Traditional defenses like firewalls and endpoint tools are still important, but they don’t fully address where the real business risk sits: your data.

Ransomware is growing quickly and hitting more organizations:

• Cyber incidents are now the number one business risk globally.
• Ransomware is projected to strike every 2 seconds by 2031.
• 59% of organizations were affected by ransomware last year.
• Attacks increased by 73% from 2022 to 2023.

Because attackers ultimately target data, a data-centric strategy focuses on three outcomes: protect, detect, and recover at the storage layer where data actually resides.

That means:

• Protect: Securing the storage layer with encryption, access controls, and immutable backups so data is harder to encrypt, delete, or corrupt.
• Detect: Using AI-driven monitoring at the data layer to spot suspicious behavior in near real time, including insider threats.
• Recover: Having fast, application-consistent recovery from immutable copies so you can restore operations quickly and minimize data loss.

NetApp’s approach embeds these capabilities directly into the storage platform (ONTAP) and surrounding data services. This helps you move from a perimeter-only mindset to a data-centric cyber resilience strategy that covers identity, network, endpoints, applications, and—critically—data itself.

NetApp focuses on protecting data where it lives—on your storage systems—by building security into the platform and surrounding it with layered controls.

Key capabilities include:

1. Secure-by-design storage (ONTAP)

• Immutable and indelible Snapshot copies: Once created, these copies can’t be altered or deleted, even by administrators. They provide reliable recovery points if data is encrypted or corrupted.
• FPolicy malicious file blocking: Helps prevent known malicious file types from spreading within the system.
• Multiadmin verification: Critical actions require approval from multiple administrators, reducing the risk of insider threats or compromised accounts.
• Multifactor authentication and role-based access: Ensures only authorized users can access sensitive data and management functions.

2. Air-gapped, WORM-based cyber vaulting

• SnapLock compliance software: Applies write once, read many (WORM) protection so backup copies can’t be encrypted or deleted during a ransomware event.
• Logical air-gapping: Creates isolated storage environments that are hardened against cyberthreats while still supporting operational agility.
• Immutable, indelible backups: Provide a last line of defense for your most critical data assets.

3. Simple, centralized control plane

• The NetApp Console gives you one interface to coordinate ransomware defense across workloads and systems.
• You can define and apply protection policies, manage snapshots and cyber vaults, and orchestrate recovery from a single place.

Together, these capabilities help you reimagine storage as an active security control, not just a place to keep data. They are designed to minimize the chance of a successful attack, limit impact if one occurs, and support rapid, predictable recovery.

NetApp Ransomware Resilience is designed to guide you through the full ransomware lifecycle: identify, protect, detect, respond, recover, and govern.

1. Identify

• Automatically discovers workloads and their data in your NetApp storage.
• Maps data to workloads, determines workload importance, and analyzes risk.

2. Protect

• Recommends workload protection policies based on risk and importance.
• Lets you apply those policies with one click, including snapshots, cyber vaulting, and access controls.
• Uses immutable backups and snapshots as a foundation for recovery.

3. Detect

• Uses AI/ML-based detection built into ONTAP to monitor file, block, and cloud data (including Amazon FSx for ONTAP) in near real time.
• Targets 99% detection accuracy to minimize false negatives.
• NetApp Data Infrastructure Insights adds user behavior analytics to spot insider threats and anomalous activity.

4. Respond

• When a potential attack is detected, it can automatically take immutable, indelible Snapshot copies to preserve a clean recovery point.
• Can isolate affected data and block user access to storage systems.
• Integrates with popular SIEMs to fit into your existing security operations.

5. Recover

• Helps you identify the best recovery point and orchestrate rapid, application-consistent restores.
• Supports recovery in minutes rather than days or months, helping reduce downtime and business disruption.
• Backed by a Ransomware Recovery Guarantee that commits to no data loss with NetApp Snapshot copies, and a Ransomware Detection Program where NetApp assists with recovery if an attack is missed.

6. Govern

• Implements your ransomware protection strategy and policies and monitors outcomes over time.
• Provides forensic analytics and auditing to understand incidents and improve controls.

In practice, this means you can reshape your ransomware posture from reactive to proactive: you know where your critical data is, how it’s protected, how quickly you’ll know about an attack, and how you’ll recover with minimal data loss and downtime.