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Does keeping your data safe online feel increasingly like a herculean task? You’re not alone.
As our digital world keeps growing, so do the tricks cybercriminals use to get their hands on critical data. From QR code phishing to AI-generated ransomware, cyber threats have grown exponentially more sophisticated and pervasive. Securing data where it’s stored has become critically important for organizations of all sizes — but that’s easier said than done.
Enter cyberstorage. A new security paradigm, cyberstorage builds security into the data storage systems themselves. Rather than relying solely on access controls and data loss prevention, cyberstorage takes things a step further by baking protection directly into how your data is kept safe and sound.
As organizations seek innovative ways to mitigate the risk of data breaches and ransomware attacks, cyberstorage solutions are gaining traction. Part of a data-centric security model, cyberstorage allows companies to better detect and mitigate attacks on unstructured data.
This blog post explores how ShardSecure fits seamlessly into the cyberstorage model, offering robust on-prem, cloud, and hybrid solutions that are easily integrated into Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems. We’ll also discuss how ShardSecure’s technology aligns with NIST’s cybersecurity framework and strengthens data protection across diverse environments.
ShardSecure Is Aligned with NIST Cybersecurity Framework
In the September 2024 “Innovation Insight: Cyberstorage Mitigates the Impact of Cyberattacks” Gartner® report, cyberstorage is highlighted as a critical layer in modern enterprise security. ShardSecure was named as a Representative Provider in this report.
As a category, cyberstorage aligns closely with the six pillars of the NIST Cybersecurity Framework:
- Identify
- Protect
- Detect
- Respond
- Recover
- Govern
These six pillars form the backbone of a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy. They enable organizations to not just prevent attacks, but also detect, respond, and recover from them — all while maintaining compliance. Because cyberstorage aligns with these six pillars, it’s uniquely poised to make an impact in today’s complex threat landscape.
1. Identify: Comprehensive Data Discovery and Risk Identification
The NIST framework’s first pillar, Identify, forms the foundation of an effective cybersecurity strategy. It involves developing an organizational understanding of cybersecurity risks to systems, people, assets, data, and capabilities. Key activities include governance, risk assessment, business environment analysis, and risk management strategy.
By thoroughly understanding their digital ecosystem, organizations can prioritize their efforts and allocate resources more effectively. This pillar enables businesses to align their cybersecurity activities with their risk tolerance and business objectives, ensuring a tailored and efficient approach to cybersecurity.
2. Protect: Defending Data at Rest
At the heart of cyberstorage is data protection — and the NIST Protect pillar helps to codify this function. It outlines best practices to implement access controls, standardize training and awareness programs, and protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data.
For cyberstorage, protection strategies act as both deterrent and defense mechanisms. They aim to limit or contain the impact of potential cybersecurity events, reducing the attack surface and making it more difficult for threats to penetrate or spread within systems.
As a data protection platform, ShardSecure works by breaking data into microshards and distributing them across multiple secure locations. This approach ensures that even if attackers breach the system, they cannot retrieve meaningful information. Advanced file-level encryption further safeguards data at rest, making ShardSecure a strong fit for environments requiring stringent data protection (e.g. those governed by HIPAA, GDPR, and SOC2.)
3. Detect: Data Integrity Checks and Automatic Alerts
The ability to detect threats in real-time is paramount in fighting cyberattacks. The third NIST pillar, Detect, does just this with recommendations for anomaly detection and continuous security monitoring.
The ShardSecure platform’s data integrity checks align closely with the Detect pillar. By sending alerts whenever a data integrity check fails or an attack is executed — and automatically reconstructing the affected data — the platform enables security teams to respond quickly to threats and attacks. ShardSecure’s configurable data migration feature also allows admins to automatically migrate data to a safe alternate location in the event that tampering is detected.
4. Respond: Seamless Integration into SIEM Systems
The ability to respond to threats swiftly is critical in today’s cybersecurity landscape. As the fourth NIST pillar, Respond includes response planning, analysis, internal and external communications, and mitigation.
According to research by Deloitte, only 46% of organizations test cyber incident response time and planning every quarter. But it’s essential to regularly practice and refine these response protocols to ensure effectiveness when real threats emerge.
ShardSecure’s seamless integration with SIEM platforms enhances organizational response capabilities by feeding security alerts and audit logs directly into centralized monitoring systems. This feature ensures that security teams are immediately notified of potential breaches, enabling quick and informed responses.
5. Recover: Fast and Reliable Data Recovery
The fifth NIST pillar, Recover, centers on restoring data and minimizing downtime. This includes implementing plans and technical solutions for data resilience and recovery during a cybersecurity attack.
Recovery goes beyond merely restoring systems to their pre-incident state. It involves learning from the incident, strengthening defenses, and improving overall resilience. In the best case scenario, a well-planned recovery process can turn a potentially disastrous event into an opportunity for enhancing an organization’s cybersecurity posture.
The ShardSecure platform corresponds closely with this pillar. With immutable snapshots of every write operation, ShardSecure ensures that once data is stored, it cannot be altered or deleted, providing a secure recovery point in the event of an attack.
6. Govern: Aligning Risk Management and Data Protection
The final pillar, Govern, is the most recent addition to the NIST Cybersecurity Framework. It focuses on how organizations manage their cybersecurity program — including aligning it with business needs, establishing clear lines of communication, and ensuring compliance.
Effective governance ensures that cybersecurity functions not just as an IT issue but also as a business priority. It involves creating a culture of security awareness throughout the organization in order to create a more resilient and secure environment.
ShardSecure aligns with the NIST “Govern” function by enabling organizations to establish and communicate clear risk management policies. By integrating its solutions into enterprise governance frameworks, ShardSecure helps organizations maintain compliance with regulatory standards and internal data protection policies.
Strong Across All Environments: On-Prem, Cloud, and Hybrid
One of ShardSecure’s greatest strengths is its flexibility. Whether an organization operates in an on-premises environment, is fully cloud-native, or manages a hybrid infrastructure, ShardSecure’s technology adapts to fit seamlessly.
This adaptability is particularly critical as more organizations transition to multi-cloud strategies, in which data protection becomes increasingly complex. ShardSecure’s ability to work with leading cloud providers like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud ensures that data remains secure, no matter where it resides.
As the demand for cyberstorage grows, ShardSecure will continue to play a pivotal role in shaping the future of data security, privacy, and resilience. To learn more about the ShardSecure platform, take a look at our white paper or book a demo.
Sources
Gartner, Innovation Insight: Cyberstorage Mitigates the Impact of Cyberattacks Chandra Mukhyala, Julia Palmer, Jeff Vogel, Vishesh Divya, September 12, 2024, Gartner
GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
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NIST Cybersecurity Framework: 5 Essential Phases for Optimal Security | Tulane
NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0: Moving Cyber Out of the Silo | PLI
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