The digital age has ushered in a new era of unparalleled connectivity, convenience, and opportunity. Yet, the increasing complexities of hybrid multi-cloud environments and the rapid expansion of the attack surface have placed organizations at heightened risk in the ever-evolving cyber threat landscape, threatening their sensitive data, vital infrastructure, and reputation. According to IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report 2023, the average cost of a ransomware attack has surged by 13% compared to 2022, reaching an alarming $5.13 million. The global average cost of data breaches is now $4.45 million, with the United States witnessing the highest average cost at $9.48 million. Equally concerning is the finding that it takes organizations approximately 277 days (about 9 months) on average to identify and contain a breach.In the face of this evolving threat landscape, the pressure to stay compliant with all local to global regulatory requirements is intensifying. Governments worldwide are introducing new rules and updates aimed at enhancing cybersecurity measures. For instance, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has implemented new rules mandating that public companies strengthen their cybersecurity strategies, governance, and incident disclosure.

Interestingly, amidst the constant threat of cyber-attacks and growing regulatory scrutiny, many organizations still tend to allocate significant investments to disaster recovery (DR) solutions while not having sufficient focus on their cybersecurity efforts. To confront the challenges of the evolving threat landscape, businesses must refocus their strategies to strengthen their cyber resiliency and recovery capabilities. Preventing breaches is just as critical as preventing them from happening in the first place.

To that end, there are some critical updates and initiatives that are being introduced that need to be implemented as best practices to ensure continuous security, compliance, and governance. One such development is the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) 2.0, which introduces a new ‘Govern’ function. This function empowers enterprises to proactively address cybersecurity issues, seamlessly aligning with their overarching enterprise risk management strategy.

The ‘Govern’ function underscores the vital role of governance in cybersecurity, as it establishes and continually monitors an organization’s risk management strategy, expectations, and policies. It covers a wide range of essential aspects, including the organizational context, risk management strategy, cybersecurity supply chain risk management, roles and responsibilities, policies, and oversight. This expansion underscores that cybersecurity isn’t merely a technological concern; it’s a strategic and organizational imperative, encompassing human, process, and technology dimensions across the implementation spectrum.

The importance of these new rules and updates for enhancing cybersecurity, compliance, and governance cannot be overstated. Organizations have only three primary approaches to address these challenges: accepting the risk, addressing the risk, or transferring the risk through insurance companies. To effectively address these risks and establish a resilient cybersecurity posture, organizations need continuous monitoring capabilities and the ability to assess risks in their hybrid multi-cloud environments and mitigate them with Cyber resiliency and recovery solution.

This is where IBM Cloud and Caveonix’s joint solution for cyber resiliency and recovery services come into play, ensuring that you are protected and that your infrastructure is resilient to cyber risks. Even if an impact does occur, despite the best of efforts, these services provide the recovery component to help organizations safeguard valuable data.

Protecting Hybrid Cloud Workloads with Caveonix and IBM Cloud

IBM Cloud and Caveonix have collaborated to enhance cyber recovery and resiliency for organizations through a multi-faceted approach. This approach includes securing data, providing immutable storage, and streamlining recovery processes, all while adhering to strict compliance standards.IBM’s commitment to security and compliance is strengthened by its partnership with Caveonix. Together, they work seamlessly to protect data in the digital landscape, whether it’s accessible over the internet or resides within a private network. The foundation of their joint solution revolves around continuous scanning and assessment, ensuring that the entire digital ecosystem complies with industry regulations and remains resilient against potential threats. Caveonix’s platform specializes in scanning, monitoring, discovering, and assessing assets for security and compliance, making it an integral part of this collaborative effort. Caveonix’s comprehensive visibility guarantees that no vulnerabilities are overlooked and that all regulatory requirements are met.

Furthermore, this solution leverages an isolated recovery environment in the cloud. This approach enables customized recovery processes that align with the unique requirements of an organization’s applications, even accommodating complex recovery workflows that standard solutions cannot manage. It also offers a higher degree of control and flexibility for thorough testing and validation, ensuring the effectiveness of the organization’s recovery procedures. IBM’s cyber-resiliency best practices further strengthen this solution with features like air-gapped protection, immutable storage, advanced data scanning and cleansing tools, and automation and orchestration technologies. This comprehensive approach, combined with hybrid-multicloud integration, ensures a unified recovery solution that safeguards your entire infrastructure while meeting compliance requirements.

Benefits of the Joint Solution

In today’s hyperconnected digital landscape, the cost of cyberattacks is soaring, and response times remain alarmingly slow. As regulators tighten the reins, cybersecurity is no longer just a tech issue—it’s a business risk. Therefore, employing robust cyber-resilience and recovery strategies that unify cybersecurity, compliance, governance, and disaster recovery can empower organizations to defend against and quickly recover from disruptive cyber incidents.

Caveonix and IBM Cloud form a robust partnership to protect your hybrid cloud workloads effectively. Caveonix ensures that your workloads are compliant, secure, and continuously monitored, while IBM Cloud Recovery and Resiliency Solution ensures quick recovery from any potential disasters or data loss.