IBM's Cost of a Data Breach report shows that data recovery after a ransomware attack involves more than restoring systems. Investigations, regulatory notifications, legal processes, support for affected customers, and reputational repair are also part of the recovery effort. 

In this article, we explore the challenges of data recovery after a ransomware attack. We also explain how compliant archiving bolsters the process by helping organizations prove data integrity, meet regulatory obligations, and maintain transparency.

What are Ransomware Attacks?

Ransomware attacks are cyber incidents where malicious software encrypts your organization’s files or systems. These systems then remain inaccessible until a ransom is paid.

Ransomware is one of the leading cyber threats today, and they are becoming harder to recover from. The average downtime after a ransomware attack has stretched from 15 days in 2020 to over 24 days in 2023.

Organizations with sensitive data are favorite targets, as attackers know the organizations can be pressured into paying. Public or government agencies, hospitals, and financial institutions are frequent victims. 

There are three primary types of ransomware:

1. Crypto-ransomware encrypts valuable files and to get the decryption key, payment is demanded.
2. Locker ransomware completely locks users out of systems, grinding operations to a halt. 
3. Double extortion involves stealing data before encrypting it and threatening to leak the data if payment isn’t made.

Real world examples:

• In 2021, a ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline shut down the largest fuel pipeline in the U.S. This attack led to widespread disruption and fuel shortages. The company paid a hefty ransom, some of which was later recovered by the FBI. 
• The WannaCry attack in 2017 impacted about 200,000 systems around the world. The UK’s National Health Service was impacted severely. About a third of its ambulances had to be rerouted, and thousands of medical appointments were canceled. 

These incidents illustrate the extent that ransomware can disrupt economies and essential services.

The Compliance Challenge in Ransomware Attacks

A ransomware attack is a compliance crisis for organizations in regulated industries. 

Though operations may have stalled, regulations do not pause. Obligations to preserve and produce records remain in place. Failure to meet these obligations can expose weaknesses in your controls, backups, and recordkeeping practices. These can further lead to penalties, lawsuits, and loss of reputation. 

Let us look at how ransomware complicates compliance in different sectors:

Public records and transparency

Government agencies have to operate under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and its state equivalents. Citizens, journalists, and oversight bodies also expect timely access to records. 

A ransomware attack can lock or corrupt these records, leaving the agency unable to respond to requests. This can raise questions about transparency and trust in public institutions.

SEC and FINRA rules

Financial institutions face some of the most demanding recordkeeping requirements. SEC Rule 17a-4 and FINRA regulations require all business-related communications to be preserved in tamper-proof formats with full metadata. 

Ransomware complicates this by making records that may need to be produced for audits, investigations, or legal reviews, inaccessible or corrupt. When this happens, the focus shifts from the attack itself to the institution’s ability to recover and demonstrate that records remain intact.

Auditors will not fine a firm simply because an attack occurred. However, if it exposes weak controls, inadequate backups, or gaps in recordkeeping, it can quickly lead to sanctions, penalties, and regulatory consequences. 

Healthcare: HIPAA-protected information

Healthcare providers must juggle two urgent needs: restoring clinical operations and protecting patient information. 

HIPAA requires that records remain secure and accessible even during crises. After Scripps Health in California suffered a ransomware attack in 2021, care was disrupted for weeks, but equally pressing were the questions about whether communications and records remained HIPAA-compliant throughout the attack. Scripps agreed to pay $3.57 million as a result of several class-action lawsuits from patients who claimed that the system did not do enough to protect their medical data.

Other regulated industries

Other sectors also face strict compliance requirements that ransomware can disrupt:

1. Legal teams must maintain defensible records for eDiscovery. If ransomware locks or alters case files, law firms may be unable to produce complete evidence during litigation. These can raise questions about admissibility and chain of custody.
2. Educational institutions must preserve student data under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). A ransomware attack that corrupts or leaks this data can put both compliance and student privacy at risk.
3. Energy companies, targeted for their critical infrastructure role, must prove operational communications remain intact. If ransomware disrupts these systems, it can affect compliance as well as safety.

In every case, compliance demands amplify the challenge of ransomware recovery.

Backups vs. Archiving in Ransomware Recovery

Backups are critical for data recovery after a ransomware attack, but they don’t prove that the recovered data is complete, authentic, or tamper-free. Archiving fills this gap.

Here's why:

• Backups restore access; archives preserve authenticity. A backup brings systems back online, but only an archive with digital signatures can prove the data is unaltered.
• Backups are vulnerable. Many are stored on connected networks or cloud systems, making them susceptible to ransomware attacks. For example, in July 2025, a transportation company in the UK, Knights of Old, was taken offline by a ransomware attack. The attackers destroyed all of KNP’s backups and disaster recovery systems. The firm couldn’t recover its data or systems and went out of business.
• Compliance requires defensibility. It’s not enough to bring systems back online during ransomware recovery. Organizations must also be able to show when and how data was restored, and that recovery steps meet regulatory expectations. Archiving software can provide this audit trail. 

All that is to say, assuming that backups alone will cover you during ransomware recovery is a dangerous oversight.

The role of archiving

Proper archiving creates defensible records for compliance reviews and legal investigations.

What makes an archive defensible?

A regulatory-compliant archive must be:

• Immutable: Once captured, records cannot be altered.
• Verifiable: Metadata and hashes (e.g., SHA-256)are needed to confirm authenticity.
• Auditable: Logs track every action taken with the record.

Together, these elements ensure that archived data can be accepted as reliable evidence.

Why this matters in ransomware recovery

After a ransomware attack, organizations often scramble to show what was lost, what was restored, and whether records can still be trusted. A proper archive reduces the time this process takes significantly:

• For compliance officers, it means being able to retrieve an email or chat message with full metadata during an audit. 
• For records managers, it ensures public records requests can still be met, even if primary systems were encrypted.

Providing off-network protection

A big risk in ransomware recovery is that backups and live data systems may also be encrypted. Archiving reduces this risk by storing records in isolated or immutable environments that ransomware cannot reach.

Recovering Digital Communications After Ransomware Attacks

The damage caused by ransomware can also extend to communication channels such as emails, chats, collaboration tools, and even public websites. These hold records that organizations must reference during recovery. Archiving ensures that these records remain intact and retrievable.

Here is how digital communications channels come into play in ransomware recovery:

• Collaboration platforms such as Slack, Teams, and Zoom contain operational history. Archived chat logs can reconstruct decision-making during the hours leading up to an attack. This supports both recovery efforts and incident investigations. 
• During crises, misinformation spreads rapidly. Archiving social media posts and comments provide an unalterable record of what the organization communicated publicly.
• For government agencies and financial firms, websites are public records. Ransomware may take live sites offline or alter content. Archived copies ensure organizations can prove exactly what information was available before and after an incident, ensuring compliance and protecting public trust.

Mitigating Long-Term Risks

The aftermath of a ransomware attack often stretches into years, involving litigation, regulatory reviews, and rebuilding public confidence. Archiving helps mitigate these long-term risks by: 

• Reducing compliance exposure: After a ransomware attack, regulators may ask whether records remained intact during recovery. Archiving helps demonstrate that integrity was preserved. For example, under HIPAA, penalties can rise up to $1.5 million annually when organizations cannot show that reasonable safeguards or recovery measures were in place. 
• Strengthening evidence admissibility: Courts and regulators require proof of authenticity.  Metadata and hashes captured in compliant archives provide the chain of custody needed to support such cases.
• Building resilience: Defensible archives give organizations confidence during recovery. Even if primary systems are disrupted, archived records remain intact and accessible. This allows teams to restore operations faster.
  
  

Best Practices for Ransomware Readiness

Archiving delivers the most value when built into a broader ransomware data recovery plan. 

Best practices for integrating archiving into ransomware readiness include: 

1. Maintain tamper-proof, off-network archives

Keep archives isolated from production systems so they cannot be encrypted.

2. Test recovery and retrieval processes

Regular drills should go beyond restoring IT systems. Simulating a FOIA request or regulatory audit during an outage ensures teams are ready to produce records under pressure.

3. Integrate archiving into incident response plans

Make archiving a core part of playbooks alongside backups, threat  detection, and communication.

4. Automate capture of digital content

Manual collection won’t meet regulatory or legal requirements after a ransomware attack. Automated archiving of social media, websites, and collaboration platforms reduces the risk of missing records.

5. Establish clear ownership

Define responsibilities across IT, compliance, and legal teams. During a crisis, clarity about “who retrieves what” speeds up response times.

Standards bodies reinforce these practices. For example, the NIST Cybersecurity Framework emphasizes testing recovery processes, while ISO 22301 (Business Continuity) highlights the importance of reliable information access. Together, these frameworks show that archiving is not optional and integral to resilience.

Building Defensible Data Recovery After a Ransomware Attack 

Prevention matters, but recovery determines whether an organization maintains compliance and trust or faces years of fallout.

The stakes of cyberattacks like ransomware are high: 60% of small companies close within six months of a cyberattack. Larger organizations may survive but can suffer reputational wounds that last for years. AI-driven ransomware attacks are also emerging, making recovery strategies even more critical.

Regulatory-compliant archiving is a cornerstone of defensible recovery. By preserving tamper-proof, audit-ready records across websites, social media, and communication platforms, organizations can:

• Meet compliance obligations, even during crises
• Respond quickly and credibly to regulators and courts
• Maintain stakeholder trust and transparency

For organizations that want to embed this resilience, solutions like Pagefreezer help preserve digital communications in immutable, verifiable formats—providing the confidence needed in highly regulated environments. 

Book a demo today.