You’ve got backups. That means you’re safe from ransomware, right?
Unfortunately, that’s not how it works. Modern ransomware is built to go after your backups first. The thing you’re relying on to save your business is often the first thing it tries to destroy.
Let’s walk through what really happens when ransomware strikes, how it targets your backups, and what you can do to protect your business.
The False Comfort of “We Have Backups”
We hear this a lot from new clients who feel confident because there’s a daily backup running; maybe it’s saving to a USB drive, syncing to the cloud, or was set up a few years ago and hasn’t been looked at since.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: most of these setups don’t hold up against a real ransomware attack. Ransomware doesn’t just encrypt your files and stop there; it looks for backup copies too, and if it finds them, it encrypts them.
Ransomware Is Designed to Destroy Your Safety Net
When ransomware breaks into a system, it scans the network to identify additional resources it can access, including external USB drives, mapped network drives, backup servers, and cloud storage folders that synchronize with your main files.
If it can reach it, it can encrypt it. That includes backups that are stored right next to your live data. Some ransomware even waits a few weeks before triggering, quietly poisoning your backups first, then locking your files once you have nothing clean left to restore.
Cloud Sync Is Not the Same as Backup
Many businesses rely on tools such as Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive. These are convenient for sharing files and working across devices, and they do offer some version history or recovery features, but there are limits.
For example, older versions may be retained for 30 days only, sometimes less on free plans, and recovery can be challenging if hundreds or thousands of files are affected. If ransomware encrypts everything and the changes sync before you notice, those encrypted versions might replace the clean ones. While cloud storage can be helpful in some situations, it’s not a comprehensive backup strategy.
For peace of mind, you need backups that are entirely separate from your primary data.
You Need Backups That Ransomware Can’t Touch
If ransomware can reach your backup, you don’t really have a backup, at least not one you can count on.
What you need are immutable backups, which can’t be changed or deleted even by someone with admin access, and offline backups, which are disconnected from your network and stored on systems not exposed to regular traffic.
A good rule to follow is the 3-2-1 approach: three copies of your data, stored on two different types of media, with at least one copy off-site and offline. This creates multiple layers of protection so that even if ransomware gets in, you have a clean, recoverable copy somewhere else.
Backup Is Only One Part of the Plan
Having a backup is one thing, but being able to recover quickly and with minimal damage is another.
We help our clients build full recovery strategies, not just basic backups. This includes setting recovery point goals (how much data you can afford to lose), setting recovery time goals (how long you can afford to be down), and prioritizing which systems and files come back first.
With a real plan in place, a ransomware attack becomes a manageable event rather than a full-blown disaster.
Want a Backup Strategy That Actually Works?
If you’re not entirely confident your backups are protected from ransomware, we can help.
We build, monitor, and manage backup systems that ransomware cannot access, and we regularly test recovery so you’re never left guessing. Plus, we create recovery plans that match the way your business operates.
Let’s stop ransomware from turning your backup into a bad joke.
Call us today at +852 2851 8002 or email sales@tecsupp.com.
