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There are more threats to the security of businesses – large and small – than ever before, with the advent of AI turbocharging the volume of threats and attackers out there. This means security is more important than ever and should be a priority for channel businesses. Alex Walsh, regional vice president of channels for EMEA North at Keepit, says the rapid advancement of AI and large language models (LLMs) has shifted the conversation. “With the different types of AI algorithms out there and the LLMs that are being developed by threat actors, it now means that while in the past you might get a week to identify and fix a potential gap in your security infrastructure, you’re now looking at hours. “That threat vector has become so small and security vendors are working hard with customers to help them protect themselves. But fundamentally, the threat has risen in terms of ransomware attacks, but also the intelligence of those threats. It’s no longer a case of if we will get attacked, it’s how many times you get attacked and how you recover from them. The most effective foundation for recovery is to have an immutable copy of data that’s a source of truth that you can rely on. “As we move forward into this era of AI and the requirements of the customers, is not just ensuring that, from the security vendor perspective, they’ve got the right technologies in place, but its having that last line of defence, when a company is attacked and systems go down, is the vendor independent, rather than relying on a hyperscaler? You need to make sure you’ve got a fully-fledged plan, which Keepit can provide because of our independence from hyperscalers, and because we provide immutability at rest in our data copies. That message is resonating with customers and partners currently. “Everybody talks about having multiple copies of data in offsite locations on
different media types, and that hasn’t changed. The difference is that Keepit keeps four copies of a customer's data — two in each of two independent data centres within a chosen region — protected by a logical air gap.” Alex notes that the advancements in AI mean that attackers do not have to be sophisticated or particularly knowledgeable to be able to launch attacks. “They’ve got bots and agentic AI, and some are simply attacking just for the fun of it and finding those vulnerabilities,” he says. “It means that having proper protection in place is really important for all businesses – it’s not just the big fintechs, the banks or the retail manufacturing houses, it is literally small businesses and village schools that are getting attacked and getting shut down. “That's why it’s really important to do the basics and to have those disaster recovery plans and strategies in place for when it does go wrong. You have to know which data sets are critical to your business continuity, so that you know what to prioritise if disaster strikes.”
Alex Walsh
keepit.com
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With the different types of AI algorithms out there and the LLMs that are being developed by threat actors, it now means that while in the past you might get a week to identify and fix a potential gap in your security infrastructure, you’re now looking at 12-24 hours.
As the UK Cyber Security and Resilience Bill comes into force,
organisations will need to ensure that all relevant applications are protected and that the backup copies they rely on for recovery are immutable, authentic and readily accessible. This will be essential to restoring operations quickly following an attack.” “Most threat actors will actively go for the backups. So as a data protection vendor, you have to make sure you’ve got immutability at rest, which Keepit can provide.” Digital sovereignty Another important aspect for Keepit is digital sovereignty as it supports nations, businesses and individuals independent control over their own software, data and digital infrastructure. Alex works with a team of regional partner managers
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