Veeam Software has announced the New Veeam Data Platform 23H2 update, including the New Veeam Backup & Replication v12.1 release, with more advanced data security, malware detection, automated recovery, and hybrid cloud capabilities to keep businesses running even in the face of increasing ransomware and cyberattacks.

“Cybercriminals are getting smarter and are specifically targeting backups,” says Danny Allan, chief technology officer at Veeam. “The Veeam 2023 Ransomware Trends report shows that 93% of ransomware attacks target backups – with 75% of those attacks being at least partially successful. Threat actors are targeting backups because organizations are more likely to pay the ransom if hackers are successful in deleting or encrypting backup data.

“IT and cybersecurity experts alike know that a critical component of a cyber-resiliency strategy must be a trusted, clean backup that you can access at any time, from anywhere. Our new Veeam Data Platform 23H2 Update enables radical resilience – to not just bounce back from an outage or data loss, but to bounce forward. By providing the shortest gap between incident and recovery, our customers can keep their business running, growing and moving ahead.”

Veeam Data Platform 23H2 updates include new security and ransomware protection functionalities for Veeam Backup & Replication, Veeam ONE and Veeam Recovery Orchestrator.

The new release delivers more advanced data security, malware detection, automated recovery, and hybrid cloud capabilities across the entire hybrid-cloud environment.

Veeam Backup & Replication v12.1, the foundation of the Veeam Data Platform, now further reduces incident response time with proactive threat hunting for backups, integration SIEM platforms, YARA rules for ransomware pattern detection and guides to help customers implement NIST cybersecurity best practices. Organisations of all sizes can now achieve the radical resilience that can only come from complete confidence in protection, response and recovery.

Many of the new cyber security features and enhancements in the Veeam Data Platform 23H2 Update are designed to help organisations prepare and plan for security incidents by uniting IT and security teams with the technology to confront, contain and conquer ransomware. These new cyber security features and enhancements include:

* Detect and identify cyberthreats: AI-powered and built-in Malware Detection performs low-impact inline entropy and file extension analysis during backup for immediate detection. Let your SIEM tool report infections directly into Veeam Incident API, which marks existing restore points as infected or triggers out-of-band backups in response.

* Respond and recover faster from ransomware: Perform point-in-time recovery to the moment before infection with I/O Anomaly Visualizer, which ensures the lowest possible data loss thanks to Veeam’s continuous data protection (CDP). Avoid reinfection with YARA content analysis and automate clean recovery by using malware-free restore points.

* Secure and compliant protection for data: Highlight threats, identify risks and measure the security score of your environment in the new Veeam Threat Center; Ensure recovery success with automated scans with the Security & Compliance Analyzer; Prevent accidental or malicious deletion or encryption of backups by employing expanded immutability support. This includes “four-eyes” backup protection, and immutable backups.

New Veeam Cyber Secure Program

The New Veeam Cyber Secure Program combines Veeam’s purpose-built technology with a team of experts to help customers protect and recover from ransomware.

Available in early 2024, the program gives customers peace of mind that Veeam is implemented to the highest security standards and the assurance that they’re ready for a cyber incident.

The Cyber Secure Program includes incident recovery services like advanced onboarding, design and implementation assistance, and quarterly health checks. During a cyber incident, customers have access to a dedicated Support Account Manager and Ransomware ResponseTeam with 30-minute service level agreements (SLAs).

Also included in the Veeam Cyber Secure Program is the Veeam Ransomware Recovery Warranty that covers up to $5-million in data recovery expense reimbursement.