4 QUESTIONS FOR A DELL TECHNOLOGIES EXPERT ON CYBERSECURITY

We speak to Daniel Olkowski (Principal Systems Engineer at Dell Technologies) about cyber threats and the Digital Bunker.

Servers24.pl: There is a lot of talk these days about organisational cybersecurity. And no wonder! According to research by Coleman Parkes Research, in 2021, one in four SMEs worldwide experienced at least one cyber threat. The scale of lost revenue for each of the organisations attacked amounted to nearly PLN 600,000. What are the reasons behind the increasing activity of cybercriminals?

Daniel Olkowski: The figures quoted are staggering. Where do they come from? A traditional criminal goes to places where the victim keeps valuable items. A cybercriminal does exactly the same – their target is data. The loss of data means the collapse of a company and enormous costs. This is the basis of the blackmail used by hackers: I will return the data in exchange for money. The figures quoted speak to the current value of data and its importance to any company, regardless of the nature of its business. In other words, the data stored on a server or laptop is worth more than the hardware itself. An example of the determination to recover data is a tender issued by one of the districts to pay a ransom to a hacker. The tender was described as ‘recovery of encrypted data’. And who can “recover encrypted data”? The person who has the encryption key – in other words, the cybercriminal.

Servers24.pl: In 2020, it was reported that a cyberattack occurred somewhere in the world every 39 seconds. As we know from the ‘2021 Global Data Protection Index’ (GDPI) survey conducted by Dell Technologies, companies worldwide are grappling with a constant increase in data volumes and are finding it increasingly difficult to protect that data. What’s more, as many as 62% of respondents fear that their current data protection systems may be insufficient to counter cyber threats such as malware and ransomware. So how can an organisation be effectively protected by basing its security policy on Dell solutions?

Daniel Olkowski: Since we know that blackmail relies on the victim losing their data, let’s consider whether it’s possible to make data impossible to destroy, modify or delete. Ideally, we could turn our data to stone. Then a virus, ransomware or a hacker rummaging through the data centre couldn’t harm our data. Even if turning data into stone were possible, it seems out of the question. After all, my presentation and database need to change. Our IT is dynamic. And this is where the Digital Bunker comes to the rescue. A place that holds images – copies of production data. It regularly backs up our files, databases and virtual machines. And turns them to stone. This is data that applications cannot access, and indeed – are not even aware of. That is why we can store it in an immutable form. That is precisely the key. No one – including the owner or administrator – is able to change, delete or encrypt the data in the bunker. Nor can a hacker or ransomware do so.

Servers24.pl: It is evident that cybersecurity threats are evolving very rapidly and becoming increasingly complex. Is it possible to build a flexible security policy within a company based on Dell solutions?

Daniel Olkowski: This approach protects us – it guarantees the survival of our data – regardless of the infrastructure we have and regardless of how dynamic our IT environment is. The data is immutable, ‘set in stone’. In the event of encryption, a ransomware attack or a hacker, we can revert to the state prior to the incident.

Servers24.pl: Finally, could you give us a brief summary of what the Digital Bunker is?

Daniel Olkowski: Our security strategy is based on walls – firewalls, applications and procedures designed to prevent the enemy from gaining access to our data. And they usually do the job. But once in a while, when a digital attack is successful, they fail. What then? The wall strategy doesn’t answer that question. It protected us for several years, but today it couldn’t cope. That’s when we go to the Digital Bunker. We retrieve our golden, stone copy, and go back to the moment before the attack. And everything is fine again.

Servers24.pl: Thank you for talking to us!

If you have any questions or require support regarding IT solutions, please contact handlowy@servers24.pl .