Backups Are Dead

Backups Are Dead: Why Traditional Systems Make Ransomware Worse

For decades IT teams have leaned on backups as the ultimate safety net. Snapshots, periodic copies, and central repositories gave a sense of control. Today that sense of control is a trap. Modern ransomware doesn’t just encrypt production data. It hunts backups. It corrupts them, deletes them, or leaves them too slow and incomplete to matter. The idea that backups alone will save you is not just outdated, it is dangerous. (Cyber Protocol)

The Backup Illusion

Attackers have adapted faster than most enterprises realize. In recent threat intelligence, ransomware crews no longer simply encrypt files and demand ransom. They actively target backup infrastructure first mapping backup control panels, stealing credentials, and destroying recovery points before locking production data. Once backups are gone, ransom leverage spikes because there is nothing left to restore. (Cyber Protocol)

Real world recovery struggles are everywhere: organizations with backups still paid ransoms because restores were too slow, incomplete, or unusable under pressure. In the Kaseya attack, criminals moved through managed systems and corrupted backups, leaving many victims without reliable recovery options. In Colonial Pipeline’s case, even though backups existed, slow decryption tools and pressure to restore operations quickly pushed the company to pay a multi‑million dollar ransom. (BackupAssist)

In other attacks, such as a contended European ransomware incident, attackers deleted backups stored across regions by exploiting misconfigured cloud access keys erasing redundancy in minutes. (Cyber Protocol)

But this is not just about cloud or central backups. Legacy systems that rely on snapshots, tapes, or periodic replication cannot keep pace with attackers that move laterally in hours and destroy recovery points in minutes.

Real World Damage

High profile ransomware events show how backups fail under real pressure:

• Change Healthcare (ALPHV/BlackCat) experienced one of the largest healthcare ransomware breaches, disrupting operations nationwide and costing hundreds of millions despite risk planning. (TechTarget)
• Global education provider Kido International saw sensitive personal data leaked after ransomware breached its systems, underscoring that data exfiltration and destruction now go hand in hand. (Wikipedia)
• British Library’s ransomware incident disrupted critical services for months, showing that even institutions with robust operations can struggle to recover. (Wikipedia)
• Smaller firms continue to see backups destroyed or rendered useless, forcing system formatting and prolonged manual rebuilds. (The Times of India)

Even when backups technically exist, the recovery reality is brutal: 2025 data shows many organizations could not restore operations within 24 hours, despite believing they were prepared. Backups are often incomplete, poorly tested, or compromised by the same breach that hit production. (Spin)

Why Backups Are Obsolete

Traditional backup systems were designed for hardware failures, accidental deletions, or site outages. They were not built for:

• Persistent ransomware that lives in your environment for weeks before detonating
• Attackers who discover and corrupt backups days before encryption
• Cloud connected backup targets with exposed credentials
• Double extortion strategies where data leakage hits reputation as hard as downtime

In this new reality, the assumption that a periodic backup is a reliable safety net no longer holds. Ransomware groups exploit every corner of backup tooling they can reach and organizations that treat backups as insurance are finding they have no policy to claim.

Myota’s Architecture Is Not a Backup

At Myota, we don’t fix backups. We replace them. Myota’s Shard and Spread™ architecture rethinks protection from the ground up:

• Instant protection at write time means data is protected continuously, not in periodic snapshots.
• Immutable shards at multiple locations prevent attackers from deleting or corrupting your protected state.
• Hybrid global distribution ensures recovery points are not tied to a single repository or vendor.
• Zero redundancy waste gives you efficiency and resilience without the classic backup bloat.

This is not incremental backup improvement. It is architectural evolution, building a fabric where ransomware cannot destroy recovery because there are no monolithic recovery targets to attack.

The New Rule of Data Resilience

If backups were ever sufficient, that era is gone. Backups are dead as a standalone strategy for true ransomware resilience. Modern threats demand distributed protection, immutable granularity, and continuous resilience. Traditional approaches leave you exposed; Myota gives you a foundation where data is protected by design, not by hope.

Stop relying on backups. Start building resilience.