Ransomware is no longer just about encrypting your production data and demanding a ransom. Today, attackers increasingly target backup systems and recovery infrastructure first. Their goal is simple: prevent your organization from recovering without paying the ransom. Why Are Backups Being Targeted? Most organizations rely on backups as their last line of defense. Attackers know this and may attempt to delete or encrypt backup files, disable backup jobs, compromise backup administrator accounts, delete snapshots and recovery points, target backup servers and repositories, and attack virtualization and storage management systems. If your backups are compromised, a ransomware attack can become much more difficult and expensive to recover from. Is Your Backup Really Protected? Having a successful backup does not necessarily mean you are protected. If the same administrator accounts, Active Directory environment, or network that controls your production systems can also access your backups, an attacker who compromises those systems may be able to compromise the backups as well. A modern backup strategy should include immutable backups, offline or isolated copies, off-site backups, separate backup administration, MFA and least-privilege access, network segmentation, and regular recovery testing. Most importantly, organizations should regularly verify that their backups can actually be restored. Backup Is Only Part of Recovery. A ransomware recovery plan must consider more than files and databases. If Active Directory, virtualization platforms, backup servers, or administrative accounts are compromised, you need a plan to rebuild and recover the complete IT environment. The key question is no longer: “Do we have a backup?” It is: “Can we recover if our production environment and backup infrastructure are both attacked?”