With 5,000 employees and a vast network of SQL databases and virtual machines, a menacing Royal ransomware attack left the company’s systems encrypted. Through our rigorous and systematic recovery approach, we successfully restored their systems in just five days.
Ransom demanded
Service cost
Total data recovery
No payment to threat actors
The Challenge
The Royal ransomware attack began with a spear-phishing email, seemingly from a trustworthy source, which was inadvertently opened by an employee. This act triggered the malicious software, which quickly spread throughout the company’s entire network.
The enormity of the attack soon became evident when the threat actors demanded a ransom of USD 8 million for the decryption key.
Recovery Process
Our recovery process began by analyzing the Royal ransomware’s encryption algorithm.
Once the shell script was ready, we proceeded to test it on a small batch of encrypted files. This was a crucial step as it allowed us to verify the effectiveness of our solution without risking further damage to the overall system. The script was successful, and we were able to begin the mass decryption process.
Simultaneously, we conducted a thorough forensic analysis of the incident to understand its causes better and formulate strategies to prevent similar attacks in the future.
The total cost for our services amounted to USD 29,000 – a fraction of the ransom demand.
Impact of the Ransomware Attack
The Royal ransomware attack had significant repercussions on various facets of the organization, including financial, operational, and reputational aspects.
Financial Impact
From a financial perspective, the ransom demand of USD 8 million threatened to impose a significant financial burden on the company.
Reputational Impact
In terms of reputation, such cyber attacks can severely damage a company’s standing, eroding clients’ trust and tarnishing the firm’s image.
Operational Impact
Operationally, the ransomware attack crippled critical systems, encrypted essential data, and disrupted routine business operations.
The recovery process, though successful, took five days, during which the company had to navigate reduced operational capacity.
The Results
- Final cost was less than 1% of the ransom demand
- Complete data decryption
- Disaster mitigation
- Data recovery
- Data de-corruption
- Shell script provided
