Cobalt Iron nabs EU patents for security techniques

Data protection company Cobalt Iron has secured a European patent for its cyber event responsiveness technology. The new patent, granted by the European Patent Office, covers a technique formally known as dynamic IT infrastructure optimisation responsive to cyber threats.

The patent describes techniques designed to improve monitoring, detection, impact analysis and automated reconfiguration of IT infrastructure and operations when cyber threats arise. The functions will be integrated into the Cobalt Iron Compass enterprise SaaS backup platform.

The newly patented techniques include unique cyber threat analytics and automated optimisations that will be designed to commence operation in response to certain cyber events. Once fully integrated, the Compass platform will be able to determine the interdependencies between various hardware devices and directories, files, databases and data, while continually monitoring metrics, events and conditions for indications of a cyber attack in the network.

The new capabilities will also include the ability to automatically create an audit report of impacted hardware devices and data, and automatically initiate remediation operations for impacted or vulnerable devices and data.

Cobalt Iron Senior Systems Engineer James Kost said the platform will be able to, for example, perform impact analysis following an attack to identify hardware devices and data impacted by the attack. The platform could then take remediation actions such as restricting access to the identified devices and data to limit further damage.

“Detecting cyber attacks, determining the scope of impact and taking proper remediation actions are all critical aspects of a cybersecurity game plan,” Kost said. “This patent introduces cyber event analytics that provide insights into an attack. It also introduces automated remediation operations to limit the impact of an attack and further secure data.

“Cobalt Iron is focused on protecting and securing business data, so we continue to innovate in the areas of ransomware analytics and automated IT infrastructure optimisations.”

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