Work out ransomware ransom vs recovery cost instantly with clear inputs, formula shown and shareable results.
Comparing paths requires costing both properly. Backup recovery costs the downtime it takes plus the business impact of whatever data is unrecoverable. Paying the ransom still involves significant downtime — decryption is slow and often partial — which is modelled here at about a third of the recovery period. Payment also buys no guarantee, funds further attacks and may breach sanctions rules.
Path comparison
recovery path = recovery days x downtime cost per day + unrecoverable data exposure; ransom path = ransom + 0.35 x recovery days x downtime cost per day
Not reliably. Published incident data consistently shows a substantial share of payers recover only part of their data, and some receive nothing usable at all.
Tested, immutable, offline backups and a rehearsed restore runbook. Recovery time, not backup existence, is what drives the cost, and it is only knowable by practising.