Ransomware remains one of the most pervasive cyber-threats facing businesses today. According to the Unit 42 2025 Incident Response Report, 86% of ransomware incidents had a business-impact component whether encryption, data theft, or operational disruption. (Palo Alto Networks) In fact, fewer organizations are paying ransoms and instead recovering via backups: in the UK, for example, only 17% of enterprises paid a ransom in 2025, down significantly from previous years. (IT Pro)
If your organization suffers a ransomware attack, how you respond in the first hours and days will determine whether you recover or spiral into months or longer of disruption, data loss, and reputational damage. This article lays out a proven recovery sequence and shares the latest trends and best practices to accelerate your comeback.
1. Immediate First Steps – Containment and Triage
a) Declare an incident, assemble the team
As soon as you detect encryption or unusual activity, declare a ransomware incident. Trigger your incident-response team and bring together key stakeholders: IT/security lead, CISO (or equivalent), legal/ compliance, communications, and executive sponsor. Establish clear roles and chain of command. Having a plan ahead of time makes this move swift and decisive. (BlackFog)
b) Isolate affected systems
Disconnect infected systems from the network immediately disable WiFi, unplug network cables, isolate servers, and stop write-access to backups if they’re still online. Attackers often move laterally fast and may still be in your environment. The Unit 42 report found that in many cases exfiltration occurred in under 24 hours. (Palo Alto Networks)
c) Document and preserve evidence
Preserve logs (endpoint, network, authentication), capture volatile memory when feasible, and note times of encryption or other malicious changes. This supports forensic analysis, insurance claims, and regulatory obligations. (IMS Cloud Services)
d) Communicate internally
Inform all employees, especially those on client-facing or finance teams. Pause new vendor payments, wire transfers, or changes in payment methods until you’ve confirmed controls are secure.
2. Assess Impact – Know What You’re Dealing With
a) Confirm scope
Identify systems encrypted, data stolen, backup status, and impacted business functions. Use your SIEM/EDR tools to map compromised endpoints and accounts. (CM Alliance) For example, did attacker reach backup storage? Did they exfiltrate data or only encrypt?
b) Verify your backups
Many organizations claim they “have backups” but discover them corrupted, infected, or incomplete during the crisis. According to a 2025 survey, only about half of victims were able to restore from backup in 2024. (Palo Alto Networks)
c) Decide recovery path (pay or not)
With fewer organizations paying ransoms in 2025 (just 17% in UK enterprises) the preference is clear: recover from backup, don’t rely on the attacker. Paying doesn’t guarantee data return, and may encourage future targeting. (IT Pro)
3. Recovery Execution – Bring Systems Back Safely and Smartly
a) Identify latest clean recovery point
Follow authoritative guidance: choose the most recent backup snapshot that is free of malware, isolate it in a sandbox/recovery environment, verify integrity, then restore to production in phases. (Veeam Software)
b) Restore in priority order
Bring back mission-critical systems first (payments, core operations, customer-facing portals), then secondary systems. Avoid full self-service blanket restores take a step-by-step approach to reduce risk of re-introducing malware. (CM Alliance)
c) Monitor for persistence and reinfection
Attackers may leave backdoors or web shells. After restore, run penetration tests, scan logs for unusual activity, and maintain heightened detection. The recovery phase isn’t over until the environment is carefully monitored for signs of lingering compromise. (CM Alliance)
d) Communicate publicly & with stakeholders
If your incident reaches clients, regulators, or partners, send timely updates. Even if you choose not to pay, transparency builds trust.
4. Post-Incident – Lessons Learned & Strengthening Resilience
a) Conduct a full lessons-learned review
What worked? What didn’t? What took too long? Document gaps and integrate them into your response playbook. (CM Alliance)
b) Update your Written Information Security Plan (WISP) or incident-response plan
Ensure your plan reflects team assignments, chain of command, backup validation schedules, tabletop exercise results, and recovery workflows.
c) Harden your environment against future attacks
- Backup strategy: use air-gapped and immutable backups, test restorations regularly. In recent data, 72% of organizations now use air-gapped backups. (IT Pro)
- Enforce phishing-resistant MFA, patching, privilege control, network segmentation, and identity-access governance. (Commvault Systems, Inc.)
- Use rapid detection tools: for instance, Google Drive’s new AI-powered ransomware detection (rollout late 2025) will monitor mass-file changes and halt sync to prevent spread. (The Verge)
- Create alternate infrastructure or sandbox environments so systems can be restored even if primary infrastructure is offline. (Veeam Software)
5. Why Speed Matters – The Cost of Delay
Ransomware today moves faster than ever: 1 in 5 incidents had data exfiltration within one hour of compromise in recent case data. (Palo Alto Networks) Every hour counts delayed response increases downtime, impact and cost. Quick detection, isolation, and restore make the difference between a few days of impact and months of chaos.
Key Recovery Checklist
- ☐ Do you have an incident-response team with defined roles?
- ☐ Are backups verified, air-gapped, and recoverable?
- ☐ Do you have secure backups on an alternate network/air-gap?
- ☐ Are logging, monitoring, and detection tools in place and tested?
- ☐ Do you enforce phishing-resistant MFA and identity-governance controls?
- ☐ Have you tested the restore process in a sandbox environment?
- ☐ Do you maintain communication templates for stakeholders and customers?
- ☐ Have you performed a lessons-learned review and updated your plan?
Final Thoughts
Ransomware is no longer just a data-encryption issue it’s a business-continuity, reputational and regulatory enforcement issue. Recovery isn’t about negotiating with attackers; it’s about resilience and preparedness. Organizations that can recover swiftly with minimal data loss don’t depend on paying ransom they rely on verified backups, hardened environments and practiced recovery drills.
If your firm hasn’t drilled its ransomware recovery process lately, now is the time. We can help with backup audits, incident-response planning, forensic readiness, security architecture reviews and recovery simulations to ensure you’re not rebuilding after the next attack but recovering with minimal disruption.