Overview
A multi-site organisation experienced a critical ransomware attack that encrypted production systems and severely disrupted business operations. Their incumbent IT provider was unable to stabilise the situation, and the internal IT administrator contacted Immervox for urgent assistance.
Immervox rapidly engaged to identify the attack entry point, secure remaining data, recover operations, and implement a long-term cyber resilience and backup strategy.
The Challenge
- The organisation faced a high-risk scenario with immediate operational impact:
- Production servers and infrastructure encrypted by ransomware
- Business services offline across multiple locations
- No effective recovery strategy in place
- Backup architecture limited to two USB-attached drives
- One backup drive encrypted due to being permanently connected
- Significant risk of total data loss
- No enterprise endpoint protection, patch management, or central monitoring
- No formal Business Resilience (BR – Business Resilience) or Disaster Recovery (DR – Disaster Recovery) framework
The environment required immediate containment, secure recovery, and complete infrastructure redesign.
Immervox Response
Immervox initiated an emergency response engagement and executed a structured recovery approach.
- Immediate Incident Response & Containment
- Worked directly with internal IT to identify the ransomware ingress point
- Assessed scope of compromise across systems and sites
- Secured remaining infrastructure to prevent further spread
- Isolated affected systems
- Data Protection & Backup Preservation
- Identified remaining unencrypted backup media
- Immediately secured and duplicated the surviving USB backup drive before any recovery work commenced
- Preserved original data integrity for forensic and recovery purposes
This step prevented potential total data loss.
- Recovery Strategy & Infrastructure Rebuild
- Designed and executed a full recovery plan
- Rebuilt production servers from clean state
- Reconstructed virtual infrastructure and storage clusters
- Reconfigured enterprise storage environment using Dell PowerStore
- Restored services across three operational sites
- Returned business systems to production
All core services were successfully restored and stabilised.
Security & Resilience Improvements
Following recovery, Immervox implemented a complete cyber resilience and operational improvement programme.
Endpoint Security & Monitoring
- Enterprise endpoint protection deployed across environment
- Patch management framework implemented
- Centralised monitoring and management (RMM – Remote Monitoring and Management) introduced
- Continuous threat detection and vulnerability management enabled
Backup & Disaster Recovery Transformation
- Designed a formal Business Resilience plan
- Implemented structured backup strategy
- Recommended cloud-based immutable backups to protect against future ransomware encryption
- Introduced recovery testing and documented recovery procedures
The organisation moved from basic consumer-style backups to enterprise-grade data protection.
The Outcome
- Three operational sites restored and fully functional
- Production infrastructure rebuilt securely
- Critical data preserved and recovered
- Modern storage and virtualisation platform implemented
- Enterprise security controls deployed
- Continuous monitoring and patching established
- Formal business resilience strategy created
- Significantly reduced risk of future ransomware impact
The organisation transitioned from high exposure to a secure, monitored, and resilient infrastructure.
Key Risks Identified
- This incident highlighted common issues seen in many organisations:
- Permanently attached backup devices vulnerable to encryption
- Lack of immutable or offsite backups
- No endpoint security or patch governance
- Absence of tested recovery procedures
- Limited monitoring and threat visibility
These risks remain common across many SME and mid-market environments.
Business Impact
- The organisation now benefits from:
- Stronger cyber security posture
- Predictable recovery capability
- Improved operational continuity
- Reduced business interruption risk
- Enterprise-grade monitoring and protection
- Future-ready infrastructure platform
How Immervox Helps
Immervox specialises in rapid incident response, secure infrastructure recovery, and long-term cyber resilience design. We help organisations move from reactive recovery to proactive protection through:
- Ransomware response and remediation
- Secure infrastructure rebuilds
- Immutable backup architecture
- Business resilience planning
- Endpoint security and monitoring
- Enterprise storage and virtualisation platforms