Evolve from passive defense to active protection

October marks Cybersecurity Awareness Month, but effective cybersecurity operates 24/7, not on a calendar schedule. For CISOs navigating today’s threat landscape, traditional reactive defenses no longer provide adequate protection. The solution lies in proactive, AI-powered security that operates at the storage layer—where your most critical data resides.

Many organizations view traditional backups as sufficient for storage-layer security. While essential, backups alone can’t prevent damage at the storage layer and shouldn’t be the sole line of defense.

This approach creates dangerous blind spots. Attackers know that compromised backups render traditional recovery strategies useless. That’s why a broader, proactive approach is needed to truly protect critical data at the primary storage layer. Modern cybersecurity requires attack detection before the threat reaches your backup.

NetApp’s built-in threat detection and response at the primary storage layer protects your data where it lives and lets you recover rapidly via immutable backups in the event of an attack. Without proactive detection and response capabilities built into your storage layer, you’re leaving your data vulnerable.

The most effective security strategies integrate protection directly into storage infrastructure from day one. Built-in security monitors data behavior continuously, learning normal patterns and flagging anomalies immediately.

This integration delivers measurable benefits for security operations teams:

• Autonomous threat detection reduces analyst workload, freeing resources for strategic initiatives
• Consistent protection across your entire data estate—on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments
• Real-time response that doesn’t depend on human reaction times
• A no data loss guarantee offers confidence in detection and response

AI-powered security leverages advanced detection capabilities to identify file and user anomalies in real-time. By analyzing data access patterns and modifications, AI works at the storage layer to uncover suspicious activity and respond swiftly, enhancing protection where your critical data resides.

A NetApp customer recently harnessed the power of storage-layer autonomous protection to thwart a potentially devastating ransomware attack. NetApp^® Autonomous Ransomware Protection (ARP)detected the threat in real-time, capturing a Snapshot™ copy that enabled rapid data recovery. This quick response averted costly downtime and disruptions, underscoring the critical importance of AI-driven security.

The speed advantage is crucial: While human analysts might take hours to investigate potential threats, AI-powered systems can isolate suspicious data allowing you to initiate recovery procedures within minutes.

From a CISO standpoint, proactive storage-layer security addresses three critical concerns:

• Risk mitigation: Automated detection and response systems operate consistently, reducing dependence on human reaction times and lowering overall risk exposure
• Financial protection: Beyond avoiding breach costs (averaging $4.4 million for ransomware attacks), maintaining business and operational continuity prevents productivity losses and reputation damage that often exceed direct attack costs
• Strategic positioning: Security architecture that adapts to new threats without requiring major infrastructure overhauls, creating resilience that scales with business growth

SE Labs recently evaluated NetApp ONTAP^® Autonomous Ransomware Protection capabilities, delivering a perfect score: 99% accuracy in real-time detection and response for file workloads on primary storage. This third-party validation demonstrates what happens when AI-powered security operates at the storage layer—detecting ransomware variants and initiating protective measures immediately, without human intervention.

The “real-time” aspect is significant. Many storage-based security solutions focus on backups. Real-time detection on primary storage can contain threats earlier—reducing the attack surface, limiting damage, shortening downtime, and ultimately lowering organizational liability. At the end of the day, minimizing impact to your customers is what matters most.

Moving beyond reactive approaches requires protection beyond the backup: embedding intelligence and automation into the storage layer. This creates ransomware defense that operates continuously, giving you confidence to focus on business growth rather than just protection.

Organizations that thrive in tomorrow’s threat landscape will be those implementing proactive approaches today. By building AI-powered detection directly into storage infrastructure as part of your Zero Trust architecture, you create the foundation for resilience that truly never sleeps.

Ready to strengthen your security posture? Discover how NetApp’s AI-powered storage solutions can enhance your cybersecurity strategy.

No ransomware detection or prevention system can completely guarantee safety from a ransomware attack. Although it’s possible that an attack might go undetected, NetApp technology acts as an important additional layer of defense and our research indicates NetApp technology has resulted in a high degree of detection for certain file encryption-based ransomware attacks. NetApp’s Ransomware Recovery Guarantee and Ransomware Protection Program subject to terms and conditions.