Veeam Boosts Ransomware Protection with Coveware Acquisition

Veeam Software has acquired Coveware, a specialist in cyber-extortion incident response.

Veeam said Coveware’s ransomware recovery and first responder capabilities will help the vendor provide full ransomware protection, response and recovery. Coveware’s software and services cover forensic triage, extortion negotiation and remediation, cryptocurrency settlements and decryption services.

“It’s no longer a question of when your organization is attacked, but how often,” said Anand Eswaran, CEO, Veeam. “Seventy-six percent of organizations have been attacked over the past 12 months, and addressing that cyber threat is critical for every enterprise."

Eswaran said Veeam’s ransomware protection now provides enterprise customers with “proactive threat intelligence that helps identify any security gaps with forensic triage and decryption.”

IDC's Phil Goodwin

“Many organizations with data backups still decide to pay the ransom,” said Phil Goodwin, research VP at IDC. “Our research shows this is often because the backup did not include necessary system images for recovery. In cases where the ransom was paid because ‘the data backups were incomplete,’ 58% of respondents said backup system failures contributed to the problem.

“Veeam’s acquisition of Coveware can help organizations address these gaps," Goodwin added. "Coveware gives Veeam a more proactive stance toward cyber protection. Combining Veeam’s backup capabilities with Coveware’s encryption-defeating technology should yield faster time-to-detection and faster time-to-recover, minimizing the impact of an attack.”

Opportunity for Veeam Partners

At a media briefing on Monday, Tim Pfaelzer, Veeam’s GM and SVP, EMEA, told Channel Futures what the acquisition will mean to partners.

“The opportunities for partners is that they can basically sell more Veeam products,” said Pfaelzer.

Veeam's Tim Pfaelzer

“Storytelling-wise, [partners are] not only picking a vendor that you can sell backup and replication, but a vendor where you can sell the whole security message. Our partner team is making sure that they understand the value proposition and ultimately there’s good money from it.”

An additional point that Veeam is making is its investment in services.

“It’s not enough to provide a solution,” said Gianluca Mazzotta, Veeam’s VP technical sales, EMEA. “You need to be a real business partner for your customers. The customer likes to be supported by real experts and people that know how to deal with incidents.”

Veeam did not divulge the cost of the Coveware acquisition.

Cyber Secure Program Focuses On Ransomware Protection

In January, Veeam unveiled its new Cyber Secure Program, which aims to help enterprises prepare for, protect against and recover from ransomware. The vendor will incorporate some elements of Coveware technology into the Veeam Data Platform and through the program. This provides customers with cyber protection and support including pre-, during and post-support of cyber incidents, and a $5 million warranty.

That same month, it relaunched its partner program with a promise of more predictability and profit.

On the changes, Veeam’s VP UK&I Dan Middleton said: “For years and years, it was about partners doing X amount of revenue and that’s it. Now it’s becoming more value-added again in the silver [partner tier] communities of service providers. And things like our own SaaS platform, that allows our partners to build an incremental annual recurring revenue business forever. So how do we go about protecting them into the future and beyond?”