If ransomware hit today, how quickly could you get your business back on its feet?
Some organizations can handle a two-day outage.
Others? Even a few hours offline can stall production, impact customers, and cost millions.
Backups matter, but only if you can restore them fast enough to meet your Recovery Time Objective (RTO). And the only way to know your real RTO is to test it.
That’s why we’ve broken recovery into seven short, repeatable drills you can complete in as little as 15–60 minutes. Think of them as “recovery reps” – small exercises that build the muscle memory your team needs to restore with confidence.
Why Backups Fail (Even When They Look Fine)
Here’s the tough truth: backups don’t always behave the way you expect when the pressure is on. The most common causes of restore failure are surprisingly simple:
1. Wrong or Expired Credentials Restore passwords often belong to someone on leave, or someone who no longer works at the company.
2. Too Much Power for One Admin If one administrator can delete backups, an attacker who steals those credentials can do the same.
3. Backups Never Tested Teams often discover during a restore test that the backup ran, but the data inside is incomplete or corrupted. Testing is the only way to catch this early.
The 7 Drills (15–60 Minutes Each)
These short exercises help you build real-world recovery skills without waiting for a yearly simulation. They’re simple, repeatable, and designed to keep your team sharp.
1. Restore Three Critical Systems
Choose the systems your business can’t operate without, your ERP, SQL database, document management platform, or similar.
Restore each system to a test environment and measure:
- Did the restore succeed?
- How long did it take?
- Did the system fully run once restored?
Track your results using a simple scorecard: success rate, restore time, and last test date. Rinse and repeat quarterly.
2. Validate That Your Immutable Backups Are Truly Immutable
Immutable backups can’t be changed or deleted for a set period. They’re your “break glass” safety net, but only if they work.
Test immutability by safely attempting to modify or remove an immutable copy. If you can, it’s not truly immutable.
This drill reinforces the 3-2-1-1-0 rule:
3 copies, 2 media types, 1 off-site, 1 offline/immutable, 0 errors during recovery tests.
3. Test Permissions: Can Backup Operators Delete Backups?
Create a test user with the same permissions as your backup operators.
Try to delete a backup set.
If it works, you’ve identified a major vulnerability. Attackers with stolen credentials could do the same.
Simple fixes include:
- Role-based access control (RBAC)
- MFA
- Restore-only accounts
- Deletion approval workflows
4. Audit Your Offline or Off-Site Copy
Every organization needs at least one copy isolated from the network.
Your drill:
- Find the offline/off-site copy
- Confirm it’s syncing correctly
- Verify how long it would take to retrieve during an emergency
This copy often becomes the true hero when multiple systems are affected at once.
5. Call Your Backup Vendor for a Mini-Restore
Ask your vendor to walk you through a small, real restore. This helps you evaluate:
- Support responsiveness
- Their understanding of your environment
- Whether your documentation is accurate
- How comfortable your team is with the process
If it feels messy, that’s just a sign your runbook needs a little tuning, not a failure.
6. Run a 20-Minute “Two-Site Ransomware” Tabletop
Gather IT, leadership, security, communications, and at least one power user.
Discuss:
- What gets hit first?
- What gets restored first?
- What are our RTO and RPO?
- Do we fail over or restore in place?
- Who makes quick decisions?
This quick conversation uncovers gaps long before a real incident does.
7. Practice the Communication Tree
During a ransomware event, clarity prevents chaos.
Define:
- Who alerts leadership
- Who communicates with staff
- Who works with Legal
- Who updates customers
- Who coordinates with your BCDR provider
A practiced communication plan reduces stress when tensions run high.
How to Measure Recovery Readiness
Summarize your drill results in a simple dashboard showing:
- Restore success rate
- Real RTO (how long recovery actually took)
- RPO (how much data you can afford to lose)
- Last immutability test
- Last offline/off-site check
- Last vendor-assisted restore
- Last tabletop exercise
Leaders appreciate clear visibility into where your organization stands.
The Most Common Restore Surprise
The issue teams hit most often?
“The server boots, but the application doesn’t work.”
This usually happens because:
- Only data was backed up, not configurations
- Service accounts changed
- Licenses or keys weren’t captured
- Dependencies weren’t documented
You can fix this by practicing full system restores, not just file-level backups.
Small Drills. Big Confidence.
Ransomware is evolving every day, but recovery doesn’t have to feel overwhelming.
These seven drills help your team build the habits that lead to fast, confident restores, whether the outage happens next year or next Friday. You don’t need a massive project. You just need consistent practice.
If you’d like help simplifying your recovery strategy or building a test plan you can trust, our team is always here to make it easy.