Ransomware strikes fast — but with the right backup in place, recovery doesn’t have to be slow or expensive. Here is exactly what to do the moment you detect an attack, how to verify your backups are clean, and how to restore everything to normal in under 30 minutes.
At 9:14 AM on a Tuesday, Robert Hayes — a small business owner in Austin, Texas — got an email from an unknown sender with a PDF attachment labelled “Invoice_Final.pdf”. He opened it. By 9:22 AM, 1,400 files on his Windows 11 laptop and shared office server were encrypted. The ransom note demanded $12,000 in Bitcoin.
By 9:40 AM, every single file was restored and Robert was back at work. He paid the attackers exactly zero dollars.
The difference between Robert’s outcome and a $12,000 ransom payment — or worse, permanent data loss — was one thing: he had Softyz Inc backing up his files continuously to immutable cloud storage. The ransomware encrypted his local files. It couldn’t touch his backups.
This guide will walk you through exactly what Robert did — and what you should do if ransomware ever hits your device.
Before we begin: why your backups are safe even if your device isn’t
The most important thing to understand before we walk through the recovery steps is why your Softyz backup cannot be encrypted by ransomware — even if the attacker gains full administrator access to your machine.
Softyz uses WORM (Write-Once-Read-Many) immutable storage. The moment a file is backed up to Softyz, that specific version is locked. No software running on your device — not ransomware, not a rogue script, not even a command with full administrator privileges — can modify, encrypt, or delete that copy. The only entity that can delete a backup version is your Softyz account, from within our authenticated platform, after the version retention period expires.
“We designed immutable storage as a first principle, not an add-on. The moment Softyz became popular enough to target, we knew attackers would try to encrypt the backups too. They can’t.”— Priya Sundaram, CTO, Softyz Inc.
This means that even if ransomware encrypts every file on your device today, your Softyz backup contains clean copies of every file as they existed seconds before the attack started — and you can restore them completely.
ℹ️ What this guide covers
This guide is specifically for Softyz users. If you don’t yet have Softyz installed, the recovery steps below won’t apply — but this article explains how to protect yourself before an attack happens. Set it up before you need it.
Step-by-step: recovering from ransomware in under 30 minutes
The moment you discover your device has been compromised, follow these steps in order. Do not restart, do not pay the ransom, and do not attempt to manually decrypt files — you will very likely make things worse.
Disconnect from the network immediately (1–2 minutes)
The moment you suspect ransomware, disconnect your device from the internet and your local network. Pull the ethernet cable, turn off Wi-Fi, and disable Bluetooth. This stops the ransomware from spreading to other devices on your network and from communicating with the attacker’s command-and-control server.
⚠️ Do not do this yet
Do NOT restart your computer yet — this can trigger additional payloads in some ransomware strains. Do NOT delete any encrypted files. Do NOT try to run anti-malware manually from the infected machine before isolating it.
Document what you see (2–3 minutes)
Before you do anything else, take photos of the ransom note on your phone, note the time you first noticed the attack, and write down any filenames or error messages you see. This documentation matters for insurance claims, law enforcement reports, and our support team if you need assistance.
Access the Softyz Inc Web Manager from a DIFFERENT device (3–5 minutes)
Open a laptop, tablet, or phone that is NOT infected, connect to a safe network, and go to softyzinc.com. Log in with your Softyz Inc credentials. This is critical — access your backups from a clean device, not from the infcted machine.
💡 Tip: check your backup health first
In the Web Manager, go to Dashboard → Device Health. You’ll see the last backup timestamp for the infected device. In most cases, Softyz Inc has a clean backup from seconds or minutes before the attack — well within the window you need to restore everything.
Identify your clean restore point (2–3 minutes)
In the Web Manager, navigate to the infected device’s file browser. Click on any file and open Version History. You’ll see a timeline of every backed-up version. Look for the last version that was created before the timestamp of your attack. This is your clean restore point. For most attacks, this is within 30 seconds to 5 minutes before the ransomware activated.
Wipe and reinstall Windows or macOS (5–15 minutes, while restore runs)
Do a factory reset or clean OS reinstall on the infected machine. On Windows 11: Settings → System → Recovery → Reset this PC → Remove everything. On Mac: boot into Recovery Mode and erase the disk. This removes the ransomware completely. Your files are safe in Softyz — you don’t need anything from the local drive.
Install Softyz on the clean machine and restore (5–10 minutes)
After the OS reset, download Softyz from softyzinc.com, sign in to your account, and use the Restore function to pull every file back from your clean restore point. Softyz will restore the complete folder structure, file naming, and all versions. For most users with under 50 GB of data, the full restore completes in under 10 minutes.
✅ What you’ll see when it’s done
The Softyz restore progress bar will show 100% complete. You’ll receive an email confirmation with the full restore log — every file name, every version restored, and the total size. You can verify any file immediately by opening it from the Web Manager before the local restore finishes.
Secure your account and report the attack (5 minutes)
Change your Softyz account password immediately. Enable 2FA if it wasn’t already active. Change passwords for email, banking, and any other services that were accessible from the infected machine. Report the attack to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) at ic3.gov, and contact your cyber insurance provider if applicable. Finally, contact Softyz support — our team will review your account’s threat log and confirm your backup integrity with a full audit report.
The full post-ransomware recovery checklist
Print this checklist or save it somewhere you can access even without your main device. The best time to have this is before you ever need it.
Why you should never pay the ransom
Paying the ransom is tempting when your business is paralysed and you’re staring at a countdown timer. But the data is clear: 73% of victims who pay the ransom do not get all their data back. Attackers take the payment and either disappear, provide a broken decryption key, or come back with a second ransom demand.
Beyond the ethics of funding criminal organisations, paying the ransom also marks you as a viable target. Ransomware groups share lists of “payers” — companies that caved once are far more likely to be targeted again.
How to prepare now — before an attack happens
The steps above only work if you already have Softyz running. If you’re reading this before an attack has happened, here is what you should set up today — it takes less than 10 minutes and could save you everything.
- Install Softyz on every device — Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Every device is a potential entry point.
- Enable real-time continuous backup — not just scheduled. Real-time backup means your clean restore point is always seconds old, not hours or days old.
- Verify your backups are running — log in to the Web Manager right now and confirm every device shows a recent backup timestamp.
- Enable 2FA on your Softyz account — Account → Security → Enable two-factor authentication. This prevents attackers from accessing your backups even if they get your password.
- Save this article’s URL or print the checklist above — store it somewhere you can access from a phone or second device without your main computer.
💡 Test your restore now — before you need it
Most people discover their backup doesn’t work when they need it most. Take 5 minutes today: open the Softyz Web Manager, pick any file, and do a test restore. If it works — you’re ready. If it doesn’t, our support team can fix it before a crisis forces your hand. Go to softyzinc.com → My Files → any file → Restore.
What Softyz support does when you report an attack
When you contact Softyz support during or after a ransomware incident, here is exactly what our incident response team does:
- Immediate backup isolation — we lock your backup account to prevent any accidental changes while the incident is active.
- Threat timeline analysis — we review your account’s file change logs to identify the exact moment the ransomware activated and confirm which restore point is clean.
- Guided restore — a senior engineer walks you through the full restore process, file by file if needed.
- Post-incident audit report — we generate a signed report confirming your data integrity, suitable for insurance claims, law enforcement, and compliance audits.
- Security hardening review — we identify how the attacker may have gained entry and recommend specific steps to prevent recurrence.
Our support team handled 340 ransomware incidents for Softyz customers in 2025. In every case where Softyz Inc was running at the time of the attack, 100% of files were successfully restored. Zero data lost. Zero ransoms paid.