Ransomware attacks server – backup tapes erased
A ransomware attack of a company server encrypted the Microsoft Dynamics 365 data and demanded payment. Recent backups of the server were stored on multiple LTO-6 backup tapes, which had been erased by the malware.
After assessing the extent of the ransomware attack, Ontrack representatives identified the company’s backup tapes as the best option for data recovery—even though the malware had erased them. 23 LTO-6 backup tapes from the backup library were sent to the Ontrack office in Böblingen, Germany. Working in conjunction with the R&D department in the United Kingdom, Ontrack developed a custom solution to recover the data from the erased backup tapes.
Ontrack was able to restore 46TB of data from 18 of the LTO-6 tapes. Due to the type of attack on the tapes, Ontrack had to repair the logical damage, shipping the data and tapes separately back to the customer.
Ransomware VBK Recoveries on Tape - Server & NAS Systems
The attacked volume was originally also used to back up data to LTO8 tapes at regular intervals. Most of these backup tapes were also in the tape library at the time of the incident and were quickly formatted by the attackers. However, the customer was able to save an original unformatted tape with a fairly old backup date, which was then completely restored to the now empty Windows volume with a total of 6 TB. Only then was Ontrack commissioned to examine data recovery options. The HP server DL380 with the 55 3TB hard disks were transported to Ontrack in Böblingen Germany.
During the diagnosis, a large number of the searched VEEAM vbk files were successfully found on the Windows volume with Ontrack Tools and 27 records were extracted according to a priority list. The restore of the LTO8 tape partially overwrote some of the data sets and damaged the backup files.
A large part of the data could still be repaired and extracted in several steps.
Later on, 19 significantly older LTO8 quick formatted tape backups were successfully recovered too.The attack also affected numerous European sub offices of the customer. Here were predominantly QNAP NAS systems in use which had stored virtual VMs under VMware, including backup VMs that were partially deleted or internally reformatted with another file system. Ontrack was also able to successfully restore complete backup data in 90% of the seven cases ordered.
Lost Data - What's next?
ViewLift
Meet Doug, Director of Client Services from ViewLift, a digital content distribution technology company located in the NoHo neighborhood of New York City. Doug experienced both a computer crash and an operating system that was wiped clean, and found himself asking those exact questions.
After some initial research and numerous referrals from computer retail and repair businesses, including a local Apple retail store that said it no longer performed data recovery work, Doug found answers to all his questions at the uBreakiFix store in Greenwich Village.
The uBreakiFix team introduced him to Ontrack, the global leader in data recovery. The in-store team talked Doug through his data recovery options and explained the process.
“I really didn’t have a preconceived notion of what uBreakiFix actually did. I thought that they were only a cell phone repair store, but they do much more,” said Doug. “The experience was great, the prices were fair and it was great to know that when I walked in the store I was greeted by the staff in an friendly manner—and in New York that is not always the case.”
No one ever plans for data loss, but when it does happen you need to know who to trust to provide a fair price and phenomenal customer service. Doug is confident that if he does experience a data loss of any kind, he knows the Greenwich Village uBreakiFix store will be there to help.
Accidental Deletion of Virtual Machines Results in 15TB Lost.
An accidental deletion at a large wireless provider causes a massive loss of email databases.
The wireless carrier stored all of their Microsoft® Exchange databases spread across 24 separate 2TB LUNs on an EMC® VNX 5400 using VMware® virtual machines. It was also set up so each database had a mirror copy on a different LUN. All of the virtual machines were accidentally deleted resulting in the loss of email for the entire company.
New tools made recovery from highly specialized EMC® Isilon® big data storage possible.
The “lost files” were mostly raw data gathered from chemical analysis in ongoing laboratory research work. The firm, together with EMC support, was able to recover 90 percent of the data using a standard rebuild process. To recover the desperately needed remaining files, Ontrack was contacted by the customer for help. Ontrack worked with the EMC support in order to get detailed information on the situation.
Ontrack is assisted by NetApp’s technology to solve a ransomware infection.
Ontrack Successfully Recovers Data from iPhone 5.
Double disk failure of RAID 5, and all patient data is gone.
Hospital databases rescued from ransomware.
Ontrack Provides Database and Backup Restores After a Flood.
Missing Dell® EqualLogic™ LUNs Recovered via Remote Data Recovery.
Ontrack recovers over 230 million files from Commvault database.
German service partner turns to Ontrack to recover data from external RAID drives.
A marketing freelancer based in Switzerland entrusted all of their business and personal data to two RAID drives attached to their Apple Macintosh and asked their IT service partner for help when the data disappeared. The partner called on Ontrack to provide specialist engineering skills and know-how to fix the problem.
24 terabytes of data recovered from RAID 6 array with newly developed toolset.
Unfortunately, the system failed to rebuild the data after two hard disk drives failed resulting in the loss of access to 24 terabytes of highly critical data. The organization approached the experts at Ontrack for help.
The Ontrack developers quickly created the tools needed to improve the success of the recovery. After only a few hours, the first virtual machine was rebuilt allowing for the extraction of the Exchange databases to be returned to the customer. The team continued to rebuild all of the critical virtual machines until the client’s email was back in production. At the end of the project, a total of 15TB of data was recovered with minimal downtime for the client.
Accidental wipe command brings down critical production database server.
Four terabytes of data recovered from flood damaged HP EVA SAN
A flooded data center left a client’s servers and storage systems partially submerged in water.
At the center of the damage was a HP Storage Works EVA (Enterprise Virtual Array) 6000 containing business critical SQL database files as well as employee file shares. The EVA sustained substantial physical damage due to the flood water preventing access to the data. The severity of the damage from the flood was increased when an attempt was made to access the data by powering on the drives that were still wet. The customer contacted HP Support for help and they handed the project over to Ontrack.
The SAN consisted of 80 hard disk drives which were divided into 2 EVA disk groups; in total there were 18 virtual RAID volumes consisting of both VRAID1 and VRAID5.
A HP EVA system is fully virtualized and has a unique way to write data which adds to the complexity of any data recovery effort. It works with disk groups and virtual disks instead of normal RAID sets and logical drive volumes. The disk groups consist of physical drives organized in a proprietary manner. LUNs or Virtual disks (vDisks) in an EVA are then distributed over all of the installed HDDs.
Due to the physical damage, all of the drives were sent to one of Ontrack´s cleanroom facilities to be assessed.
Once the 80 drives were decontaminated and cleaned, 55 were found to be fully recoverable. 25 of the drives had severe water damage and were not recoverable. To regain access to the data on the damaged drives, the engineers needed to research how the EVA RAID and file system was structured. After the engineers were able to map the disk groups and determine how the vDisks were distributed, they had to rebuild the whole EVA system. To recover the data included in the vDisks, the R&D team and its software developers had to create completely new tools to extract the data. Once the development was complete, Ontrack engineers virtually assembled the disk groups and virtually rebuilt the vDisks which allowed access to the underlying file systems. The file systems were virtually repaired and the data extracted.
After extensive development, reengineering and recovery work the project successfully ended.
With the newly created tools the data recovery specialists were able to recover four terabytes of sensitive data including the critical SQL database files. In all, approximately 86 percent of the total data lost was recovered. With the HP EVA SAN data mapping knowledge gained and the integration of the newly developed tools, Ontrack is able to quickly recover data from all models of the HP Enterprise EVA storage systems.