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Cyberattacks are evolving faster than traditional defenses. Gartner’s recent research note, “Enhance Ransomware Cyber Resilience With a Secure Recovery Environment” by Fintan Quinn, highlights a critical shift: relying solely on malware detection is no longer sufficient for safe recovery. “Most modern ransomware tactics bypass traditional malware scanners, meaning backups may appear ‘clean’ during scans but prove unusable when restored.” — Gartner, 2025 In other words, your backups may look healthy but still be compromised. Attackers increasingly target recovery systems, hiding fileless or memory-resident ransomware deep within snapshots and backups. Once encryption triggers, the damage extends not just to production data, but to the very safety nets organizations depend on. The New Standard: Advanced Validation Gartner advises that companies “equip recovery environments with advanced capabilities that analyze backup data using content-based analytics and data integrity validation.” In other words, These aren’t nice-to-have features—they’re now required for compliance and operational resilience under frameworks like ECB/DORA, FCA/PRA, and NYDFS. This is where Elastio stands apart. Elastio delivers agentless, enterprise-wide provable recovery by continuously validating backups and cloud storage to ensure ransomware-free recoverability within defined SLAs. It acts as a provable control, not just another detection layer—providing the evidence CISOs and boards need to quantify ransomware risk and recovery readiness. Case in Point: Jaguar Land Rover The Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) attack in 2025 illustrates what happens when malware scans are mistaken for proof of safety.The HellCat Ransomware Group used stolen JIRA credentials to infiltrate their network. Though malware scans passed, unvalidated backups delayed restoration for weeks, costing the company an estimated £1.5 billion in downtime and disruption. With Elastio’s Provable Recovery, JLR could have identified backup corruption early, isolated infected data, and restored from a verifiably clean point—closing the weeks-long recovery gap and mitigating both business and reputational impact. From Prevention to Proof The takeaway is clear: Malware scanners detect some threats.Elastio proves recovery. Modern resilience requires both—but proof is the missing control. Boards, regulators, and insurers no longer accept “we think we can recover.” They demand provable recovery assurance with continuous validation and measurable recovery integrity scores. Final Thought Prevention can fail. Proof cannot.Elastio gives organizations the evidence that recovery is not just possible—it’s provable. Prove it once. Validate it continuously. Trust it always.Visit elastio.com/platform to learn how provable recovery builds real resilience and board-level confidence

Cybercrime isn’t slowing down, and neither can we. That’s the central message of Detonation Point, the podcast hosted by Matt O’Neill, former U.S. Secret Service Deputy Special Agent in charge of cyber operations. In this series, O’Neill goes inside the fight against cybercrime, hearing directly from defenders across government, infrastructure, and enterprise. Each episode dives into the strategies, technologies, and minds working to keep our data, businesses, and critical infrastructure resilient in a rapidly evolving threat landscape. In the latest episode, Matt sits down with Dr. Srinidhi Varadarajan, Chief of Cyber Intelligence at Elastio, a cyber resilience company redefining ransomware detection and recovery. Dr. Varadarajan’s career spans decades of research and hands-on innovation, from building antivirus software in high school to developing real-world systems that protect enterprise data today. The conversation covers Dr. Varadarajan’s journey from early curiosity about computing in India to his current role, where he balances deep innovation with the practical needs of Elastio’s customers. Listeners get an inside look at how Elastio approaches ransomware protection, combining multiple layers of detection and defense to ensure organizations can recover quickly, even in the event of sophisticated attacks. “Ransomware isn’t just about disrupting systems -it’s about destroying trust and operational continuity. Protecting your backups and validating your data isn’t optional anymore; it’s the only way to ensure you can recover when attacks strike.” - Dr. Varadarajan, Elastio Key takeaways from the episode include: Ransomware is evolving, but so are defenses: Ransomware, which is not the same as malware, has caused attackers to lower the barrier to entry with automation and AI, yet companies can stay ahead with layered, mathematically rigorous detection systems.Backup integrity is critical: Ransomware groups now target recovery by corrupting or encrypting backups - 90% of incidents involve backup tampering. Fileless, memory-based attacks compromise data before it’s backed up, silently infecting systems and evading detection until recovery, leaving even “clean” or immutable backups untrustworthy without verification.Planning and preparation save organizations: Beyond technology, having a detailed recovery plan, understanding recovery priorities, and exercising that plan are essential to minimize downtime and reduce the likelihood of paying a ransom or reinfection.AI is both a threat and an opportunity: While attackers may leverage AI to find vulnerabilities faster, defenders can also harness AI to strengthen detection and response, ensuring attacks are caught before they escalate. Ransomware is not the only threat: Modern attacks also include data exfiltration and targeted extortion schemes, making comprehensive resilience strategies more important than ever. Dr. Varadarajan emphasizes that ransomware protection isn’t just about avoiding payment—it’s about business resiliency and data corruption. By combining real-time monitoring, validated backups, and proactive defense, organizations can maintain operational continuity and stay a step ahead of attackers. For anyone interested in the future of cybersecurity, this episode is a must-listen. It blends expert insight, practical guidance, and fascinating stories from someone who has spent a lifetime understanding both the science and strategy behind defending against cyber threats. Listen to the full episode of Detonation Point, presented by Elastio, to learn how organizations can truly stay resilient in the face of evolving cybercrime.

Elastio’s next-gen dashboards deliver real-time recovery insights aligned with global standards to simplify compliance, reduce risk, and ease audits. BOSTON, MA, UNITED STATES, October 7, 2025 -- Elastio today announced the release of its Compliance-ready recovery capabilities via global security dashboards, designed to help organizations strengthen operational resilience and meet rising regulatory demands across multiple cybersecurity frameworks. As ransomware and malicious encryption become certainties rather than mere threats, regulators are placing greater emphasis on backup and data integrity, recovery testing, and incident response planning. Elastio addresses these challenges directly by detecting ransomware and data corruption, well before the recovery process begins. “Compliance requirements aren’t abstract checkboxes. They’re designed to protect businesses from the very real and costly impacts of ransomware,” said Ron Green, Cyber Resiliency Board member for Elastio and cybersecurity expert. “For customers, the stakes are high and regulators expect proof of resilience and data integrity.” Alignment With Leading Security Standards Elastio’s capabilities are designed to support key controls in NYDFS 500.16, DORA, NIST CSF, ISO/IEC 27001:2022, and PCI DSS v4.0, among others: NYDFS 500.16 – Validates backup integrity, continuously tests recovery readiness, and provides immutable scan logs to support incident response and audit requirements.PCI DSS v4.0 – Delivers malware detection in backup data, change monitoring, and verified recovery paths to support incident response and data integrity mandates.DORA (Digital Operational Resilience Act) – Strengthens ICT risk management, recovery testing, and reporting obligations, including third-party oversight.NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) – Extends coverage across Detect, Respond, and Recover functions through continuous monitoring, automated tagging, and validated clean restores.ISO/IEC 27001:2022 – Provides end-to-end evidence collection, forensic readiness, and malware protection aligned to Annex A controls. Why This Matters In today’s threat landscape, resilience is no longer optional; it’s survival. Traditional approaches can’t keep up. Elastio’s next-generation dashboards give customers the visibility and assurance they need to: Ensure recoverability – Detecting ransomware in backups before recovery ensures that clean data is always available.Reduce audit pain – Built-in logs, reporting, and validation directly map to regulatory controls, saving time and cost during audits.Strengthen resilience – Continuous backup verification and automated recovery testing assure that systems can be restored quickly and safely.Protect investments across platforms – Operating independently of the backup source, Elastio validates data integrity across multiple systems and cloud providers. Elastio turns regulatory obligations into operational advantages. Customers not only stay compliant with frameworks like NYDFS 500.16, DORA, NIST CSF, and ISO/IEC 27001:2022, but also gain real-world confidence in their ability to withstand and recover from attacks. Reducing Risk and Audit Burden Elastio’s independent, source-agnostic approach enables organizations to scan and validate backups across disparate systems without impacting production. The solution provides: Continuous ransomware and malware detection in backupsAutomated validation of recovery paths to ensure data cleanlinessImmutable audit logs for compliance verification and forensicsIntegration with security operations for incident response support By fitting seamlessly into security and compliance workflows, Elastio helps financial services firms and other regulated industries reduce both operational risk and audit complexity. View a short video Learn more To learn more, please visit our Elastio Recovery Ready Compliance page: https://elastio.com/platform/recovery-ready-complianceTo join us for an executive discussion at AWS reInvent, please visit: https://elastio.com/awsreinvent

It’s Not Just About Prevention, It’s About Recovery October is more than just a time for candy. It’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month, reminding us that security is an ongoing mindset, not just a task to check off. For any business, threats are changing quickly. Hackers now target your backups and your ability to recover, not just your main systems. This year, it’s more important than ever to remember that resilience is not just nice to have—it’s essential. Why “Backups” Alone Don’t Cut It in 2025 Backups were once your safety net. Now, they are often the target. Fileless or low-and-slow attacks can silently encrypt data without triggering alarms.Ransomware actors infiltrate backup pipelines and “poison” restore points.This means that restoring from a backup could bring back the same threat you were trying to remove. AWS offers tools like AWS Backup, immutable storage, and air-gapped vaults. But there’s still a challenge: how can you be sure your backups are clean and ready to use? Elastio helps solve this by making recovery reliable and closes the gap. The Elastio approach is simple—don’t wait for an attack to test your recovery, but the solution is critical to survival. Real-World Success Stories Abstract arguments are fine, but nothing beats real customer stories. Here are a few we’ve published: SaaS Company Beats “Extinction-Level” Attack: A stealth, fileless ransomware hit. The attackers had already encrypted data and embedded themselves into backups. Most recovery efforts would have failed. But with Elastio and AWS, the team identified a clean recovery point in hours and restored operations “For a SaaS company, long-term downtime is the kiss of death. If you can’t meet your SLAs, it can be an extinction-level event.” — Jeff Fudge, Director of Cloud Solutions, JetSweep State Health Agency: Public Trust on the Line: For a public health department, downtime isn’t just inconvenient; it can disrupt essential services. By continuously validating backups across their AWS environments, Elastio gave them confidence that they could recover fast, reliably, and cleanly. “Ransomware recovery used to feel like walking a tightrope. With Elastio, we’ve replaced guesswork with certainty, knowing our backups are clean and ready to restore—letting us focus on protecting public health.” Information Security Manager, State Health Agency Banking and Finance: Hardening Financial-Risk Posture:Financial organizations are prime targets. In a recent project, Elastio delivered a ransomware resilience posture for a global payments company, protecting them from both direct attacks and backup-level compromise.“Elastio has been a game changer. It’s not just about meeting NYDFS compliance—it’s about knowing we’re truly prepared to protect our business and our customers.” CIO, Financial Services These aren’t isolated wins. They are proof points that integrating proven recovery in environments changes the game. Make Cyber Resilience Non-Negotiable To wrap up: Read the Elastio case studies in our Knowledge Hub. See how others are winning.Audit your backup and recovery posture. Are you validating clean restore points, or hoping they work when you need them? What is your ransomware risk?Let’s chat! If you want to build a resilient, verifiable, and proactive recovery strategy, we should connect. Cybersecurity Awareness Month is about raising awareness, but awareness should lead to action. Let’s make 2025 the year you stop fearing ransomware recovery and start owning it.

Author: Eswar Nalamaru Ransomware has evolved beyond disruption; it now threatens business survival. Malware creates exposure, but once ransomware encrypts your data, the real risk is losing the ability to recover. Picture the boardroom: a director leans forward and asks the CISO a simple question: “If ransomware hits tonight, can you prove we’ll recover without compromise?” The room goes quiet. In that moment, the CISO realizes prevention is expected—but proof of recovery is what truly matters.This is the existential challenge every enterprise faces today: guaranteeing recovery that is provable, uncompromised, and fast enough to keep the business running. Here are five questions every CISO must ask going into Q4 or 2026: 1. Can we prove that your backups are free of ransomware? Backups that contain hidden encryption or dormant malware are liabilities, not assets. Without continuous validation of backup integrity, recovery risks reintroduce ransomware into production. Boards should press for evidence-based assurance that every backup is verified, uncompromised, and ready to support recovery. Anything less is not resilience—it’s roulette. 2. How quickly can we identify a clean recovery point? Downtime costs escalate minute by minute. Manual validation is too slow, and attackers know it. An AI-driven recovery platform can accelerate the detection of clean recovery points, enabling day-zero recovery. Speed to recovery is no longer just a technical metric—it is a competitive advantage that protects revenue, brand, and customer trust. 3. Are recovery processes embedded into our workflows? Recovery cannot sit on the sidelines. It must be built into daily operations—integrated with security tools, cloud platforms, and incident response. When recovery is operationalized, it reduces risk, eliminates human error, and ensures resilience is invisible but indispensable. 4. Do we have provable evidence of clean recovery? Boards, regulators, and customers no longer accept verbal assurances. They expect audit-ready proof that recovery is uncompromised. Recovery is not just a technical function—it is a fiduciary responsibility. CISOs and executive leadership must be able to show verifiable resilience to those who hold them accountable. 5. Are we ready for AI-driven decision-making? As AI systems increasingly automate critical workflows, resilience must become autonomous and self-healing. Future-ready organizations will rely on AI to detect, validate, and recover—without manual intervention. But those systems can only be trusted if they operate on clean, uncompromised data. Final Thoughts: Closing the Missing Control Traditional security and immutable backups are no longer enough. The missing control is data integrity verification—the assurance that every recovery point is clean and trustworthy. Without it, cyber resilience remains a gamble. Elastio closes that gap. By validating backups, detecting ransomware at day zero, and delivering provable recovery assurance, we enable CISOs to demonstrate resilience with confidence—to boards, regulators, and customers alike. CISOs who can prove recovery don’t just mitigate ransomware risk. They redefine resilience as a board-level business advantage—the difference between disruption and survival. Whether you're a CISO, IT lead, or cyber champion, this piece offers strategic insights to rethink your cybersecurity posture. Ready to explore how Elastio can fortify your defense-in-depth strategy—and why it’s emerging as a must-have for ransomware readiness? Let’s dive in. Learn More at www.elastio.com/platform

Exposing the minds behind cybercrime and the defenders racing to outsmart them. Stories about cyberattacks make headlines almost daily. Ransomware shutters a hospital, a breach exposes millions of records, a phishing scheme drains bank accounts. But what we rarely see is the human side: the people orchestrating these attacks, and the investigators working to stop them. That’s what makes Elastio proud to launch Detonation Point, sponsored by Elastio and hosted by Matt O’Neill, former Deputy Special Agent in Charge of Cyber Operations for the U.S. Secret Service. The podcast goes inside the frontlines of cybercrime. Each episode features conversations with the defenders in government, infrastructure, and enterprise who are racing to stay ahead—because cybercrime isn’t slowing down, and neither can we. In the premiere episode, Matt sits down with Hieu Minh Ngo, once described as America’s most prolific identity thief, and the man he arrested. The conversation spans everything from the staggering sums of money Hieu was making, to the social engineering tactics that bought him years of access to Americans’ personal data, to the elaborate sting operation that finally brought him down. It sounds like something out of a movie, but it’s also packed with real-world lessons that shape how we think about cybercrime today. And while the episode itself is worth hearing in full, the Elastio team wanted to share a few of the key takeaways: 1. Cybercrime is an attractive business Hieu is disarmingly honest about what drove him: money. At his peak, he was making $120,000 a month selling stolen identities. In Vietnam at the time, the average salary was about $150 per month. That gulf made him relentless. Like many bad actors, he saw cybercrime as a business, and every dollar earned pushed him to be more inventive. “It was just money, money, money. At that time, I didn’t care about anything else.” – Hieu Minh Ngo It’s a reminder of a truth that explains why this problem is not going away: cybercrime now operates as a global marketplace, sustained by well-funded organizations and huge financial incentives. 2. Social Engineering Can Still Beat Tech Early on, Hieu hacked into U.S. data brokers. When those systems were patched, he didn’t stop—he adapted. By impersonating a private investigator, he convinced Court Ventures (later acquired by Experian) to hand over data on U.S. citizens. A forged license and a convincing story were enough to unlock two years of uninterrupted access to highly sensitive information. The irony? It was social engineering that also led to his arrest. Law enforcement posed as a partner offering him new access. He showed up for a business meeting—and was arrested at the airport. “The human error is at play in nearly every attack, whether it’s because of mistakes that have happened procedurally, administratively, or that the person was taken advantage of.” – Matt O’Neill Even the best security stack can’t stop a convincing story in the right inbox. 3. AI Is Making Attacks Easier, Faster, and More Convincing Deepfakes, automated phishing, real-time impersonation: AI is lowering the barrier to entry and giving attackers the upper hand. “To me, the next two to five years from now, things will get worse because of AI. Artificial intelligence is good for business, but it’s also good for bad actors. They’re using AI to improve their techniques and malware to avoid detection. They’re also using AI to create deepfakes and phishing emails.” – Hieu Minh Ngo “It lowers the barrier to entry. Back when you were active, you were using SQL injections, you were using things that required some level of sophistication. Now you don’t need that. And that’s gonna be a massive, massive problem for us going forward.” – Matt O’Neill The arms race is accelerating - and AI is on both sides. 4. Cybercriminals Move Faster Because They Can Cybercrime groups don’t deal with compliance checklists. They don’t ask permission. They cut slow partners. They act quickly and communicate constantly. “As cybercriminals, there are no borders, no laws, no regulations. They just collaborate, and everything they build is on trust. That’s why they move very fast. There are no legal boundaries.” – Hieu Minh Ngo Meanwhile, defenders operate in silos, slowed down by processes, policies, and communication gaps. “Where defenders are siloed, attackers share. Where defenders deliberate, attackers act.” – Matt O’Neill The challenge for defenders is to stay innovative and collaborative - within the bounds of the law. 5. Hardened Recovery Is the Only Safe Bet Here’s where the conversation gets especially practical. Hieu is blunt: you will get breached. Attackers with time, money, and motivation will find a way in. “Hackers are always looking for ways to manipulate employees, lure them to click on a malicious file, or exploit zero-day vulnerabilities. That kind of access can bypass security systems—even endpoint detection. It doesn’t matter how big your company is, if they have time and money, they’ll get in. So even if you have a strong security solution, you also need the best backup solution. That’s the only way to stay safe.” – Hieu Minh Ngo Or, as Matt put it: “Too many boards are asking the wrong question: ‘Do we have backups?’ The real question should be: ‘Can we prove we can recover?’” Because when prevention fails, recovery is your last - and only - line of defense. Why You Should Listen This is a rare conversation between the man who ran a cybercrime operation and the agent who stopped it. It’s thoughtful, candid, and packed with insights that defenders across sectors can learn from. If you want to understand the human side of cybercrime - and what it really takes to stay resilient - this is an episode worth your time. Let's go > Hear the full conversation on the premiere episode of Detonation Point here: Inside the fight against cybercrime with Matt O’Neill | Elastio Additional Resources Want to explore more about the case behind this conversation? Here are some recommended reads: How Much Is Your Identity Worth? – Krebs on SecurityThis blog post by investigative journalist Brian Krebs was the spark that helped law enforcement zero in on Hieu Minh Ngo. It details how stolen identity data was being sold in bulk online—and raised the first red flags about Hieu’s operation.Vietnamese National Sentenced to 13 Years in Prison – FBIThe original press release from the FBI outlines the full scale of Hieu’s identity theft scheme, his arrest, and his eventual sentencing.The Facts on Court Ventures and Experian – Experian Global News Blog Experian’s official statement detailing its acquisition of Court Ventures and clarifying how the breach occurred—offering an inside look at how a data broker was manipulated through social engineering.

With agentic control across detection, validation, and recovery, Elastio ensures cyber resiliency through provable, uncompromised ransomware recovery. BOSTON, MA, UNITED STATES, September 16, 2025 -- Elastio today launches its Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server, a breakthrough that embeds ransomware detection and backup validation directly into AWS workflows, developer tooling, and AI assistants. The MCP Server empowers teams to validate backups and access resilience intelligence in real time, without leaving their daily tools. “The future of ransomware resilience is proof, not promises,” said Greg Aligiannis, CISO at Elastio. “With the MCP Server, we bring detection, validation, and compliance-ready reporting straight into the environments teams already use.” Key Customer Capabilities of the Elastio MCP Server Controlled Cyber Resilience: Continuously monitor backups, restores, deployments, and files, directly within IDEs, AWS workflows, and chat-based AI assistants, ensuring resilience is built into everyday operations without added friction.Agentic, Extensible by Design: Integrate seamlessly across ecosystems as MCP delivers resilience insights into agentic tools and platforms, exposing compromised data caused by ransomware, misconfigurations, and optimization opportunities in real time to strengthen resiliency posture.Incident Response with Real-Time Detection: Gain continuous visibility at the asset, volume, and file level, identifying threats as they emerge and delivering live context through AI assistants to accelerate response and guarantee uncompromised recovery. Laying the Groundwork for Agentic WorkflowsModern enterprise operations increasingly depend on agentic AI workflows, autonomous systems where AI agents reason, act, and adapt with minimal human oversight. These dynamic workflows aren’t just smart, they orchestrate, correct, and recover in real time. Elastio’s MCP Server lays the foundation for integration into these intelligent systems. It allows agentic workflows to incorporate recovery intelligence as part of their operational decisions, enabling autonomous systems to not only detect threats but also verify recovery readiness and adapt accordingly. Cyber resilience must keep pace with today’s escalating threats. Elastio streamlines the process by making incident response, resilience, and recovery invisible yet indispensable within agentic workflows. As AI-driven systems take on more decision-making, Elastio provides not only rapid detection but also verified, uncompromised recovery paths—creating a self-healing, seamlessly integrated, and autonomous layer of security. Strategic Impact for Customers Extended AI Autonomy: Enables AI agents to include recovery integrity checks as part of their decision logic.Real-Time Assurance: Provides live insights and compliance evidence where teams already operate.Future-Ready Infrastructure: Positioned to expand across toolchains and agentic platforms. AvailabilityThe Elastio MCP Server is available today, complete with installation guides and documentation. Continuous feature updates and integrations will be released via AI-assisted channels. Learn more To learn more, please visit our "Why Elastio" platform page: https://elastio.com/platformTo join us for an executive discussion in a city near you, please visit our events page.

We all run malware scanners. They catch trojans, spyware, and viruses. But ransomware is different. If you rely on malware scanning alone, you’re under-protected. Ransomware attacks in 2025 are more costly, sophisticated, and more damaging than ever. Relying on malware scanning alone is no longer sufficient. CISOs must pair it with modern ransomware behavior detection to ensure true resilience. What Makes Ransomware Different? Malware scanners focus on known malicious code. Ransomware often uses code for malicious purposes, encrypting, deleting, or stealing your data for extortion. The real threat is what it does, not what it is. Signature-based detection, common in malware scanners, matches files against known patterns or hashes. It’s reactive, only flagging threats that are already cataloged. Modern ransomware often uses polymorphic or encrypted code to evade these checks. According to CrowdStrike’s 2025 Global Threat Report, 79% of detections were malware-free. Behavior-based detection watches for ransomware-specific actions, like slow file encryption, mass renaming, or randomized file names, and can catch threats even without known signatures. Bottom line: Malware detection helps block entry. Ransomware encryption detection helps limit the damage. Both are needed together. 2025 Ransomware Reality: Escalating Costs, Complex Attacks Ransomware isn’t just frequent; it’s expensive. In 2024, ransomware payments dropped 35% globally to $813 million, yet average payouts soared to around $2 million The GuardianDeepStrike.Some attacks cost organizations much more, estimates put total ransomware-related loss (including downtime, recovery, and reputational damage) at around $5.13 million in 2024, expected to rise to $5.5–6 million in 2025 PurpleSec.Recovery costs alone (excluding any ransom payment) dropped to $1.53 million in the latest data, down from $2.73 million in 2024, but that shows resilience improvements, not low-risk Grey Matter.Ransomware still accounted for 91% of all incurred cyber-insurance losses in the first half of 2025, Axios. These numbers show how critical behavior-based detection is, not just to stop the attack, but to limit damage and cost. Ransomware Infects Backups Backups feel like a safety net. If production gets hit, you can restore. The problem is, backups themselves can be poisoned. Ransomware doesn’t have to delete your backups to make them useless. It just has to contaminate them. Many teams assume immutability and isolation are enough. “If attackers can’t reach my backups, they can’t hurt me.” But that misses the point: if you’re backing up corrupted or encrypted data, you’re just preserving the damage. When you restore from those backups, you don’t recover your business; you extend your downtime. That’s why ransomware scanning of backups, snapshots, and vaults before restore is critical. It ensures your recovery points are clean and usable when you need them most. The End Result Is The Real Risk Attackers aren’t satisfied once they’re inside. They care about the outcome: encrypted data, stolen files, business disruption, and extortion leverage. Some don’t even encrypt; they steal data and threaten to leak it (“double extortion”). If you only scan for malware, you miss these stages. Ransomware scanning focuses on ransomware-specific behavior, like data staging, rapid or slow encryption. Real Business Impact A single ransomware incident can devastate an organization. Recent victims have lost millions, faced regulatory penalties, and collapsed after failed recoveries and reputational damage. One German device-insurance firm paid $230,000 to attackers, but the real cost was far greater. They cut staff from 170 to eight, sold their headquarters, and ultimately entered insolvency (Tom’s Hardware) That’s a dramatic reminder that ransomware isn’t just disruptive; the damage can be severely business impacting and permanent. CISOs: Critical Action Items for 2025 Scan data-at-rest, including backups, replicas, and vaults, proactivelyMonitor ransomware behaviors, watch for mass encryption, exfil staging, or slow encryptionProve your recovery is clean, build confidence with your board and regulators by certifying your backups are ransomware-free.Use both malware + ransomware scanning. Cover the entry points (malware) and the destructive outcome (ransomware encryption).Practice recovery and response: Regularly test restoration, incident reporting, and communication workflows to reduce downtime and risk. Final Thoughts Malware scanners are critical, but insufficient against today’s ransomware. Ransomware is path-driven and outcome-based. To protect your backups, data, and business continuity, you need behavior-based ransomware detection on top of malware scanning. Whether you're a CISO, IT lead, or IT resilience advocate, this piece offers strategic insights to rethink your cybersecurity posture. Ready to explore how cyber vaulting can fortify your defense-in-depth strategy—and why it’s emerging as a must-have for ransomware readiness? Let’s dive in. Learn More at www.elastio.com

Ensure ransomware resilience on FSxN with AWS, NetApp, and Elastio: layered defense and verified recovery.

Introduction Imagine waking up to headlines that your bank, retailer, or airline has suffered a major cyberattack—and within hours, billions vanish from its market value. A breach like this can tarnish years of carefully built reputation and undermine trust in an instant. Trust is the currency of the corporate world: it seals business alliances, sustains trade deals, and underpins every transaction between buyer and seller. In today’s digital economy, a single breach can shake investors’ confidence as much as a poor earnings report—or worse. During my EPQ research, I discovered that the real question is not if cyberattacks impact share prices—they do—but how much. Some companies see only a short-lived dip. Others spiral into prolonged decline. The difference lies not simply in the attack itself, but in the quality of the response. What Really Drives the Impact? The first casualty of a cyber breach is often trust. Investors immediately ask: Will customers still believe in this company’s ability to deliver? Economist John Maynard Keynes described this as “animal spirits”—the instincts and emotions that drive economic behaviour. Fear spreads faster than facts, and share prices can fall sharply before the full scale of a breach is even understood. This is why corporate response matters. A rapid, transparent reaction shapes market sentiment and stabilises equity prices. Delays or silence, on the other hand, magnify uncertainty and deepen losses. From my project, three main factors stood out: Nature of the breach: A ransomware lockout, a supply chain attack, or a large-scale data theft each carry different weight.Corporate response: Did leaders act quickly, communicate openly, and prove they could prevent recurrence? Or did they leave space for rumours and speculation?Regulation and legal fallout: Fines, lawsuits, and compliance costs can stretch the financial impact far beyond the initial panic. These elements explain why some breaches trigger only minor dips, while others unleash full-scale crashes. Breaches That Shook the Market Yahoo (2013 & 2014) 3 billion accounts compromised.Aftermath: $117.5M settlement, $35M in fines, and stock declines of 6.1% and 3.1% after disclosure. Capital One (2019) 106 million records exposed.Shares plunged nearly 14% in two weeks as investors questioned confidence in the brand. Maersk (2017) Supply-chain malware paralysed global shipping operations.Swift action limited losses to $300M, and shares rebounded 5% within a month—unlike Equifax, where sluggish disclosure drove a 30% six-month slide. Retail Breaches (2025) UK retail firms saw data compromises wipe out up to 3% of stock value in days.Heightened EU data protection scrutiny magnified investor anxiety, proving patterns identified years ago still persist. These cases underscore how response quality dictates the extent—from minor 3% dips to devastating 30% slides. Crises don’t just test systems; they test leadership and accountability. In the long run, they test progress. The Future: Defence and Doubt Technology is reshaping the battleground. AI-driven cybersecurity now monitors behaviour patterns and detects anomalies in real time. This containment limits breaches before they spiral into market shocks. Far from replacing jobs, AI automates repetitive tasks so human specialists can tackle bigger threats.But AI is also a double-edged sword. Criminals deploy it for targeted ransomware, data exfiltration, and reputational extortion schemes that go far beyond simple pay-to-decrypt attacks.Blockchain provides another defence line. By decentralising identity systems and creating tamper-proof records, it reduces fraud and unauthorised access. Early programmes show blockchain adoption can cut recovery costs by up to 30%—sometimes the difference between rebounding and prolonged decline. Together, these technologies could shrink the market impact of breaches from catastrophic 14% plunges to manageable 3–6% dips—if companies adopt them wisely. Conclusion Cybersecurity breaches are no longer side stories. They are front-page financial events. The scale of damage depends less on the attack itself and more on how companies handle the aftermath. Firms that respond well typically face share price drops of only 3–6%.Poor responses can trigger losses of 30% or more, eroding investor confidence for months.Companies with strong cyber insurance or proactive disclosures sometimes rebound within weeks—proof that preparation matters. The message is simple: cybersecurity is no longer just an IT issue—it’s a shareholder issue. With global cybercrime costs projected to reach $10.5 trillion annually by 2025, no company can afford complacency. So the real question is: When—not if—the next breach comes, will your organisation’s response reassure investors, or spark a sell-off?

Ransomware has cemented itself as one of the most disruptive and costly cyber threats facing organizations today. A recent IT Pro article underscores just how devastating the financial and operational impact has become. According to their reporting, 72 percent of organizations experienced an attack in the past year, and the average recovery cost now sits at a staggering $4.5 million. Nearly three-quarters of CISOs surveyed said a successful ransomware incident could critically disrupt operations. Even when companies manage to recover without paying a ransom, the downtime itself carries crippling costs. The survey revealed stark differences in recovery speed: 42% of firms recovered within 24 hours39% took up to a week5% were offline for more than two weeks For a modern enterprise, being without critical systems for days or even weeks can be as damaging as paying the ransom itself. The revenue losses, regulatory risks, and customer trust erosion compound into a crisis that extends well beyond IT. A Positive Trend: Fewer Ransom Payments There is one encouraging data point. Only 17 percent of enterprises have paid a ransom in 2025 so far, an all-time low. For years, ransom payments hovered much higher, with organizations often feeling they had no other option but to pay attackers to regain access to data. What has changed is that enterprises are building the ability to recover quickly and cleanly without depending on the attacker. The logic is simple. If you can restore confidently from uncompromised recovery points, you remove the attacker’s leverage. Paying becomes unnecessary. This signals a shift in thinking. Prevention, while critical, is no longer enough. As ransomware grows more sophisticated and evasive, resilience through recovery has emerged as the ultimate differentiator. The Myth of “Just Having Backups” A dangerous misconception still lingers in many boardrooms: “We’re fine, we have backups.” But having backups is not the same as having usable backups. Too often, organizations discover too late that their recovery points are riddled with problems like corruption, hidden malware, or incomplete coverage. The first time these issues surface is during a crisis, when recovery timelines are most critical. Consider the statistics above. Why did nearly half of organizations take days or weeks to recover? Because while their backups may have existed, they weren’t necessarily validated. Without assurance of integrity, IT teams are left sifting through recovery points, trying to find one that isn’t compromised. That turns recovery into a time-consuming and high-stakes guessing game. From Backup to Provable Recovery That is why forward-looking enterprises are moving beyond backup as a checkbox exercise and embracing provable recovery. This involves continuously validating backups to ensure they are clean, complete, and usable at any moment. Key practices include: Automated validation of every recovery pointRegularly testing that backups can be restored and function as expected, not just stored.Continuous scanning for hidden ransomware artifactsDetecting stealthy encryption, dormant binaries, or insider-driven tampering before recovery is attempted.Coverage assurance across systemsEnsuring all critical applications and data are included and protected. By layering these practices, IT leaders can remove the uncertainty that typically haunts recovery efforts. Instead of hoping their backups will work, they can demonstrate with confidence that recovery is both possible and fast. The New Language of the Boardroom: Certainty CISOs and CIOs know ransomware is no longer a fringe risk. It is a board-level concern. Executives and directors want to know: If we are hit tomorrow, what happens? Without validated recovery assurance, the answer is murky at best. But with provable recovery in place, IT leaders can enter the boardroom with a different message: “We don’t just have backups. We know our backups are clean.”“We have tested recovery continuously, and we can restore within hours”“We will not pay a ransom. We will not stay down.” That kind of certainty does more than protect operations. It strengthens investor confidence, customer trust, and regulatory standing. The Cost Equation: Downtime vs. Preparedness At first glance, investing in advanced recovery validation may seem like an added cost in already tight IT budgets. But let’s compare. The average cost of recovery from a ransomware incident: $4.5 millionAverage downtime: days to weeksLong-term costs: reputational damage, customer churn, regulatory fines, and lost contracts Against that backdrop, the cost of implementing proactive resilience measures is marginal. In fact, enterprises that can avoid paying ransoms, reduce downtime, and preserve trust often see a significant return on resilience investments. Case in Point: How Enterprises Are Putting This Into Practice Across industries from financial services to healthcare to SaaS, organizations are already adopting provable recovery strategies. They are: Deploying continuous data integrity validation tools to scan backups for corruption and ransomware encryptionRunning automated restore tests to confirm applications can be brought back online seamlesslyAligning recovery practices with compliance frameworks like DORA, HIPAA, and NYDFS that now mandate cyber-resilient recoveryIntegrating recovery assurance into incident response playbooks, so when attacks happen, teams already know exactly which recovery points are safe This is not just an IT shift. It is a strategic pivot. Enterprises that embrace provable recovery are redefining resilience as a competitive advantage. Why Now? The Ransomware Arms Race The urgency is clear. Ransomware tactics continue to evolve. Attackers increasingly target backups themselves, launch encryption slowly to evade detection, and use stealthy techniques to blend into normal system behavior. Defenses that worked five years ago, like perimeter firewalls, malware signature scanning, or even immutable storage, are no longer sufficient. Today’s arms race requires layered defense: prevention, detection, and above all, recovery assurance. Because no matter how strong your defenses, the ultimate test is this: Can you recover quickly without paying? Conclusion: Building Confidence in Recovery The numbers do not lie. Ransomware is costing organizations millions, with downtime dragging on for days or even weeks. Yet there is hope. Fewer enterprises are paying ransoms because more are building the ability to recover confidently. The shift from prevention to resilience marks a turning point in cyber strategy. Having backups is not enough. Knowing your backups are clean and usable is what counts. By investing in provable recovery through continuous validation, automated testing, and ransomware artifact detection, organizations can ensure that when, not if, an attack strikes, they will bounce back fast. The full IT Pro article, “Ransomware attacks carry huge financial impacts – but CISO worries still aren’t stopping firms from paying out” offers further detail on these trends. But the takeaway is clear. Resilience is no longer optional. It is the defining capability of modern enterprises. And that raises the most important question for every IT and security leader today: If you were hit tomorrow, could you recover with certainty?

Not long ago, organizations felt confident in their backups. Whether the disruption came from hardware failure, human error, or even a cyberattack, recovery seemed straightforward: restore the data and move on. That confidence is gone. Modern ransomware campaigns are stealthier, more targeted, and far more patient. Attackers don’t just smash in, encrypt everything, and demand ransom.They wait.They blend in.They use your own tools against you. By the time you notice, your backups — your last line of defense — may already be compromised. Today’s ransomware operates like a quiet, methodical game of chess. Unless your recovery plan accounts for it, you risk restoring corrupted data when the pressure is highest. The Compliance and Business Mandate for Ransomware Recovery Ransomware resilience isn’t a “nice-to-have” anymore. Regulators, cyber insurers, and executive boards now expect — and often demand — proof that you can recover from an attack without costly delays or surprises. This isn’t just about ticking a compliance checkbox. It’s about operational survival. The inability to quickly identify a safe recovery point can mean: Prolonged downtime that stalls revenue and damages your brandRegulatory penalties for data loss or service disruptionCostly ransom payments are simply to regain access to critical systems.Lost customer trust that may never be fully rebuilt For organizations running workloads on AWS, the stakes are exceptionally high. Cloud adoption brings speed, scale, and flexibility — but also creates more potential entry points and complexities in data protection. Why Backups Alone Fall Short in a Ransomware Era Ransomware has evolved to bypass traditional backup strategies: Fileless Malware — runs in memory, leaving nothing for antivirus tools to scanPolymorphic Ransomware — constantly changes signatures to avoid detectionLiving-off-the-Land (LOTL) Attacks — exploits legitimate admin tools like PowerShell or bashLow-and-Slow Encryption — infects backups gradually over weeks or months When these slip past defenses, they don’t just compromise production data — they poison recovery points. By the time you restore, you may be reintroducing the very threat you’re trying to eliminate. Closing the Gap: Continuous Backup Validation in AWS This is where AWS and Elastio together change the equation. AWS provides powerful native services for protecting workloads: AWS Backup for centralized, automated backup managementAWS Elastic Disaster Recovery (DRS) for rapid failoverAWS Logically Air-Gapped (LAG) Vaults for secure, immutable storageAWS Restore Tests for simulating recovery scenarios But while AWS delivers the tools to store and recover your data, Elastio ensures that what you’re recovering is clean and uncompromised. How Elastio Fits Into the AWS Data Protection Stack Elastio integrates directly with AWS services like S3, EBS Snapshots, AWS Backup, DRS, and FSx to continuously scan backups and replicas for: Ransomware Encryption Patterns — including polymorphic and low-rate strains that evade traditional toolsInsider Threat Encryption — intentional or accidental data tampering from withinCorruption or Data Integrity Issues — ensuring that every recovery point is not just secure, but usable. The results aren’t just alerts — they’re actionable, compliance-grade reports that mark each safe recovery point with a “Last Known Clean” badge. This gives your team absolute clarity on which backups are trustworthy when every second counts. Detection Accuracy That Doesn’t Compromise Performance Unlike traditional endpoint protection or in-band scanning, Elastio operates out of band. This means attackers with OS-level access can’t tamper with scan results or disable protection. Its ML engine — trained by reverse engineering every significant ransomware strain since 2014 — delivers 99.999% detection precision without impacting system performance. Whether the malicious code is polymorphic, fileless, or slow-moving, Elastio detects it and certifies whether your recovery point is clean. Compliance and Cyber Insurance Made Easier For organizations subject to frameworks like NIST, DORA, NYDFS, or rigorous cyber insurance underwriting, proving recovery capability is no longer optional. Elastio’s audit-ready reporting gives you: Documented evidence of clean recovery pointsHistorical tracking of data integrity over timeSimplified proof-of-compliance during audits or insurance renewals. This isn’t just about security; it’s about reducing friction, lowering costs, and ensuring compliance. Real-World Impact: Saving Days or Weeks in a Crisis Consider the experience of JetSweep’s Director of Cloud Solutions, Jeff Fudge: “Elastio allowed us to see almost immediately which backups were clean. That saved us days—possibly weeks—of trial and error.” In a ransomware scenario, those days saved can be the difference between a quick recovery and a catastrophic business interruption. Why This Matters Now The ransomware problem isn’t going away. It’s getting worse: Attackers are exploiting the cloud’s scale and complexityThe median dwell time for ransomware in backups is increasing.Regulatory and insurance scrutiny is tightening. In short: if you can’t prove your recovery points are clean before a restore, you’re gambling with your organization’s future. The AWS + Elastio Advantage With AWS providing the secure, scalable infrastructure and Elastio delivering automated ransomware recovery assurance, you get: Proven-Clean Recovery Points: Confidence that you’re restoring uncompromised dataContinuous Validation: Out-of-band scans that work at scale without slowing operationsRegulatory Alignment: Compliance-ready audit reports to satisfy regulators and insurersRapid, Confident Recovery: Eliminate the guesswork in disaster scenarios As Sanjay Singh, Head of DevSecOps at Games24x7, put it: “Our primary focus was to fortify our backup system, ensuring improved mission-critical data recoverability and business continuity… Elastio understood our priorities and collaborated with us in constructing a robust framework for a resilient and secure foundation for our data management needs.” From “Hope It Works” to “Know It Works” The shift in mindset is simple but profound. Traditional backup strategies are rooted in hope — the hope that what’s stored is uncorrupted and usable. AWS + Elastio replaces hope with proof. Instead of waiting for a crisis to test your backups, you continuously validate them in real time. Instead of scrambling to isolate clean recovery points after an attack, you already know which ones are safe. That’s what ransomware recovery assurance means: the ability to restore quickly, confidently, and without reintroducing the threat. Ready to Prove Recovery? Ransomware resilience is no longer just about stopping the attack — it’s about ensuring you can bounce back without hesitation. AWS and Elastio together make that possible. With this joint solution, your cloud transformation isn’t just faster and more scalable — it’s inherently more resilient, more compliant, and more defensible. Prove recovery. Stop ransomware. Read more: Automated Ransomware Recovery Assurance for AWS Cloud Backups Ensure Clean, Ransomware-Free Recovery with Elastio & AWS Logically Air-Gapped Vaults AWS DRS + Elastio: Disaster Recovery Starts with Clean, Verified Data Elastio Ransomware Recovery Assurance Platform & AWS Backup