Why Speed Matters in Cyber Resilience
Imagine your business coming to a screeching halt because of a cyberattack, like the dreaded blue screen of death we’ve all come to fear. Every second that ticks, your data is at risk, and your operations are paralyzed. How quickly can your business bounce back?
In the world of cyber recovery, speed isn’t just a metric, it’s a critical lifeline. The need for speed is becoming even more pronounced with the expansion of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data analytics. These technologies process massive amounts of data in real time to provide insights, automate responses, and detect risks. However, their effectiveness is partially dependent on the speed of their cyber resilience systems. Some may claim recovery time objectives (RTOs) and recovery point objectives (RPOs) aren’t important, but we strongly disagree. Ensuring swift recovery after a cyberattack and minimizing downtime is why faster RTOs distinguish true leaders in the cyber recovery space.
The Cost of Downtime from Cyberattacks
Building security defenses can be a painstaking process, but a single cyberattack can bring business to its knees in moments. As Winston Churchill once said, “To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.” This paints the challenges businesses face in cyber security. Building security defenses can be a painstaking process, but a single cyberattack can bring business to its knees in moments. The investment required for proper defense pales in comparison to the resources needed during a cyberattack.
Downtime is a silent killer for business. Every minute of activity translates to lost revenue, diminished productivity, and potentially irreparable damage to reputation. Additionally, businesses may face direct costs such as fines for regulators or governing bodies.
Ransomware attacks are a constant threat, and it’s only getting worse. For instance, recently, MGM Resorts experienced this firsthand when they discovered the cyberattack on September 11, 2023, leading to an estimated loss exceeding $100 million after experiencing 10 days of downtime. Relentless threat actors mean businesses must be ready to respond instantly to mitigate potential breaches.
Why RTO Matters for Cyber Resilience
RTO is a critical metric in cyber resilience. It defines the maximum tolerable duration of downtime following a disruption. The lower the RTO, the quicker a business can resume operations. This is crucial for minimizing the impact of cyberattacks and ensuring business continuity.
In the context of cybersecurity, speed defines the success of both defenders and attackers. After gaining initial access to a network, adversaries seek to “break out” and move laterally from the compromised host to other hosts within the environment. The time it takes for them to do this—breakout time—is crucial because the initially compromised machines are rarely the ones adversaries need to achieve their goals. They must move laterally into the network, conduct reconnaissance, establish persistence, and locate their targets.
Responding within the breakout time window allows defenders to mitigate costs and other damages associated with intrusions. According to the CrowdStrike 2024 Global Threat Report, the breakout time for eCrime intrusions decreased from 84 minutes in 2022 to 62 minutes in 2023¹.
It’s important to acknowledge that RTOs (and RPOs) are likely to be higher with ransomware recovery compared to other disruptions. Currently industry averages indicate that downtime following a ransomware attack can last up to 22 days. However, within the realm of cyber specifically, achieving an RTO significantly better can be a game-changer. For instance, reducing RTO to a few hours rather than days is essential for minimizing downtime and its associated costs making a key differentiator in the cyber recovery industry.
Cyber Recovery: The Zerto Difference
In the competitive landscape of cyber recovery, not all solutions are created equal. We’ve established that speed is key for effective cyber recovery. When it comes to mass data recovery at scale and with speed, there are several solutions out there including high availability (HA), disaster recovery (DR), backup, and archive. Among these, DR is often the most comprehensive solution because of its robust mechanisms for quick recovery for a wide range of disruptions. Strong DR solutions include:
- Continuous data protection—allowing whole sites, applications, and files to be recovered with only seconds worth of data loss
- Automation and orchestration—ensuring failover operations are as simple as possible by minimizing complexity and keeping manual tasks to a minimum
- Application consistency—ensuring whole applications are failed over together, from the exact same point in time, speeding up recovery and reducing complexity of recovery
- Non-disruptive testing—DR testing can be done without any impact to production, as often as needed
- Visibility and control—enabling organizations to fully understand and see what is occurring inside their data protection solution and gaining valuable insights with real-time data and historic reporting capabilities
Zerto, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, is the leader in the disaster recovery space and stands out by delivering the fastest RTOs in the industry. Our technology ensures that your data loss is minimized and your operations can resume swiftly, reducing downtime and its associated costs. In addition, Zerto has real-time encryption detection, a solution that applies unique algorithmic intelligence to alert you within seconds when there’s an encryption anomaly that could signal the start of ransomware’s detonation phase. You no longer need to wait hours or days to know when recovery is necessary, unlike other solutions.
While others may struggle with prolonged recovery times, Zerto’s solution is designed for speed, efficiency, and data mobility, giving your business the edge it needs to stay resilient against cyber threats.
Conclusion
In the world of cyber resilience, speed is everything. Faster RPOs and RTOs mean less data loss, quicker recovery, and reduced downtime. As cyber threats continue to evolve, businesses must focus on improving their response times and enhancing their recovery strategies. By prioritizing speed, companies can better protect their data, maintain business continuity, and stay ahead of cybercriminals and ultimately survive the cyberattack. With Zerto, you can ensure that your recovery is not just fast but industry-leading, providing the security and reliability your business needs to thrive in an increasingly hostile threat landscape.
Learn more about using Zerto for building ransomware resilience or see how Zerto stacks up against the competition.
And if you are ready, contact us to discuss how Zerto can address your specific cyber recovery challenges.
1. CrowdStrike Global Threat Report 2024
Martin Oderinde Product Marketing Manager
