The modern, tech-dependent businesses of today may not run entirely on Windows – but nearly every organization relies on it somewhere. Whether through business applications, identity management, or the countless tools that keep operations moving, Windows remains a critical touchpoint across industries.
This widespread adoption brings with it a unique challenge: It makes Windows solutions the natural target for cyberattackers. The more common the technology, the more determined adversaries are to find vulnerabilities. Especially in an era where cyberattacks are growing in complexity and sophistication, this poses a monumental threat to digital businesses.
In an earlier blog, we explored the need to move from reactive to proactive defense. We know that visibility and speed are integral in recovery outcomes. Now, with Threatwise v8.2, we are taking the next step.
By introducing preconfigured threat sensors for Windows Server 2022 and 2025, this release builds on the foundation we have laid. It helps you restore faster by easily understanding the blast radius and gives IT teams a stronger early warning system to keep attacks from spreading.
Deception Technology: What Is It, and Why Does It Matter?
Commvault Threatwise leverages cyber deception technology to help redirect attacks and uncover threats. Deception technology plants digital lookalikes across your environment. These decoys mirror true company assets and network activity, yet they serve a very different purpose: to lure attackers into revealing themselves.
Threatwise extends this approach with decoys that are quick to deploy and simple to scale. These lookalikes trick criminals into believing they have gained access to an enterprise’s most critical systems, when in reality, they have pulled the virtual fire alarm.
While invisible to everyday users, the moment a bad actor interacts with a sensor, security teams receive a high-fidelity signal of compromise. Such early alerts help defenders prepare a response before damage escalates.
With v8.2, organizations gain access to preconfigured sensor templates for the latest Windows Server editions. This allows you to help protect your system with faster setups, broader coverage, and greater resilience.
Minimizing the Blast Radius
Every cyberattack carries a blast radius. When it comes to cybersecurity, the blast radius refers to the potential spread and impact of a single security breach or system failure.
For backup administrators, the blast radius translates into the scale of data corruption, downtime, and recovery complexity. The larger the impact, the longer and more expensive the recovery. What’s more, beyond the operational disruption and economic losses, these attacks also can damage company reputation and trust, potentially undoing years of dedicated service.
In our proactive detection series, we discussed how reducing the blast radius requires early detection, rapid isolation, and clean recovery environments. Deception technology aligns with this model. Triggering alerts early in the attack lifecycle can help defenders contain an attack before it cascades across production systems. This early visibility can give responders the needed head start, providing valuable time to preserve clean data and maintain operational continuity.
Overcoming Adversities: Why Backup Administrators Need Threatwise
In our highly competitive business ecosystem where speed is non-negotiable, backup administrators face a unique set of challenges. Recovery windows are shrinking, applications with exponentially larger data sets, and more and more complex infrastructure, often spanning across hybrid or multi-cloud environments.
In this environment, Commvault’s deception technology can help data administrators thrive in the face of adversity in several ways:
- The How: Preconfigured decoys mimic application hosts, allowing admins to quickly create lookalikes and multiply them across blanked instances. With Threatwise v8.2, sensor templates for Windows Server 2022 and 2025 deliver coverage for the latest systems.
- The What: Based on organizational SLAs, Threatwise can highlight which systems to prioritize and help to keep critical company crown jewels safeguarded.
- The Why: Early high-fidelity signals can reduce uncertainty during an incident with critical threat insights. Backup admins can pinpoint infected applications that require restoration. Further, they can effectively prepare cleanroom environments to validate restore data and processes.
These capabilities help give admins clarity and confidence, even in the high-pressure moments of a recovery emergency.
Stronger Together: IT and Security Collaboration and Synergy
Threatwise gives businesses the tools to help protect their assets against modern cyber threats and ransomware. However, detection is only as effective as the response that follows.
Threatwise, as part of Commvault Cloud, integrates with leading SIEM and SOC solutions, allowing alerts to flow across IT and security operations. This collaboration helps enable faster coordination, cross-functional communication, shared organizational awareness, and a unified incidence response plan.
Furthermore, the true opportunity lies in how backup operations can shape the broader security strategy by embracing the role of the innovator. By taking on this role and aligning with the security team, backup admins help move the needle from reactive defense toward proactive resilience. Routine testing of response runbooks and recovery initiatives reinforces this synergy and builds confidence regarding the power of a proactive approach.
What This Means for the Future of Cyber Resilience
Threatwise v8.2 helps make deception technology simpler to deploy and more effective against ever-evolving threats. By extending coverage to the latest Windows Server editions, it helps organizations stay a step ahead of attackers who seek to exploit vulnerabilities of the most widely used enterprise systems.
Early warning signals are not a luxury for a cyber resilient organization; they are vital for building business continuity by creating rapid recovery options. With deception in place, powered by Threatwise, organizations can face tomorrow’s threats with confidence.
Learn more about Threatwise here.
