Let’s be honest about modern enterprise IT: it’s no longer a matter of if your company will get hit by a
cyberattack, but when.
The data backs this up. A massive 76% of organizations have already taken a serious hit from cyberattacks. We
aren’t just talking about minor glitches here—we’re talking about devastating consequences. In fact, 87% faced
massive revenue losses, and 92% had to deal with legal or regulatory nightmares.
For years, companies poured millions into traditional defense—stacking up firewalls, securing endpoints, and
trying to build an impenetrable wall around their data. But today’s ransomware and wiper attacks are just too
sophisticated. The reality is clear: blocking 100% of threats is a pipe dream.
That is why we will talk about the 5 steps of Cyber resilience, to prevent a massive impact of cyber attacks that
will ruin your defense in seconds because as the world progress, attacks and ransomware also becomes more
sophisticated.
What is Cyber Resilience?
Before jumping into the 5 steps of Cyber resilience, we need to know about its meaning and benefits so we will
know what will happen when we apply these five steps.
Cyber resilience means your business doesn’t stop, even during a massive cyberattack or ransomware crisis.
Because you have an ironclad backup plan, you can rapidly reboot your systems and keep moving forward. It
turns every attack into a lesson. ensuring that the next time hackers strike, you can fight back faster, smarter,
and stronger.
1. Discover and protect all data
While this step seems simple, data sprawl stops many organizations from actually doing it. Scattered,
unmanaged data opens a wider door for cyberattacks and stretches security teams to their limits. It is a
dangerous combination: companies have more data in more places, but less control over it—creating the
perfect storm for hackers to cause chaos.
1
KEY ACTIONS TO IMPLEMENT STEP ONE
1
Adopt a modern data platform that supports 1000+ data sources, including:
- Virtual machines (VMs)
- SaaS applications
- Databases
- NAS environments (unstructured data)
2
Make sure your platform runs across on-premises, cloud, and SaaS environments.
Because you have data all over the place, your platform should have
flexible deployment models unified by a common UI and APIs.
3
Simplify operations with an intuitive UI.
When your UI is easy to use, you can have a relatively small
team running a giant estate—and running it well. Our customers
enjoy superior operational efficiencies with a single UI and set
of APIs for automating workflows on our platform.
4
Get strong storage compression.
You’ll want to use a platform with strong data compression.
This will yield substantial savings when running at petabyte
scale. We have a unique file system that’s the industry
standard. Really strong storage compression gives a lower TCO.
NOTABLE BENEFITS OF STEP ONE
Enhanced security
Reduced risk
Improved compliance and governance
Lower costs and improved ROI
Increased IT efficiency
2. Ensure data is always recoverable
Let’s look at the reality of how these threats work: attackers are incredibly strategic. They know your backups
are your ultimate safety net, which is exactly why they target them first. The logic is simple—if they can
compromise your last line of defense, you are backed into a corner with no other options, making you far more
likely to pay the ransom.
1
KEY ACTIONS TO IMPLEMENT STEP TWO
1
Harden your platform by configuring powerful features like:
- Multifactor authentication (MFA)
- Immutability (so data can’t be altered or deleted)
- Role-based access control (RBAC)
- Separation of duties (dividing critical tasks among
different individuals)
2
Implement a cyber vault
With an air-gapped copy of your most important data and
adherence to the 3-2-1-1 backup rule (three copies of data,
two different media, one offsite, and one immutable), you’ll
always have a copy of your data available in case of emergency.
We at Cohesity also provide an advanced key management
system, so we can still give our customers access to their
data in an attack.
This access ensures backups are always recoverable.
NOTABLE BENEFITS OF STEP TWO
Faster and more secure recovery
Stronger protection against attacks
Audit readiness
Zero trust alignment
3. Detect and investigate threats
The reality of modern security is that no wall is high enough to keep every attacker out forever. That is why you
need a system that acts like a digital smoke detector. By continuously scanning your data for anomalous
behavior or hidden malware, you can spot unauthorized users the moment they start exploring your network.
The faster you detect these threats, the faster you can isolate and remove them before they have a chance to
lock your systems down.
1
KEY ACTIONS TO IMPLEMENT STEP THREE
1
Be proactive by regularly scanning for threats in your backups. Think of this proactive threat scanning like practicing consistent hygiene. It’ll help you:
- Root out any changes as quickly as possible
- Identify malware or other vulnerabilities
2
Initiate threat hunting capabilities when seeking specific
threats. Our curated threat feeds and integrations with the
security ecosystem vendors in our Data Security Alliance,
including CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Networks, Cisco, and more—
means you get the combined benefit of their collective wisdom
with the data we can bring to these systems.
Your InfoSec and IT teams will also operate with the same set
of information.
As we’ve helped customers recover from cyberattacks over the
years, native threat scanning and threat hunting capabilities
must be part of your data platform.
Why? Because other security systems may be disabled or
otherwise offline when you’re under attack.
NOTABLE BENEFITS OF STEP THREE
Early threat detection and mitigation
Backup integrity assurance
Faster incident recovery and reduced downtime
Shared context for IT and InfoSec teams
4. Practice application resilience
The absolute worst time to test your emergency response plan is during a live ransomware attack when
everyone is panicking. Instead, this step is all about running routine digital fire drills. By practicing how to spin
up an isolated sandbox—often called a “clean room”—you can safely test your data and confirm that your
most critical systems will come back online smoothly. This ensures that when you do restore your
environment, you aren’t accidentally reinfecting yourself with hidden malware.
1
KEY ACTIONS TO IMPLEMENT STEP FOUR
1
Practice with orchestration and rehearsals
- Automate your response and recovery processes
- Conduct rehearsals to refine your response plans, including
how you sequence recovery for infrastructure, data, and
applications
2
Use a clean room
- Spin up a separate, secure environment for forensic analysis
- Identify and eradicate threats before restoring infrastructure,
data sources, and applications
3
Get expert support
Contact Cohesity CERT when you’re under attack
NOTABLE BENEFITS OF STEP FOUR
Faster and safer recovery
Improved RTO
Lower risk of reinfection
Reduced disruption and financial risk
5. Optimize data risk posture
Resilience isn’t a one-and-done project; it’s a habit. You need to constantly review what kind of data you are
keeping and who has access to it. By organizing your data and deleting what you don’t need, you shrink the
size of the target you’re presenting to hackers, making your whole organization way safer over time.
1
KEY ACTIONS TO IMPLEMENT STEP FIVE
1
Find out what data is where
- Scan your environment and assess what data is where and
what protection level it has. The whole class of tools with
DSPM makes this possible. - Understand what may be in your backup estate and make
sure it’s protected the right way with our full featured
integrations with some of the best vendors in the industry,
including Cyera and BigID.
2
Assess what may have been impacted in a breach or what may have happened in a case of data exfiltration
- Get the right coverage you need and reduce your risk with
the data classification built into our products. - Answer quickly when there’s an incident and lawyers ask:
What data was impacted? How sensitive is it? What’s our
risk? How many customers were impacted? What types of
records were affected?
NOTABLE BENEFITS OF STEP FIVE
Enhanced data visibility and classification
Proactive risk identification and mitigation
Resilience is a journey, not a Destination
You can’t just throw your hands up one day and say, “Great, we are finally resilient.” It doesn’t work that way.
As technology improves and the digital world grows, hackers are evolving right along with it. Turning these five
steps into a daily habit is the only way to keep your company’s defenses sharp protecting your business from
the kind of sudden downfall that only happens when you get caught unprepared.
Cohesity. (n.d.). Strengthen your cyber resilience. https://www.cohesity.com/solutions/cyber-resilience/