Page 121 - Cyber Defense eMagazine RSAC Special Edition 2025

The Current Threat Landscape

Cybersecurity experts have seen a significant surge in cyber activities, primarily focused on obtaining
credentials, gaining access, and manipulating or removing data. These activities often culminate in
ransomware or other catastrophic attacks, forcing your business to recover and potentially even pay a
ransom.

What’s more, the threat landscape has evolved to a point where many attackers are now using AI to
make their attacks easier. For instance, AI-generated phishing emails can now mimic trusted figures like
CEOs, making the attack more convincing and harder to detect.

Backup operations are particularly attractive targets for these threats. Sophos' 2024 State of
Ransomware report reveals that 94% of cyber attacks also attempt to compromise backup. Some
ransomware gangs and variants like LockBit specifically target backup environments. A recent attack on
UnitedHealthcare, a company that typically fends off an attack every 70 seconds, managed to freeze
large portions of its IT infrastructure, including backup systems.

While the zero-trust approach is crucial in securing enterprise backup environments, it has limitations.
On its own, zero trust is not enough to protect backup against these sophisticated threats.

Things Have Changed

In the past, once users passed initial security checks, they were trusted forever. They could access any
resource in the network without ever being verified again. But the modern IT landscape — with its cloud
computing, mobile workforces, and distributed systems — has rendered this approach obsolete. We can
no longer rely on a single digital or physical barrier for protection. Because attackers can easily
compromise user credentials and move laterally within the network, continuous verification is now a must.

Consequently, the access control methods that were effective a decade ago will no longer cut it.

The Concept of Zero Trust — Never Trust. Always Verify.

A zero-trust security model requires authentication for every single access request every time, no matter
how many times the credentials have been verified before. The point of this “never trust; always verify”
approach is to limit security exposure, minimize the number of attacks, and reduce the impact when they
occur. That’s why zero trust belongs in every IT and data protection strategy.

Special Considerations for the Backup Environment

The backup environment poses unique security challenges that make it ideal for the zero access-
approach.

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