Harbor’s Guide: SIREs vs. Clean Rooms

Over the past few weeks, we been having more and more conversations with our customers around some key themes and, in the coming weeks, we plan share our knowledge and experience on these themes on a weekly basis throughout the remainder of July. There are three topics that have come up in recent weeks which are; protecting Entra ID, Zerto vs Rubrik and the comparison between clean rooms and Secure Isolated Recovery Environments (SIREs). With that we aim to provide valuable insights and address any questions our customers may have.

Understanding the Differences

Let’s dive into this week’s topic then, Clean rooms vs SIREs. In the realm of data protection and cybersecurity, terms like SIREs and “clean rooms” can be confusing; while both are crucial for safeguarding data, they serve different purposes. Our goal is to clarify what each entails, explain why it’s important not to confuse them, and ensure we provide valuable insights and address any questions or concerns our customers may have on these important topics.

What is a SIRE?

A Secure Isolated Recovery Environment is designed to protect backup and recovery systems from advanced ransomware attacks. It offers a highly controlled and completely independent environment from your production systems.

Think of a SIRE as your data’s superhero when it comes to recovering from cyber-attacks, especially ransomware. Here’s how it works:

• Secure and Air-Gapped: A SIRE creates a totally separate, air-gapped environment from your everyday IT systems. This means that if your main systems are compromised, your backup environment remains safe and untouched.
• Immutable Storage: It uses storage that’s immutable, which means once your data is backed up, it can’t be altered or deleted. This is a game-changer in protecting your backups from ransomware attacks that might try to encrypt or destroy your data.
• Quick and Safe Recovery: With a SIRE, you can quickly check and test your backup data to ensure it’s clean and ready for recovery. This helps you restore your essential systems and data swiftly without the risk of malware sneaking back in.

Gartner developed the SIRE framework, which consists of the three components mentioned above, after recognising that traditional data protection methods weren’t enough to combat sophisticated ransomware attacks and other advanced threats.

The framework was created to address these challenges by providing a dedicated, isolated environment that ensures data integrity and security during recovery operations, enabling organisations to recover quickly and effectively from cyber incidents.

The Reality About “Clean Rooms”

You might have heard the term “clean room” thrown around in various contexts, but it’s important to understand what it really means. Here are the common misconceptions and the reality:

Common Misconceptions:

1. Data Cleansing Space:
   • Some people think a “clean room” is just a place where data gets checked and cleaned. While that’s part of data management, it doesn’t capture the full picture of what a true clean room is.
2. General Secure Area:
   • Others might use “clean room” to describe any secure workspace. But a genuine clean room has specific characteristics that make it more than just a secure area.

Reality

A true clean room in IT is a highly controlled environment designed to maintain strict security and privacy standards for data handling. Here’s what sets it apart:

• Controlled Environment: The room maintains precise conditions like temperature and humidity to protect your sensitive data and hardware.
• Top-Notch Security: It features advanced physical security measures, including biometric access and surveillance, to keep your data safe.
• Data Privacy: Ensures compliance with strict privacy regulations and provides a secure space for managing sensitive data and complex projects.

How SIREs and Clean Rooms Differ

Here’s a quick rundown of how SIREs and clean rooms stack up:

1. Purpose:
   • SIREs: Focused on secure recovery from cyber incidents. It’s all about isolating your recovery environment to prevent malware from affecting your backups.
   • Clean Rooms: Designed for maintaining high levels of data privacy and security during handling and processing. Great for compliance and sensitive data work.
2. Isolation:
   • SIREs: Provides complete separation from your main IT environment to ensure a safe recovery process.
   • Clean Rooms: Ensures a controlled setting to prevent contamination and protect data privacy.
3. Use Cases:
   • SIREs: Ideal for disaster recovery after a cyber-attack, particularly ransomware.
   • Clean Rooms: Best for sensitive data analysis and regulatory compliance projects.

Why It Matters

Understanding the difference between a clean room and a SIRE is crucial. A clean room isn’t designed to offer the isolated, secure recovery capabilities that SIRE provides. Mixing these concepts up could leave you vulnerable in a crisis. At Harbor, we’re here to help you choose and implement the right solution for your specific needs, ensuring your data is both protected, ready and recoverable.

We’re Here to Help

Whether you need to set up a SIRE for comprehensive disaster recovery or establish a clean room for handling sensitive data, we’re here to provide expert advice and help you ensure your data stays safe and secure. Feel free to reach out to us with any questions or for more information on how we can support your data protection needs.

Stay tuned for our upcoming insights and updates! We have an exciting line-up of topics and valuable information that you won’t want to miss. Keep an eye out for our weekly posts to stay informed. Make sure to keep an eye out for upcoming events we have in store.

The Harbor Team