The timeframe for a ransomware recovery differs. Although it might be rare to see a company down for more than 24 hours, it may take months to recover in some uncommon circumstances. It has taken most companies between two to four weeks to fight ransomware attacks, especially when they are yet to find out what is happening.
Ransomware Data Recovery! What Is It?
The technique of bringing IT systems back online after a ransomware attack is called ransomware data recovery. It can be a simple recovery that you can do through the various existing disaster recovery procedures, but your disaster recovery plans must be well documented, thoroughly, and recently tested. The focus of IT experts is mainly on recovery in the data protection space, specifically on retrieving encrypted VMs from backup.
Although this is a big part of fighting ransomware and recovering impacted systems, there is an immense impact on the rest of your IT environment. The conduct of forensic analysis is a part of cybersecurity incident response. It aids to discover how the ransomware entered the environment and the infected systems. At this point, the process of removing the ransomware, erasing the vulnerabilities that gave the attackers access, and then restoring the infected systems.
Can Ransomware Be Eradicated?
To fight ransomware and eradicate it, a cybersecurity incident process will be conducted first to evaluate how the ransomware had access to the environment and know the infected systems beyond encryption of data. When conducting this process, it is a must to have a recent version of your data and applications. It must not have the recent ransomware that affected your system to enable you to utilize this method.
Before restoring, make sure you first eradicate the ransomware. While removing the ransomware software from the encrypted machines, you must take steps to determine how the attackers gained access and have those attack vectors mitigated. Once you have a ransomware attack, make sure your antimalware systems have the appropriate definitions that will detect the type of ransomware that has impacted your system.
Does It Take Long to Recover from Ransomware?
The issue of recovering from ransomware has many terrible stories on how long it takes to recover and where it is even possible to recover at all. We have often heard stories of it taking weeks to months before recovering, but it should not be so. You need to test ransomware recovery regularly, as you do with a disaster recovery plan. It is even great to start with your disaster recovery plan in the fight against ransomware and its recovery as long as it is a recent version and well tested.
When you have tested your recovery, you can then take steps to make it faster depending on your business requirements, like deploying other frameworks in your environment. While a ransomware recovery does not need to take a long time, your recovery processes testing is very vital to enable you to meet your RTO.
Is It Possible to Decrypt Ransomware?
Although ransomware groups claim that they can decrypt the attacked information after paying them the ransom, the truth remains that they cannot successfully decrypt all data. The integrity of the data after decryption is doubtful because none will be left. No matter how a server is decrypted after a ransomware attack, there will still be a need to restore it from backup.
Can You Recover from Ransomware by Reinstalling Windows?
You cannot remove ransomware from an infected machine by simply reinstalling windows. It will require a complete machine wiping, then reinstalling windows will ensure a system is free from ransomware. However, all your data will be lost, except if you properly backed them up first.
Is It Possible to Recover from Ransomware Attack?
A survey conducted by Sophos shows that 26% of ransomware victims paid the ransom, but 1% did not recover their data after paying the ransom. However, 56% of ransomware victims who paid the ransom retrieved their data via backups. With these statistics, we can say that the best way to recover data after a ransomware attack is through backups.
Will Ransomware Steal Your Personal Data?
Most times, what you see as a ransomware attack is just data encryption. Exfiltration is another common type of ransomware that is increasingly spreading. These dubious attackers steal data from you in your environment and threaten to release it if you do not pay the ransom.
Ways of Spreading Ransomware
We have various ways of spreading ransomware. However, phishing e-mails are the most common way. Remember, immediately an attacker gains access to your environment, the possibility becomes unlimited. Do not forget that an attacker only needs a point of entry to bring your system to a crumbling halt.
Best Solution to Prevent Your Files from a Ransomware Attack
In as much as many tend to protect their environment against ransomware, the truth remains that you should be expectant of its impact when it happens. Many ransomware groups are always looking for new ways to exploit environments to gain access and set up their ransomware. Although a solid IT security plan will go a long way in ensuring that your system fights a ransomware attack, it does not guarantee 100% prevention.
However, a solid backup plan is the best solution. Immutable backups and their likes will ensure that your backups cannot be deleted or encrypted by dubious actors when attacked. Types of Ransomware We have various types of ransomware out there, and new ones continue to emerge from time to time. But there are the most popular ones that have made news headlines like REvil, Darkside, and Conti.
The most common thing about these various ransomware is their operations, just like any other IT firm. They have experts who are always committed to developing and improving their software for more effective dangerous attacks on IT systems.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the best way to fight ransomware is through secure backups. Having immutable backups that cannot be deleted or encrypted by ransomware is good, but conducting a test recovery is very vital. You will not only verify whether your backups are working when you test recovery, but you can also meet your RTOs when attacked. These will determine how long it will take to recover from ransomware.
You may also be interested in:
