With reports on data centers being broken into or hacks against networked devices, storage solutions providers are also attaching great importance to how to make their systems more secure against those types of attacks.
With reports on data centers being broken into or hacks against networked devices, storage solutions providers are also attaching great importance to how to make their systems more secure against those types of attacks.
Reports on data centers being burglarized or sabotaged have been numerous. In 2006, mobile phone operator Vodafone suffered a major service interruption after a break-in at one of its data centers, as suspected thieves used sledgehammers to smash into a Vodafone data center in Hampshire, reported Data Center Dynamics. More recently, in 2015, a prisoner jailed for carjacking walked away from a work release program and ended up in a Delaware data center, after making his way in through a broken door, according to a blog post by Digital Reality. Both incidents serve as reminders the importance of keeping stored data intact even if storage devices have been tampered with.
“Physical access is most critical. However, if physical intrusion occurs, the best insurance are backup copies of one’s data, preferably offsite,” said Wayne Arvidson, VP of Intelligence, Surveillance and Security Solutions at
Quantum. “The ‘3-2-1 rule’ calls for three copies of data on two different media, with one copy offsite. A storage system like our StorNext is capable of automatically copying data to other media onsite, offsite, and/or to the cloud.”
“Security against physical intrusion is exactly what security systems integrators are supposed to deliver. That is what access control systems (ACS) are designed for and any major data center should have closely-controlled ACS coupled with video surveillance, to monitor what is going on,” said Alastair McLeod, Group CEO of
Veracity. “Inevitably, some rack locations are going to be shared, so it is important to monitor and track what other engineers do inside the data rooms. Simple things like lockable disk trays and lockable rack doors should be routinely implemented.”
Cybersecurity
Hacks against networked devices such as IP cameras and NVRs have also become more commonplace. A major event concerning this occurred in October last year, where DDoS attacks were launched against Dyn, an Internet performance and management company based in New Hampshire. The result was a shutdown of service across various famous sites including Amazon, the Financial Times and Netflix. It was later found out that poorly protected networked devices, including cameras and NVRs, were used as robotic attackers after being affected by a malware called Mirai.
Finally, given the recent strings of cyberattacks against networked devices including IP cameras and NVRs, making sure devices are secure against hacks and intrusion becomes more important than ever.
“Storage vendors should support algorithms or security functions to guarantee data security and protect networks or data from attack or damage,” said Jerry Wu, BDM for Storage Appliance at
AIC. “Moreover, they should leverage the unlimited scalability of public cloud providers, reduce the backup provisioning difficulties and support the unified environment integrated with major cloud providers such as Microsoft Azure, Amazon S3, OpenStack and so on.”
“The best insurance against cybersecurity and cloud storage concerns is a combination of encryption and an offline copy such as on LTO tape in an active archive. This approach minimizes, if not eliminates, serious risk from common threats such as ransomware,” Arvidson said.
“Security these days should still be No. 1. Our systems are closed environments with no backdoor access or untrusted features,” said Raj Patel, B2B Sales Manager for UK and Ireland at
Buffalo. “For more hands on security, we include AES 256bit encryption, physical and software theft protection, even an Antivirus option to protect your network from infections is available.”