RansomwareRecovery Services
Under active ransomware attack? Petronella's certified forensic examiners provide immediate containment, investigation, data recovery, and system restoration. We recover your operations without paying a ransom and harden your environment to prevent it from happening again.
Active Ransomware Attack?
Do not shut down your systems. Do not pay the ransom. Call our emergency response team immediately.
Call (919) 348-4912 NowWhat Happens During a Ransomware Attack
Ransomware encrypts your files and demands payment in cryptocurrency for the decryption key. Modern ransomware variants also exfiltrate data before encryption, threatening to publish sensitive information if the ransom is not paid (double extortion). Some variants go further with triple extortion, adding DDoS attacks or contacting your clients directly.
The average ransomware attack causes 22 days of operational downtime. The average ransom payment in 2024 exceeded $1.5 million, and paying the ransom does not guarantee data recovery. According to Sophos, 32% of organizations that paid the ransom in 2024 did not recover all their data. Additionally, organizations that pay are 80% more likely to be attacked again because they have demonstrated willingness to pay.
Professional ransomware recovery focuses on three objectives: stop the attack from spreading, recover data from clean backups and forensic methods, and harden the environment so the same attack vector cannot be exploited again. Petronella delivers all three, led by a Certified Digital Forensics Examiner (DFE #604180) with 24+ years of incident response experience.
Why You Should Not Pay the Ransom
The FBI, CISA, and virtually every cybersecurity organization advise against paying ransoms. Here is why:
- No guarantee of recovery: Decryption tools provided by attackers frequently fail, corrupt data, or work too slowly to be useful. One-third of paying organizations do not get all their data back.
- Funds criminal operations: Ransom payments directly fund criminal organizations that launch future attacks against other businesses, hospitals, schools, and critical infrastructure.
- Increases future risk: Paying marks your organization as a willing payer. Threat actors share this information, making you a preferred target for future attacks.
- Potential legal liability: Payments to sanctioned entities (many ransomware groups operate from sanctioned countries) can violate OFAC regulations and expose your organization to federal penalties.
- Does not address root cause: The attacker still has access to your environment. Without proper remediation, they can re-encrypt your systems at any time.
Our Recovery Process
A structured, forensically sound approach to ransomware recovery that preserves evidence and restores operations.
Emergency Triage: Assess scope, isolate affected systems, stop encryption spread
Forensic Investigation: Identify attack vector, timeline, and data exposure
Evidence Preservation: Forensic imaging for legal, insurance, and regulatory needs
Data Recovery: Restore from clean backups, shadow copies, and forensic methods
System Rebuild: Clean OS installation, hardened configuration, verified integrity
Post-Incident Hardening: Close attack vector, deploy monitoring, document lessons
What We Deliver
Emergency Containment
Immediate network segmentation and system isolation to stop ransomware from spreading to additional systems. We identify and terminate active attacker access, block command-and-control communications, and prevent data exfiltration while preserving forensic evidence for investigation.
Digital Forensic Investigation
Certified Digital Forensics Examiner (DFE #604180) leads the investigation to determine initial access vector, attacker dwell time, lateral movement paths, privilege escalation methods, and whether data was exfiltrated before encryption. Evidence is collected and documented to chain-of-custody standards.
Data Recovery Without Ransom
We recover your data from immutable backups, offsite replicas, volume shadow copies, and forensic recovery techniques. Our goal is 100% data recovery without any ransom payment. We verify data integrity after recovery and validate that restored systems are free from malware before bringing them back online.
Compliance and Insurance Documentation
Forensic reports that satisfy regulatory notification requirements under HIPAA, state breach notification laws, and PCI DSS. Reports are formatted for cyber insurance claims, law enforcement cooperation, and client notification obligations. Many clients use our reports to expedite insurance payouts.
Post-Incident Hardening
Root cause remediation closes the specific attack vector used in your incident. We deploy managed detection and response for 24/7 monitoring, implement multi-factor authentication, harden Active Directory, segment networks, and establish immutable backup architecture to prevent recurrence.
Insurance Claims Support
We work directly with your cyber insurance carrier to document the incident, provide forensic evidence, quantify losses, and support your claim. Our forensic reports are accepted by all major cyber insurance carriers. If you do not have cyber insurance, we can help you obtain appropriate coverage after recovery.
Certified Forensic Recovery Team
Forensic Credentials
- Certified Digital Forensics Examiner (DFE #604180)
- Chain-of-custody evidence handling for legal proceedings
- Experience with LockBit, BlackCat, Akira, Royal, and Play variants
- Law enforcement coordination and regulatory notification support
Recovery Advantage
- No-ransom recovery policy: we never recommend paying
- Same-day emergency response in the Raleigh-Durham area
- Remote containment and investigation for national clients
- Full post-incident MDR deployment to prevent recurrence
Frequently Asked Questions
How quickly can you respond to a ransomware attack?
Emergency triage begins immediately upon contact. For Raleigh-Durham area clients, we can have an engineer on-site within hours. For remote clients, we begin containment and forensic investigation via secure remote access within the first call. Time is critical in ransomware incidents, as every minute increases the encryption scope and potential data loss.
Can you recover data without paying the ransom?
In the vast majority of cases, yes. We recover data from immutable backups, offsite replicas, volume shadow copies, and forensic recovery techniques. The recovery rate depends on your backup architecture and the ransomware variant involved. This is why we strongly recommend implementing proper backup and disaster recovery before an attack occurs.
Should I shut down my systems during an attack?
Do not power off systems. Instead, disconnect them from the network. Powering off can destroy forensic evidence stored in memory (RAM) and may trigger deadman switches in some ransomware variants. Disconnecting from the network stops the spread while preserving evidence. Call us immediately and we will guide you through the correct containment steps.
Will my cyber insurance cover your services?
Most cyber insurance policies cover incident response, forensic investigation, data recovery, and system restoration costs. We work directly with all major cyber insurance carriers and our forensic reports are accepted as claims documentation. Contact your carrier first, then call us. Many carriers have approved vendor lists, but most will also accept qualified independent responders.
What should I do to prepare before an attack happens?
The three most important preparations are: (1) implement immutable, air-gapped backups tested monthly, (2) deploy managed detection and response for 24/7 monitoring, and (3) establish an incident response plan that your team has rehearsed. Our managed service packages include all three.
How much does ransomware recovery cost?
Ransomware recovery costs vary based on the scope of the attack, number of affected systems, and complexity of your environment. Emergency response engagements are scoped during the initial triage call. Most cyber insurance policies cover incident response and forensic investigation costs. We work directly with your carrier to minimize your out-of-pocket expenses and provide detailed documentation for claims.
What industries are most targeted by ransomware?
Healthcare, financial services, manufacturing, legal, and government organizations are the most frequently targeted because they hold sensitive data and face severe operational consequences from downtime. Healthcare organizations face additional HIPAA breach notification requirements. Defense contractors risk losing CMMC certification eligibility. We serve all of these industries with specialized ransomware recovery and prevention services.
Can you help if our backups were also encrypted?
Yes. Sophisticated ransomware groups specifically target backup systems before encrypting production data. Even when backups are compromised, our forensic team can often recover data from volume shadow copies, off-site replicas, cloud snapshots, and other sources that the attackers may have missed. We also evaluate whether known decryption tools exist for the specific ransomware variant involved in your incident. Prevention is always better: our Unhackable and Compliant training course teaches teams how to build truly resilient backup architectures.
Ransomware Prevention Training
The best ransomware recovery is one you never need. Train your team to recognize and prevent attacks before they happen.
Unhackable and Compliant
Learn how to build a resilient cybersecurity posture that prevents ransomware, phishing, and data breaches. Covers backup architecture, endpoint hardening, incident response planning, and compliance requirements for HIPAA, CMMC, and SOC 2.
All Training Courses
Browse our full catalog of cybersecurity, compliance, and IT training courses from Petronella Training Academy. Self-paced online learning with certificates of completion. Individual and team pricing available.
Prevention and Recovery Services
Hit by Ransomware? Call Now.
Our certified forensic recovery team responds immediately. We restore your operations without paying a ransom and harden your environment to prevent future attacks.