Ransomware Recovery: Can You Afford 30+ Days of Downtime from an Attack?

By Deborah Thornton

Do you have a solid ransomware recovery plan? I’m going to suggest that there may be a major gap in your plan. I can only imagine the sickening feeling of seeing the message “Your Files Are Encrypted” splashed across your screen. We’re all aware that the possibility of falling victim to a ransomware attack exists, but do you really know how prevalent these attacks have become? I was shocked by a recent statistic from Sophos’ report, “The State of Ransomware 2022,” that within the last year 66% of the organizations they surveyed had suffered a ransomware attack.

Everything about ransomware is going up; attack frequency, ransom demands, ransom amount paid, attack sophistication. It’s why most experts agree that it’s not a matter of “if,” but “when” you’ll be targeted.

Prevention Strategies are Not Enough

According to analyst Research and Markets, the global ransomware protection market is expected to reach $46.7 billion by 2028, rising at a market growth of 16.6% CAGR during the forecast period. And yet, with all the money spent on prevention, attacks and the financial losses that go along with them are rising. The data tells us that prevention is not enough. Organizations must have a solid and comprehensive ransomware recovery plan.

The Access Gap in Ransomware Recovery Strategies

According to customers we’ve spoken with who have been through an attack, the experience is immersive, overwhelming and exhausting. During this time, you’ll deal with insurance representatives, attorneys, ransomware specialists and the perpetrators to bring the attack to a conclusion.

Most companies prepare for a ransomware attack by focusing on applications and data. They may set up a cold site for applications. Often they also use multiple backup solutions from companies such as Netapp, Cohesity, Druva, Rubrik, and others to back up their files, data, and Active Directory. In addition, they may use cloud storage systems such as Box, Dropbox, OneDrive, etc. that have built-in solutions for restoring corrupted files.

However they don’t have a good solution for access – and this is the gap in your plan. Since the PCs are infected – they can’t even be rebooted – users don’t have a mechanism to access the restored applications and data. Legacy VDI solutions may themselves be either unavailable during an attack, or may not be able to scale for the increased demand.

The High Cost of Loss of Access During an Attack

The Sophos report and many other sources cite 30 days as the average time it takes to remediate an attack. One month of lost productivity is a long time, and it’s going to be expensive in lost revenue and possibly even reputation damage. For an organization of 1,000 people, one month of downtime can easily cost upwards of $10m in lost productivity. And that doesn’t even factor in damage to your brand reputation.

Cloud PCs for Ransomware Recovery

What if, within an hour of detecting the attack, you could have all your employees back to work and avoid the financial impact of lost productivity?

Workspot Cloud PCs for Ransomware Recovery are imaged, kept up-to-date and are on standby in an isolated environment, serving as a modern “insurance plan” for immediate productivity recovery in the event of a ransomware attack. Within an hour of detecting the attack, employees can be back to being productive with their Cloud PCs, safely accessing the data and critical applications they need to keep the business running, continue to serve customers, and mitigate brand reputation damage. 

Here are the key characteristics of our solution: 

• Guaranteed capacity when you need it. We achieve this by enabling our customers to distribute Cloud PCs across multiple public clouds and multiple regions
  
• The Cloud PCs are accessible within an hour of an attack to reduce lost productivity and financial/reputation loss
• The Cloud PC must be simple for the end user. They should be able to access it with a single click – no training required. The Workspot platform determines the best available Cloud PC for them based on capacity availability and proximity.
• The Cloud PC platform must be simple to use so IT teams can activate the recovery Cloud PCs and then turn their attention back to malware remediation

You can access our Solution Brief here.

Compelling ROI for Cloud PCs for Ransomware Recovery

Cloud PCs are available for as little as $15 per user per month. Given the scope of the threat landscape today, the cost per user for implementing Cloud PCs for ransomware recovery pales in comparison to the financial risk of 30+ days of lost productivity.

Ransomware recovery is just one of many enterprise use cases we address with high-performance Cloud PCs and GPU cloud workstations. Bring us your toughest use case, and let’s talk! Schedule a demo here and we’ll show you how it works.