Ransomware recovery planning in Adelaide
Prepare the business to recover from ransomware or a major systems failure with priorities decided before the pressure is on.
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The short answer
A ransomware recovery plan decides in advance which systems come back first, where clean backups live and who makes the calls. WaTo Consulting helps Adelaide small businesses rank their critical systems, test that backups actually restore, write a short plan in plain steps and walk the team through a tabletop exercise.
What does ransomware recovery planning involve?
We work out which systems the business needs back first after an attack, how long it can manage without each one and where clean copies of that data are kept. That becomes a short written plan covering who makes decisions, who to call, how to restore from backup and what to tell customers and staff. Then we run through it with your team so the steps make sense well before they are ever needed.
What WaTo can help with
Critical-services map
Identify the systems, files and people the business cannot operate without.
Recovery plan
Set practical steps for restoring services in the right order.
Backup readiness
Check that recoverable copies exist for the information that matters.
Tabletop testing
Walk through the plan so it is usable, not just a document on a drive.
Who it is for
- A business that holds client records, such as an accountant, clinic or law firm, and would be stuck without them for even a day.
- Owners who have backups but have never tried restoring the whole business from them.
- A business whose cyber insurance policy asks for an incident response or recovery plan.
- A team that depends on one person who knows how all the systems fit together.
How it works
- We rank what the business runs on. Email, files, accounting, practice or job software and phones are listed in the order you would need them back.
- We check the backups really restore. We confirm there is an offline or immutable copy that ransomware cannot reach, then test a restore of something important.
- We write the plan in plain steps. It covers first actions, contact numbers, who decides what, restore order and draft messages for customers and staff.
- We walk the team through a scenario. A short tabletop exercise shows where the plan is unclear, and we fix those gaps before storing copies somewhere you can reach with the network down.
Why WaTo for ransomware recovery planning
- We look after backups and day-to-day IT too, so the plan matches how your systems are really set up.
- The plan is short enough to follow under pressure and is written for the owner, not an IT department.
- We test restores rather than trusting a green tick in the backup software.
- If the worst happens, the people who wrote the plan with you are the ones who pick up the phone.
Ransomware recovery planning questions
Should we pay the ransom?
Paying does not guarantee you get your data back, and the Australian Cyber Security Centre advises against it. A recovery plan exists so you are not forced into that choice, because clean backups let you restore without the attacker's help. The final call is a business and legal decision, and the plan sets out who makes it.
How often should the plan be reviewed?
At least once a year, and whenever something big changes, such as new accounting software, an office move or a senior staff member leaving. Phone numbers and responsibilities go out of date quickly, so a short review keeps the plan usable.
Do we need a plan if our files are all in the cloud?
You do. Files in Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace can still be encrypted or deleted through a compromised account, and the built-in recycle bins only go back so far. The plan covers how you get those accounts back under control and where a separate backup of the data lives.
Related services
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Guides on this topic
- How to test backups and recovery before an outage
- Business continuity and IT recovery planning for small business
- Cyber incident response planning for small business
Ready to get ransomware recovery planning sorted?
Tell us what backups you have and which systems the business cannot run without. We will help you plan and test how you would recover.
Mon to Fri, 8:30am to 5pm
