Businesses Must Ensure Data Resiliency To Face Complex Cyberattacks - Hitachi Vantara

By Siti Noor Afera Abu

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 4 (Bernama) -- As the cyberattack landscape grows more complex, businesses face unprecedented challenges in maintaining data integrity, availability, and security while ensuring compliance with intricate local data protection laws.

Hitachi Vantara chief technology officer for Asia Pacific Matthew Hardman said that with data volumes surging, organisations must prioritise the resiliency of their data infrastructure.

He said the evolving digital environment demands robust measures to protect critical information, necessitating a proactive data management and security approach.

“It is time for organisations to consider the resiliency of their data infrastructure as data volumes surge and their protection becomes ever more critical.

“Many organisations are not fully prepared for the risks posed by cyberattacks and outages. The key to prevention and business continuity lies in having a well-defined data resiliency strategy in place,” he told Bernama.

Hardman said this in response to a major information technology (IT) outage on July 19, which affected businesses and governments worldwide.  

Scope of global IT outage

Hardman said the outage affected approximately 8.5 million Windows devices worldwide.

“We saw disrupted services and operations across multiple industries, but those hit hardest would have been the businesses that are heavily reliant on uninterrupted computer functionality,” he said.

This includes the likes of banking, healthcare, airlines, emergency services and retail.

“For example, financial services and online banking services were taken offline in some cases, there were delays in patient care in settings where patient records were not accessible, and we saw flight delays and cancellations worldwide,” he said.

Explained further, Hardman said the interconnectedness of these industries meant that the outage had a domino effect, whereby one firm going offline meant that other organisations reliant on them also had to stop operations.

Suffice it to say the impact has already been significant, and he said that “we may only be seeing the tip of the iceberg of what the real overall impact of the outage has been.”

Ultimately, this incident underscores just how reliant the world is on interconnected technologies and the need for more robust cyber resilience strategies, he said.

Measures to prevent similar incidents

Hardman said data resiliency is an organisation's ability to recover from data breaches and other losses, enact business continuity plans quickly, and implement stronger data protection measures moving forward.

It is critical to prioritise data resiliency by implementing best practices in this area, he said.

Businesses can fortify their defences and warrant service steadiness through several key strategies.

He said businesses should take stock of their current level of cyber resilience, data protection, and overall operational resilience.

This, he said, might involve working with internal experts or a trusted partner to assess their on-premises, hybrid cloud, or fully cloud-based environments.

Other than the said strategies, he said that having a backup and recovery plan with security measures in place is “a good start”, but it is not enough for data resiliency.

“A truly resilient infrastructure requires data immutability, consistent deployment processes, and the ability to withstand unexpected system failures,” he said.

Organisations need a data resiliency plan encompassing their entire environment both on-premises and in the cloud.

Collaboration across the organisation is essential, including addressing shadow IT (unauthorised use of IT applications and devices).

“While there is a lot to consider, a trusted data infrastructure expert can support businesses in implementing strategic solutions to improve current data resiliency posture at any stage.

“Regularly refreshing and rehearsing IT outage response plans are crucial in the digital age,” he said.

Hence, partnering with such an expert allows businesses to identify vulnerabilities and determine the necessary steps to ensure proper data protection, security, compliance, and cyber resilience, he added.

-- BERNAMA