Recovering from ransomware with no backups in place

The client, a small property and building management company, was hit by ransomware with no backups and no recovery plan in place. Files were encrypted instantly and core systems froze, leaving the business unable to operate normally. They were referred to PurpleBox by an existing client shortly after the attack.

PurpleBox first focused on recovering what data could still be salvaged from the affected systems, then worked with the client from the ground up to design a recovery plan suited to a small operation with limited existing IT structure. Recommendations included a dedicated business device to separate work from personal use, 24/7 remote monitoring and management (RMM), antivirus with endpoint detection and response (EDR) for real-time threat detection, and a scheduled backup system with bare-metal recovery (BMR) capability. Full disaster recovery would have restored everything with a single click, but sat outside the client's budget - BMR delivered the same underlying protection in a more manual, but far more affordable way.

The business now has a tested, affordable recovery plan and the tools in place to detect and respond to threats before they escalate. The wider lesson carried through to how they now think about data: cloud storage alone isn't a backup, and recoverable, tested backups are what get a business running again quickly after ransomware, theft, hardware failure or accidental loss.