This report, published on September 7, 2022, was written by Max Mortillaro and Arjan Timmerman, independent industry analysts, GigaOm.
GigaOm Sonar Report for File-Based Primary Storage Ransomware Protectionv1.0
An Exploration of Cutting-Edge Solutions and Technologies
1. Summary
Ransomware is a specific type of malware that encrypts data assets on primary storage systems-including file shares, databases, disk partitions, data volumes, backup systems, and repositories-making them inaccessible unless the victim pays an extortion fee. It is highly optimized to spread across networks, organizations, and infrastructure systems through methods similar to trojan attacks. The ransomware payload is embedded in a file that looks legitimate and is triggered by an unsuspecting user opening the infected file. Usually, it will spread across the environment by taking advantage of user credentials, as well as documented and undocumented exploits, bypassing the limited access scope of a user. As such, ransomware protection is a transversal, cross-stack topic across organizations.