NetApp is announcing stronger encryption and identity-checked access controls at the RSA Conference.
The increasing accessibility of AI is enabling malware crooks to automate cyberattacks, and businesses are themselves using AI and ML to automate threat detection. NetApp suggests these crooks could also steal encrypted data today, hoping to decrypt it when quantum computing becomes widely available. Post-quantum cryptography can defeat that tactic.
NetApp claims it provides “the most secure storage on the planet,” but also points out that “no ransomware detection or prevention system can completely guarantee safety from a ransomware attack. Although it’s possible that an attack might go undetected, NetApp technology acts as an important additional layer of defense.” The incremental security updates it’s announcing today will, we’re told, strengthen these defenses.
Gagan Gulati, SVP and GM, Data Services at NetApp, stated: “With built-in security capabilities that secure our customers’ data on any workload, anywhere, NetApp has made storage as critical to a sound cybersecurity strategy as perimeter and endpoint security tools.
“Security teams need to factor storage into their security strategies because it is the last line of defense for their data and the right storage can play an active role in protecting the enterprise.”
NetApp has announced:
- Post-quantum cryptography embedded into its file and block storage product portfolio, using encryption algorithms standardized by NIST, preparing NetApp’s storage portfolio for the quantum era.
- BlueXP Ransomware Protection now includes ransomware-specific role-based access controls (RBAC), with granular permissions to combat ransomware threats, plus support for ransomware protection for native cloud workloads.
- The BlueXP Backup and Recovery service for ONTAP data has a redesigned user interface making it easier to integrate and define a 3-2-1 data protection strategy for workloads, including Microsoft SQL Server, VMware, and Kubernetes apps.
- NetApp is offering expanded professional security assessment and security hardening services to help customers evaluate and tighten their security posture by enabling the built-in security capabilities in NetApp.
BlueXP, NetApp’s SaaS-based storage control plane, has SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) integration to link with a customer’s overall security posture. Later this year, NetApp will expand the cyber resiliency protection of its ONTAP Autonomous Ransomware Protection with AI (ARP/AI) to include block storage workloads.
Learn more about the updates to NetApp’s cyber resiliency capabilities at booth #259 at the RSA Conference 2025, April 28-May 1, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Read more about post-quantum cryptography here.
Bootnote
RSA Security provides AI-powered Unified Identity Platform software to protect organizations against cyber threats. It is owned by private equity firm Symphony Technology Group (STG), which bought it from Dell Technologies in September 2020 for $2.1 billion. Dell acquired RSA when it bought EMC in 2016 for $67 billion. EMC acquired RSA for $2.1 billion in 2006. Though the conference originated under the company in the early ’90s, these days the two are only loosely connected.
