, edge, and public cloud locations alike. The impact ranges from data loss and disruption of business operations to potential legal fines, reputational damage, and revenue loss. The threat shows no signs of slowing down, with the number of active ransomware groups more than doubling and ransomware bills increasing by 500% over the past year.

Traditional approaches like encrypting data at rest might provide some ransomware protection and check a box for compliance requirements, but they do not address the threat of data extortion. The data remains unencrypted at the storage access point, and all the files and folders exist in clear text in the live file systems, in need of robust protection.

The growing cyberstorage landscape

The cyberstorage sector is poised to experience strong growth in response to the rise in digital threats and attacks. Cyberstorage works to actively defend storage systems and data against cyberattacks through prevention, early detection, and attack blocking.

According to the 2024 Gartner® Hype Cycle™ for Storage Technologies report:

• By 2028, 100% of storage products will include cyberstorage capabilities focused on active defense, up from 10% in 2023.
• Enterprise customers should prioritize the active defense and security of unstructured and structured data storage systems, because identifying and blocking an attack is just as important as recovering from one.
• Businesses should avoid relying solely on data backups and snapshot methods to address cyberresilience concerns. These should serve as a last resort for disaster recovery rather than a proactive defense for data.

Security solutions are typically positioned at the network perimeter and in backup solutions, but storage systems are often less effective at securing data against malicious activities such as data downloads, exfiltration, manipulation, deletion, destruction, or encryption. Cyberstorage solutions offer an antidote, providing robust active defense against (and recovery from) the attacks that target data storage systems.

Cyberstorage can exist in many forms: as a dedicated solution with comprehensive features, as a platform-native service offering with integrated solutions, or a collection of stand-alone products that augment storage vendors with cyberprotection capabilities. It represents a shift away from the last-resort disaster recovery mindset and toward the proactive protection of critical data.

Advanced data protection with ShardSecure

We’re grateful to be recognized as a Sample Vendor for Cyberstorage in both the 2024 Gartner® Hype Cycle™ for Storage Technologies and the 2024 Gartner® Hype Cycle™ for Backup and Data Protection Technologies. For us, the recognition underscores the value of our innovative approach to data security and ransomware mitigation. 

The ShardSecure platform mitigates the various impacts of a ransomware attack, including both data encryption and data extortion attacks, and provides robust data resilience to prevent loss of business continuity. Its data integrity checks, high availability, and self-healing features offer a way for organizations to safeguard sensitive data and address the rising number of ransomware threats with confidence.

To learn more, read our ransomware white paper and explore our other ransomware resources.

Disclaimer

Gartner, Hype Cycle for Storage Technologies, 2024, Julia Palmer, 10 July 2024 

Gartner, Hype Cycle for Backup and Data Protection Technologies, 2024, Michael Hoeck, 16 July 2024

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