Your Backups Aren’t Safe: Why Malware Scans Miss the Real Threat

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