Last week Dell released the much anticipated version 19.12 of the Cyber Recovery Solution. Obviously, one of the clear highlights was the ability to deploy the Cyber Recovery solution on Google Cloud Platform. The solution leverages PowerProtect DD Virtual Edition (DDVE) storage appliance in a GCP VPC to store replicated data from a production DD system in a secure vault environment. This data can then then be recovered to the production DD system. My colleague Ben Mayer gives an excellent high level overview in his blog, that can be found at https://www.cloudsquared.blog/2022/11/powerprotect-cyber-recovery-for-google.html.

This of course rounds out support for vault capability across all 3 major public clouds ( AWS, Azure and now GCP). This is a really exciting development and I look forward to digging deeper into what this means technically over the next couple of weeks and months, as part of my ongoing Dell Cyber Recovery Series.

But there are many other highlights to the release as follows (Clearly my list isn’t exhaustive….. I’m picking out the bits that have captured my attention, as ever please refer to the official Dell release note documentation for all the underlying detail)

• Support for new Software Releases
  • DD OS 7.10
  • PowerProtect Data manager 19.12
  • Networker 19.7
  • Avamar 19.7
  • Cybersense 7.12 and Cybersense 8.0

Cyber Recovery Solution support in AWS GovCloud (US)

For those those not familiar, AWS GovCloud gives government customers and their partners the flexibility to architect secure cloud solutions that comply with the FedRAMP High baseline; the DOJ’s Criminal Justice Information Systems (CJIS) Security Policy; U.S. International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR); Export Administration Regulations (EAR); Department of Defense (DoD) Cloud Computing Security Requirements Guide (SRG) for Impact Levels 2, 4 and 5; FIPS 140-2; IRS-1075; and other compliance regimes.

AWS GovCloud Regions are operated by employees who are U.S. citizens on U.S. soil. AWS GovCloud is only accessible to U.S. entities and root account holders who pass a screening process.

https://aws.amazon.com/govcloud-us/faqs/

A little under the radar, but for obvious reasons, likely to be a very important feature enhancement for customers.

CyberSense on AWS & Platform Extension

Beginning, CR version 19.12 (this release), the CR vault on AWS supports the CyberSense software. Really this is a very significant feature addition as it adds the ability to ‘analyze’ file and data integrity after data is replicated to the Cyber recovery Vault and a retention lock is applied.

CyberSense automatically scans the backup data, creating point-in-time observations of files and data. These observations enable CyberSense to track how files change over time and uncover even the most advanced type of attack. Analytics are generated that detect encryption/corruption of files or database pages, known malware extensions, mass deletions/creations of files, and more.

Machine learning algorithms then use analytics to make a deterministic decision on data corruption that is indicative of a cyberattack. The machine learning algorithms have been trained with the latest trojans and ransomware to detect suspicious behavior. If an attack occurs, a critical alert is displayed in the Cyber Recovery dashboard. CyberSense post-attack forensic reports are available to diagnose and recover from the ransomware attack quickly.

In truth this capability is a key capability of the Cyber Sense Solution. Even with the best of intentions, once we make a copy from the production side to the vault, we can never 100% be quite sure that the ‘data’ replicated is 100% clean, once we initiate the MTREE replication between DD appliances. The ML/AI capability of CyberSense, helps mitigate against this risk.

Finally, and more to follow on this topic in future posts. The expansion of the platform footprint of the CyberSense 8.0 software to support a SLES 12 SP5 based virtual appliance, ideal for small or medium sized deployments and environments.

DISCLAIMER
The views expressed on this site are strictly my own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or views of Dell Technologies. Please always check official documentation to verify technical information.

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