The 2026 IBM X-Force Threat Intelligence Index found a 44% increase in attacks targeting public-facing applications. For instance, artificial intelligence (AI) tools are helping attackers find and exploit weaknesses faster than ever. This has organizations turning to defenses such as immutable storage as a core part of their cyber resilience strategy.
The financial impact is staggering. According to the 2025 IBM Cost of a Data Breach report, the average total cost of a data breach in 2025 was USD 4.44 million.
While data can be at risk wherever it’s stored, the report found most breaches involved data distributed across multiple environments (for example, public clouds, private clouds and on-premises). In fact, data breaches involving multiple environments cost an average USD 5.05 million, while data breaches on premises cost an average USD 4.01 million.
Cyberattacks are also a direct threat to data integrity. Cybercriminals can manipulate, delete or steal sensitive information, leaving organizations exposed to data loss, regulatory fines and lasting reputational damage.
Additionally, immutable snapshots protect against vulnerabilities like human error. Even users with the required permissions can’t alter or delete protected data once a snapshot is taken.
Organizations also face pressure to manage data security budgets against growing compliance requirements and protect sensitive data across complex workloads including AI and mobile environments. For instance, industries like healthcare, finance and education have stringent data recovery compliance requirements.
The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), for example, requires financial institutions to test business recovery processes periodically and provide documented test results showing that service level agreements (SLAs) have been met. Immutable snapshots help meet these requirements and strengthen overall cyber resilience.
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