Introducing Elastio’s Quarantine Workflow for AWS Logically Air-Gapped Vaults

3 Key Takeaways

1. Immutability != Integrity Locking unverified data creates a "restoration loop" where ransomware is preserved alongside your critical assets.
2. The "Verify-Then-Vault" Gatekeeper Elastio sits upstream of your AWS LAG Vault, inspecting every recovery point. Only verified clean data is allowed to enter your gold-standard archive, ensuring it remains uncompromised.
3. Automated Quarantine Infected snapshots are instantly routed to a secure Quarantine Vault for forensic analysis, isolating threats without contaminating your clean recovery environment or slowing down response teams.

The Immutability Blind Spot

AWS Logically Air-Gapped (LAG) Vaults are a massive leap forward for cloud recovery assurance. They provide the isolation and immutability enterprises need to survive catastrophic cyber events.

But immutability has a dangerous blind spot: it doesn’t distinguish between clean data and corrupted data.

If ransomware encrypts your production environment and those changes replicate to your backup snapshots before they are moved to the vault, you are simply locking the malware into your gold-standard recovery archive. You aren’t preserving your business; you’re preserving the attack.

Today, Elastio has closed that gap. We introduced a new integration with AWS LAG that ensures only provably clean recovery points enter your immutable vault. By combining our deep-file inspection with a new Automated Quarantine Workflow, we prevent infected data from polluting your recovery environment.

The Risk: "Immutable Garbage In, Immutable Garbage Out"

The core principle of modern resilience is simple: Immutable storage isn't enough—data integrity must be proven.

Ransomware attackers are evolving. They no longer just encrypt production data; they target backup catalogs and leverage "slow burn" encryption strategies to corrupt snapshots over weeks or months. Standard signature-based detection tools often miss these storage-layer attacks because they are looking for executable files, not the mathematical signs of entropy and corruption within the data blocks themselves.

If you copy an infected recovery point into an AWS LAG Vault and lock it with a compliance retention policy, you create a restoration loop: every time you attempt to recover, you re-infect the environment.

The Elastio Solution: Verify, Then Vault

Elastio has updated its recovery assurance platform to act as that gatekeeper. We utilize machine learning-powered ransomware encryption detection models designed specifically to catch advanced strains, including slow encryption, striped encryption, and obfuscated patterns.

Here is the new workflow for AWS LAG customers:

1. Ingest & Inspection: As workload backups or snapshots are generated, Elastio automatically inspects the data for signs of ransomware encryption and corruption.
2. The Decision Engine: Based on the inspection results, the workflow forks immediately:
3. • Path A: The Clean Path. If the data is verified as clean, it is routed to the customer’s Immutable LAG Vault. Once there, it undergoes automated recovery testing on a set schedule to prove recoverability.
   • Path B: The Infection Path. If data is flagged as infected, it is blocked from entering the clean LAG vault. Instead, the compromised snapshot is automatically routed to a Quarantine Vault, which can itself be configured as a separate Logically Air-Gapped Vault.

Optionally, Elastio can trigger the deletion of the local copy immediately after the move to either the clean or quarantine vault is complete, eliminating the need to maintain local retention.

This "fork-in-the-road" architecture ensures your primary vault remains pristine for recovery, while compromised snapshots are securely isolated for forensic analysis.

Why This Matters for the Enterprise

For CISOs, Cloud Architects, and Governance teams, this workflow shifts the posture from "hopeful" to "provable."

• Audit-Ready Compliance: Whether you are dealing with NYDFS, HIPAA, or cyber insurance requirements, you can now prove that your immutable archives are free of compromise.
• Reduced Incident Response Time: By automatically segregating infected data, IR teams don't have to waste time shifting through thousands of snapshots to find a clean version. Elastio points you directly to the last clean copy and the first infected copy.
• Cost Control: You stop paying for premium, immutable storage on data that is useless for recovery.

Real-World Value

Elastio delivers outcome-driven security. With this update, we provide:

• Provable Recovery: You don’t just think your backups will work; you have a verified, clean report to prove it.
• Ransomware Impact Detection: Identify the exact moment of infection to minimize data loss (RPO).
• Integrity Assurance: Validate that no tampering has occurred within the data before it becomes immutable.

Take Control of Your Recovery

Don't let your backup vault become a ransomware repository. Ensure that every recovery point stored in AWS LAG is verified, validated, and clean.

NOTE: Augmenting AWS Direct-to-LAG with Integrity Validation

While the new AWS Backup Direct to Logically Air-Gapped Vault capability simplifies compliance for frameworks like DORA and NIST, it is important to note that this feature currently supports only Amazon S3 and Amazon EFS. Furthermore, the native workflow focuses solely on transport efficiency and access control; it does not inspect the payload itself.

To ensure data validity, best practice dictates using Elastio to scan S3 and EFS directly, leveraging its built-in support for integrity validation. This data integrity scan should be scheduled to occur before the Direct-to-LAG backup is initiated.