A Multi-Layered Approach to Cyber Resilience

Ransomware attacks have become inevitable in today’s threat landscape, emerging as a major concern for all businesses. In fact, ransomware incidents have surged dramatically in the first half of 2025, resulting in a 49% increase compared to the same period in 2024.

Now, as organizations face even more sophisticated threats designed to encrypt data, paralyze operations, and exploit recovery processes, these numbers show no signs of slowing down.

The stakes are rising, and it’s increasingly evident that when disaster strikes, simply having backup isn’t enough. Organizations can’t adopt a reactive security posture and hope to function successfully. You need immutable data, intelligent detection of threats, clean recovery and testing of recovery plans, and 24/7 protection.

Commvault delivers a deeply integrated, multi-layered ransomware defense framework that prioritizes security, speed, and confidence. By combining state-of-the-art threat detection, isolation, and recovery mechanisms with partner intelligence, Commvault helps enable cyber resilience. 

This article explores four components of Commvault’s ransomware defense strategy: data immutability, real-time threat scanning, validated recovery, and intelligent recovery automation. Together, these capabilities form a complete and dependable response to one of the most persistent challenges plaguing modern IT teams.

Data Immutability: The First Line of Defense

Data immutability is integral to any successful ransomware defense strategy. In a world where ransomware increasingly targets not just production systems but backup infrastructure itself, immutability is a critical safeguard. Commvault leverages data immutability with an array of capabilities designed to help keep your data tamper-proof. This is achieved through immutable storage, layered access controls, and enforced authorization protocols.

Here’s a closer look at Commvault’s data immutability capabilities:

• Immutable storage: Commvault implements a multi-layered approach to immutability. It combines its own software-level controls with hardware-enforced and cloud-based WORM (write-once, read-many) technologies. Retention Lock (formerly WORM Copy) prevents premature deletion or aging of backups, even by administrators, and protects against actions like removing storage policies or deleting storage libraries. This is a significant form of defense against rogue administrators or malicious attackers.
  
  Similarly, for hardware-enforced immutability, Commvault integrates with storage platforms that support the industry-standard S3 Object Lock API. S3 Object Lock operates in two primary modes: governance and compliance. While governance mode helps protect against accidental deletions and retains administrative flexibility, it is primarily suited for internal controls. The stricter compliance mode, on the other hand, enforces unbreakable retention periods and is designed to meet stringent regulatory requirements such as SEC Rule 17a-4, FINRA, and HIPAA 12.
  
  When Commvault writes backup data to an Object Lock–enabled target, such as an AWS S3 bucket or Zadara object store, it sets the Object-Lock-Retain-Until-Date metadata timestamp. Any API call to modify or delete the object before that date is rejected by the storage system, regardless of user permissions. Commvault also adds a default 7-day grace period to the WORM lock retention period configured in the software.
  
  Finally, on HyperScale X, Commvault’s scale-out integrated appliance, Commvault delivers immutability end-to-end using Retention Lock, a hardened OS, and an immutable file system. This integrated stack is certified for SEC 17a compliance, making it a powerful all-in-one solution for immutable storage.
  
• Air Gap Protect: Air-gapped protection is delivered through a Commvault-managed, logically isolated backup environment that encrypts data, separates it from the production network, and eliminates egress charges. This feature is enabled for Commvault SaaS customers by default, helping keep data inaccessible even if production systems become compromised.
  
• Zero-trust enforcement: Commvault applies strict zero trust principles to backup infrastructure through role-based access control, multi-factor authentication, and privileged access management. These layers limit exposure and enforce least-privilege access, reducing the impact of compromised credentials.
  
• Multi-Person Authorization: To prevent malicious or accidental changes to protection policies, Commvault enforces quorum-based approvals for sensitive operations. This helps prevent a single administrator from disabling or deleting protected data without oversight.

Real-Time Threat Intelligence: Proactive Detection and Containment

Commvault’s Threat Scan suite is a cornerstone of its ransomware defense. Malicious files and programs can make their way into backups and stay hidden, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. So, Commvault’s real-time threat intelligence is designed to identify threats at every stage: during backup, after backup, and before restore. 

Commvault is also the only cyber resilience vendor with built-in deception capabilities such as Threatwise sensors and canary files. These tools can trigger alerts while a threat actor is performing reconnaissance and before ransomware even reaches backup data.

Real-time threat detection is brought to life with these powerful features:

• Inline, pre-, and post-backup scanning: While Threat Scan is a post-backup activity, Commvault actively monitors for ransomware indicators during inline and pre-backup stages. This includes looking for changes in attributes such as MIME type, backup size, and specific extension growth that mirror ransomware activity.
  
  With this comprehensive approach, whether data is in transit, newly stored, or being restored, it is continuously inspected for hidden or dormant threats. This allows early detection and helps eliminate blind spots.
  
• Signature-based and AI/ML detection: Commvault leverages Avira’s anti-malware SDK, a trusted OEM engine used widely across the industry, to massively enhance its defensive capabilities. This engine includes several detection layers that combine to provide a comprehensive security approach.
  
  Signature-based scanning compares file hashes against Avira’s vast malware signature database. Updates occur every 24 hours to keep the engine current with emerging threats. This database is automatically updated every 24 hours via a secure connection to Avira’s update servers, providing protection against the latest cataloged threats.
  
  Similarly, for malware that is not yet in the signature database, the Avira engine uses heuristics to analyze the code structure, behavior, and characteristics of a file. This allows it to identify variants of known malware families and other suspicious code, even without an exact signature match.
  
  Finally, Machine Learning (MicroVision™), Avira’s local ML model, evaluates a broad set of code attributes and anomalies to identify previously unseen threats. It is especially effective against zero-day malware that lacks a known signature but shows signs of malicious behavior.
  
• Entropy and MIME Mismatch Analysis: Commvault uses encryption detection models, consisting of multiple statistical features, to identify encrypted or disguised files. One such feature is entropy, which measures the level of randomness in data at the binary level. High entropy can indicate ransomware encryption, but it is just one of several properties used in Commvault’s encryption detection model.
  
  In parallel, MIME mismatch detection flags files where the content does not match the expected file type, such as a script disguised as a PDF. These techniques help uncover dormant threats that might otherwise go unnoticed.
  
• Anomaly detection: Commvault continuously monitors for behavioral deviations. Unusual spikes in backup volume or changes in data patterns are treated as warning signs. Once these anomalies are encountered, they can be promptly investigated, helping lead to early containment.
  
• Partner signal integration: Commvault enhances its detection capabilities by integrating with external security partners. For example, when CrowdStrike detects malware on an endpoint, Commvault-protected clients can view Indicators of Compromise (IOC) insights within the Threat Indicators dashboard to drive actions, such as threat scanning or data recovery.

Comprehensive Recovery: Isolated, Validated, and Automated

As ransomware grows in complexity and speed, clean recovery is imperative. With ransomware, restoring the wrong version can cause re-infection, operational downtime, or compliance failures. And it can be detrimental to company trust, confidence, and long-term success. Commvault addresses these risks with a set of validated recovery options that not only help restore clean data but also help verify its safety before it ever touches production systems.

Commvault’s Cleanroom Recovery creates a secure, isolated recovery environment for testing and validating backup data before reintroduction. This setup is ideal for running malware scans without risking spread to production. What’s more, cleanrooms are provisioned on-demand in the cloud, avoiding the need for dedicated infrastructure.

Within the cleanroom, Commvault supports a wide range of workloads, including virtual machines, file systems, and Active Directory. This flexibility allows teams to simulate live environments and fully verify operational readiness.

Cleanroom Recovery encompasses a plethora of unique features and capabilities that help bolster Commvault’s ransomware defense:

• Automated recovery workflows: Commvault automates the entire recovery lifecycle, from identifying clean points to final workload restoration. These workflows help reduce manual effort, provide consistency, and help teams meet aggressive recovery objectives.
  
• Synthetic recovery: Synthetic recovery lets Commvault rebuild a new full backup by combining a previous full backup with a chain of incremental backups. It automatically excludes files flagged during threat scans, allowing organizations to recover clean data without needing to re-run time-consuming full backups.
  
• Pave and Repave: For systems compromised at the OS level, Commvault supports pave and repave capabilities. This approach restores machines using clean operating system images, then overlays customer data from backup. It results in a fully rebuilt system free from OS-level malware or tampering.
  
• Bad file indexing: During scanning, Commvault marks any infected or suspicious file versions as “bad.” These tags are automatically referenced during recovery, enabling the platform to select clean restore points without manual review.

Auto Recovery and Operational Intelligence: Fast, Orchestrated, and Scalable

Recovering clean may be the most essential aspect, but recovering fast is also a priority. Commvault’s auto recovery capabilities allow organizations to restore systems at scale with speed, confidence, and minimal manual effort. These capabilities combine intelligent orchestration, integrated scanning, and real-time visibility to drive recovery resilience.

Here’s a deeper analysis of Commvault’s automated operational intelligence solutions:

• Auto recovery orchestration: Commvault automatically detects the most recent clean recovery point and initiates restore workflows based on pre-defined policies. These orchestrated processes eliminate guesswork and help reduce the time it takes to bring systems back online after an attack. The full Commvault auto recovery process involves intricate steps detailed here. 

• Threat Scan integration: Recovered workloads are scanned as part of the recovery workflow before they return to production. This process enhances the confidence of restored data by helping keep it free from hidden malware or residual threats.
  
• Recovery validation reports: Every recovery operation produces a detailed report that outlines scan outcomes, flagged anomalies, and any corrective actions taken. These reports give security teams invaluable visibility into what was recovered and why.
  
• Security IQ dashboard: The Security IQ dashboard provides real-time insight into ransomware risk, data exposure, and overall recovery readiness. It helps administrators identify critical weak spots, track improvements, and act on changes as needed.

Ransomware Resilience When It Matters Most

Commvault’s ransomware defense architecture is an intelligent, multi-layered ecosystem. From the moment data is backed up to the second it’s restored, every layer is protected, validated, and recoverable. With a comprehensive design that encompasses every aspect of ransomware defense, Commvault gives your businesses confidence, trust, and resilience.