Cobalt Iron earns patent on cyber inspection tech
June 15, 2023
Cobalt Iron, a provider of SaaS-based enterprise data protection, has received a patent on its adaptive, policy-driven data cyber inspection technology. US patent 11663362, granted on May 30th, introduces new policy-based approaches for effectively validating data integrity using multiple cyber inspection tools. The technology will be available as part of the company’s Compass enterprise SaaS backup platform. In particular, two novel factors qualify this technology for a patent:
- It introduces policy-based control to cyber inspection that responds to various times or events in the life cycle of a data object.
- It includes policy-driven cyber inspection that leverages multiple cyber inspection tools and multiple cyber inspection levels:
- at different times or events in the life cycle of a data object
- for different types of data
- or for different types of cyber events
While cyber threats and attacks continue to accelerate, operational responses to these attacks remain reactive, disjointed, and manual. During cyber attacks, companies are typically panicked and scrambling to understand the scope of data damage and what they can do to validate the integrity of their data.
The newly patented capabilities will allow CIOs, security officers, and other data custodians to proactively monitor and validate data using whatever cyber inspection tools are most appropriate and effective for given data or cyber threats. They also allow businesses to establish cyber inspection security policies that ensure their data is being monitored and validated consistently across the enterprise — as opposed to the manual, reactive, haphazard approaches employed today. These cyber inspection security policies provide data security consistency and can prove data custody discipline to the business.
The techniques disclosed in this patent are:
- Monitor for various times and events in the life cycle of data objects, such as creation, modification, backup, recovery, security audit, and cyber attack.
- Apply an inspection-class policy to determine what cyber inspection and level of inspection to perform on a data object upon occurrence of a specific time or event.
- Perform an inspection-class operation and a level of cyber inspection on the data object.
- Restore a copy of a data object within a security zone upon occurrence of a specific time or event involving the data object.
- Perform a data protection operation on a data object upon occurrence of a specific time or event involving the data object.
For example, these techniques could detect indications of a cyber attack and perform specific types and levels of virus-scanning against specific data objects or types of data. They might also perform specific types and levels of cyber scans for specific types of attacks.
In another example, this patent allows businesses to establish cyber security policies for using different data-inspection tools — such as virus or malware scans — for different data objects or data types or for different types of attacks. In this manner, Compass will automatically use the most current, best-of-breed inspection tools in the most effective way for given data and for a given event, all directed by consistent policy.
“In the data protection landscape, using the optimal inspection techniques responsive to particular events is critical to today’s enterprises. A single vendor and simple policy miss the mark,” said Richard Spurlock, founder and CEO, Cobalt Iron. “With this patent, Cobalt Iron positions companies to leverage best-in-class inspection tools proactively, with policy-driven optimisation and governance.”