| [December 09, 2014] |
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Year in Review: How Data Security Dominated the Data Recovery Conversation in 2014
Data security, business continuity and mobile devices were among the
biggest trends impacting the data recovery industry in 2014, according
to year-end information from leading provider Kroll
Ontrack. The most talked about trend however was how data recovery
companies could help corporations protect their data from theft.
Cybersecurity Breaches: A driver of data loss and subsequently a
refined approach to data recovery
As cyber data breaches made
headlines throughout the year, Kroll Ontrack performed several large
data recovery projects that were the result of hackers. With a
heightened focus on data security practices, the number of corporations
requiring on-premise support to ensure data didn't leave their
organizations doubled from 2013 to 2014. Conversely, 2014 also saw
hundreds of highly regulated healthcare, government and educational
institutions needing Ontrack®
Remote Data Recovery™ (RDR®) software, a proprietary service that
maximizes data security because the data recovery can also be performed
without a hard disk or other storage device leaving an enterprise's data
center for high-end server or cloud recoveries.
"From viruses such as CryptoLocker to mass cybersecurity attacks,
security protocols were a high-profile concern for corporations in
2014," said Jeff Pederson, senior manager of data recovery operations,
Kroll Ontrack. "When malicious intent ensues, it is critical to get an
expert involved that understands the complexity and urgency of rapidly
responding to the incident, while giving you a deep understanding of
where your data is and where it's going."
Encryption and Erasure: Validating the effectiveness of corporate
practices
Because security was such a hot topic in 2014,
storage and software companies as well as VARs and OEMs turned to Kroll
Ontrack for its expertise in recovering data to ensure no one can get
unauthorized access to data on their storage media. Specifically,
organizations took the intiative to affirm their encryption and/or data
erasure protocols to meet stringent regulations and provide peace of
mind to their customers. For both encryption and end-of-life drives,
this process entailed analyzing the media and performing a series of
tests to certify that data cannot be recovered if a storage device were
to be retired, repurposed or if it fell into an adversary's hand.
"In today's security conscious and highly regulated world, it is more
important than ever for entities to ensure data security methods and
protocols put in place are functioning as designed and are verified that
they work properly to protect information," said Troy Hegr, data
recovery technology manager, Kroll Ontrack.
OEM Partnerships: Collaboration with data recovery providers for
business continuity
Data storage device manufacturers made
business continuity a high priority in 2014. Kroll Ontrack joined forces
with several major hardware and software OEMs to collaborate to better
ensure faster recovery times and greater recovery rates from drives if
and when they become corrupt or fail. For example, Kroll Ontrack teamed
up with an SSD market leader SanDisk
to create a 75 percent reduction in the amount of time needed to
pinpoint the most common drive failures, speeding data recovery.
"New drives and innovative data storage technologies are being developed
all the time," added Pederson. "These new technologies mean new
proprietary data recovery tools and processes need to be developed to
address the latest drive architectures. By collaborating with OEMs, we
can more easily determine how to perform successful data recoveries,
which improves results when the customer is in need of immediate
assistance."
Software Defined Storage: Discovering data recovery is possible
Kroll
Ontrack saw an increase in software defined storage failures in 2014.
Implemented for their "fail-proof" qualities, Kroll Ontrack was often
contacted after the storage manufacturers told the corporations in
trouble that recovery wasn't possible if a current backup did not exist.
To the contrary, Kroll Ontrack addressed these recovery scenarios by
researching and re-building the software defined storage maps and
therefore restoring data to the point in time when the failure occurred.
"The takeaway here is to always maintain current backups and/or
snapshots and test them," said Pederson. "Further, corporations should
consider partnering with a reputable data recovery company before
a critical data loss event occurs. Doing so will dramatically speed
ramp-up time and thus recovery turnaround."
Phone (News - Alert), Tablet, Flash and SSD: Recovery requests dramatically
increasing
From 2013 to 2014, Kroll Ontrack saw marked
increases in recovery requests for mobile phones, tablets, flash and SSD
devices. Specifically, recovery requests rose by 42 percent for phones,
69 percent for tablets, 13 percent for flash and 48 percent for SSDs.
"Small, newer mobile storage devices are more powerful and contain data
of great importance to both consumers and corporations," added Hegr. "It
is therefore incredibly important that data recovery companies like
Kroll Ontrack invest in research and development to keep up with the
latest technology to be able to address recoveries from these devices.
In 2014, Ontrack Data Recovery engineers developed the unique
ability to repair the operating system and then access the data for all
Apple mobile devices, including the iPhone (News - Alert) 5S and iPad Air, which are
hardware encrypted. This newly developed method changed the mobile
recovery game, making recovery far more successful for Apple (News - Alert) customers."
About Kroll Ontrack Inc.
Kroll Ontrack provides
technology-driven services and software to help legal, corporate and
government entities as well as consumers manage, recover, search,
analyze and produce data efficiently and cost-effectively. In addition
to its award-winning suite of software, Kroll Ontrack provides data
recovery, data destruction, electronic discovery and document review.
For more information about Kroll Ontrack and its offerings please visit: www.krollontrack.com
or follow @KrollOntrack on Twitter (News - Alert).
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