Today, more than ever, cybersecurity threats like ransomware attacks pose an increasing risk for organisations, especially when critical assets are being increasingly digitised. These threats are not limited to organisations, since data is key to any enterprise, public or private, and is equally vulnerable. This makes having adequate security infrastructure imperative.
The indianexpress.com sat with Arvind Nithrakashayap, Co-founder and CTO, Rubrik, a US-based cloud data management and data security company, to discuss the ever-changing landscape of cyber resilience. “Given the extensive digitisation in India, where digital and cashless transactions have become commonplace, ensuring that all activities are securely handled with the right frameworks is crucial,” said Nithrakashyap.
According to Nithrakashyap, Rubrik, which recently went public, aims to provide organisations with strong data protection and insights to stay resilient against cyber attacks. During the conversation, he shared insights into the company’s vision, technology differentiation, its India focus, and future priorities.
Talking about the inception of Rubrik, he said it was founded on the realisation that while companies heavily invested in their infrastructure security, an equally important aspect — data security — was usually overlooked. “Our thesis was that while infrastructure security is important, nobody was looking at the data aspect,” he explained.
Nithrakashyap said an attacker breaching infrastructure defences could wreak havoc by deleting, encrypting or exfiltrating data.
Rising tide of cybercrime
The rise in cybercrime incidents over the past decade has triggered widespread concern among business leaders and IT decision-makers. According to industry reports, the global cybercrime cost is projected to reach $10.5 trillion annually by 2025, emphasising the pressing need for organisations to fortify their cyber defences. And, at the core of this lies the vulnerability of enterprise data, which is considered to be the lifeblood of modern businesses.
Malicious actors have recognised the immense value of data, encouraging them to come up with sophisticated methods to breach infrastructure defences, exploit security gaps, and compromise sensitive information.
Organisations such as Rubrik extend beyond traditional backup and recovery methods by capturing comprehensive data and metadata insights. “When you get hit by ransomware, your backup is one of the key ways to get your business back up and running,” noted Nithrakashyap.
The architectural edge
Rubrik’s differentiated technology architecture allows it to not just capture data but also deep metadata context and the applications involved, be it virtual machine database, cloud, app, etc. “Because we have all this metadata, we’re able to build a data threat engine that provides insights like detecting anomalies that could indicate a ransomware attack,” Nithrakashyap said.
This ability to reason about data assets in context allows Rubrik to layer Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning-driven security services on top of its data management platform. “We built a zero-trust platform where nobody can access data without authenticated access and multi-factor authentication,” he added.
Indian cybersecurity imperative
When it comes to India, the urgency to enhance data security seems to have been amplified following the nation’s rapid digitisation across sectors. Today, government initiatives drive digital transformation and businesses are increasingly adopting these technologies to enhance their operations and customer experience. However, Nithrakashyap feels this digital proliferation has also expanded the attack surface for cybercriminals
Based on Rubrik’s recent Data Security Report, as many as 49 per cent of Indian IT leaders feel that security is a missing component in their organisation’s data policy. The same report also suggested that 30 per cent of respondents saw their organisation as at high risk of material loss of sensitive data in the next 12 months. “Given India’s rapid digitisation across industries, it’s becoming more critical to handle customer data and digital assets securely,” the CTO noted.
Nithrakashyap said India has been a key focus in Rubrik’s journey. “We made an early decision to invest in India, as we could access a large talent pool and build an innovation centre here.”
Rubrik’s R&D facility in Bengaluru, now the company’s largest site globally, has been key in portfolio expansion into areas like cloud data management.
AI-powered cyber defence
Nithrakashyap said looking ahead, data security will continue to remain Rubrik’s core focus area. “Most organisations feel they are not well-positioned for data security. We want to provide peace of mind and resilience against cyber attacks,” he said.
At present, the company is doubling down on harnessing AI and Machine Learning capabilities to simplify customers’ security experiences. Its newly launched Rubrik Security Cloud solution uses generative AI to function as an intelligent security companion — automating threat detection, analysis, etc.
As Rubrik continues to expand its global footprint, India will remain a key innovation hub and market for cyber resilience solutions. The company is bullish on partnering with the rapidly growing Indian digital economy ecosystem.
“India has amazing entrepreneurial energy and technical talent. We’ll see more founders and global products emerging from the region,” said Nithrakashyap
Courtesy :Bijin Jose, an Assistant Editor at Indian Express Online in New Delhi
