Dell EMC released Cyber Recovery software to recover data in the event of a cyberattack. The new software manages and automates isolation and recovery of critical data backups to protect against ransomware and other security breaches.

This isolation is key because it removes the data from the attack surface, said Alex Almeida, consultant, product marketing at Dell EMC.

Customers frequently ask why they can’t use their regular backups to recover data. “Those backup systems by design attach to your corporate networks,” he explained. “For hackers, that backup infrastructure is also a target and often becomes the first target the bad actors go after. That’s where the isolation component come in.”

The new software automates the retention of isolated copies within a Cyber Recovery Vault. This makes it easier and faster to recover data in case of an attack. Additionally, the CR Vault allows customers to perform security analytics on the retained data without having to perform a restore, which can potentially activate malware that may be present.

Cyber Recovery can also integrate with other security analytics software via a REST API automation framework. And it integrates with Dell EMC’s Data Domain protection storage hardware.

The new product also shows how the line between traditional backup and recovery and data security is becoming fuzzy.

“This is something we’re seeing where the lines are being blurred,” Almeida said. Customer want to implement a security framework along the lines of NIST — a voluntary framework consisting of standards and best-practices to manage cybersecurity-related risk. “When you look at that, there are various aspects of it that are mostly data security plays, that, from a Dell Technologies standpoint, our experts in RSA and SecureWorks handle,” Almeida said. “However, there’s a very important factor in terms of the recovery aspect: how can I bring my data back should my perimeter defense fail? And that’s where this comes in.”

Dell EMC, along with security firms RSA and SecureWorks, are some of Dell Technologies’ brands.

Dell EMC’s (gentle) push into the security sector is similar to what data management startup Rubrik is doing with its new Radar application. It aims to eliminate data loss and downtime from ransomware attacks. But unlike traditional security platforms that target this type of malware from a threat prevention vantage point, Rubrik comes at it from a backup perspective.