Two businesses hit by the exact same ransomware attack can end up with completely different outcomes — one back online in hours, the other negotiating a ransom or rebuilding from nothing for weeks. The difference almost always comes down to backups.
Not sure which outcome your business would get? Contact us for a free assessment — no pressure, no obligation.
The Moment It Happens
Files become inaccessible, often across every mapped drive at once. A ransom note appears, usually with a countdown and instructions for paying in cryptocurrency. Whatever happens in the next few hours largely determines how the next few weeks go.
Path One: No Tested Backup
Without a working, verified backup, the options narrow fast: pay the ransom and hope the attackers actually provide a working decryption key (they often don’t, or it’s partial), or rebuild systems and data from scratch — a process that can take days to weeks, with some data simply gone for good.
Path Two: Tested, Isolated Backup
Wipe the infected systems, restore from a clean backup taken before the infection point, and get back to work — typically hours, not weeks, and with no ransom conversation at all. Same attack, dramatically different outcome, because the backup actually worked when it mattered.
The Detail Most Businesses Miss: Backup Isolation
None of this works if the backup itself gets encrypted along with everything else. Ransomware that spreads across a network can reach a backup drive sitting on the same system, or backup software with credentials stored insecurely on an infected machine. Real protection means offsite, versioned, and ideally immutable backups that an attacker inside your network can’t simply reach and destroy along with the rest.
Can You Do This Yourself?
Yes, technically — offsite and immutable backup options are available directly to businesses. Isolation and testing discipline is exactly where DIY backup setups tend to fall short in practice, usually because nobody circled back to verify the backup couldn’t be reached by the same attack it’s meant to protect against.
The Bottom Line
Every LME Services backup and disaster recovery plan is built around isolated, tested backups specifically because ransomware is the scenario most likely to take down an untested one. Schedule a free consultation and we’ll tell you honestly which path your current setup would put you on.
Common questions
Files become inaccessible across every mapped drive at once, followed by a ransom note with a countdown — what happens in the next few hours largely determines how the next few weeks go.
No — attackers often don't provide a working decryption key, or it's only partial, which is why a tested backup changes the outcome entirely.