Stopping Ransomware with Synology Snapshots

Ransomware attacks continued to evolve rapidly throughout 2025 and into 2026, especially targeting manufacturing, logistics, and mid-sized business environments that rely heavily on shared storage and Microsoft 365 collaboration tools. Many organizations discovered that traditional backups alone were no longer enough to protect against modern ransomware behavior.

At Epis Technology, we recently worked with a manufacturing client that experienced a ransomware incident affecting multiple shared folders and production systems. What started as a few inaccessible files quickly escalated into a broader encryption attempt moving across mapped drives and user workstations.

Fortunately, the client had a properly configured Synology NAS environment with Snapshot Replication enabled as part of a layered recovery strategy.

The First Signs of the Attack

The incident began late in the afternoon when users started reporting renamed files, failed access attempts, and unusual file extensions appearing inside production directories. Initial investigation showed that compromised user credentials were being used to spread malicious encryption processes through shared SMB folders.

In many 2025 ransomware attacks, threat actors specifically target:

• Shared NAS storage
• Backup repositories
• Microsoft 365 environments
• Remote access services
• Administrative credentials

The attackers in this case were attempting to encrypt operational production data while simultaneously scanning for backup locations.

Discovering the Bigger Problem

While isolating affected systems, our team discovered something more concerning. The ransomware had started probing backup-connected shares and attempting lateral movement through improperly segmented internal systems.

This is becoming increasingly common in 2025 and 2026 attacks. Modern ransomware groups are no longer satisfied with encrypting production files alone. They now actively target:

• Snapshot repositories
• Backup systems
• Cloud sync folders
• Hypervisor storage
• Microsoft 365 accounts

Because the Synology environment had immutable snapshot retention and restricted administrative controls configured properly, the attackers could not modify or encrypt the protected snapshots.

How Synology Snapshot Technology Stopped the Damage

Using Synology Snapshot Replication, Epis Technology immediately:

• Isolated infected endpoints
• Disabled compromised accounts
• Restricted SMB access
• Segmented affected systems from the production network
• Verified snapshot integrity
• Rolled critical shares back to clean recovery points

Instead of rebuilding systems from scratch or negotiating with attackers, we restored critical operational data in just a few hours.

The client avoided:

• Extended production downtime
• Permanent file loss
• Large-scale operational disruption
• Expensive recovery delays

For manufacturing environments where downtime directly affects production schedules and customer commitments, fast recovery can prevent major financial losses.

Why Microsoft 365 Backup Protection Also Mattered

During the incident review, we also identified gaps in the client’s Microsoft 365 protection strategy. Like many businesses in 2025, they initially assumed Microsoft handled all long-term backup and recovery protection automatically.

After the ransomware incident, Epis Technology helped implement:

• Microsoft 365 backup protection
• Exchange Online backups
• OneDrive backup retention
• SharePoint recovery workflows
• Additional ransomware monitoring policies

This created a more complete business continuity strategy across both local infrastructure and cloud services.

Lessons Businesses Are Learning

One of the biggest cybersecurity lessons businesses are learning today is that recovery speed matters just as much as prevention. Modern ransomware attacks are designed to move quickly, target backups, and create operational paralysis.

Businesses now need:

• Immutable backups
• Snapshot protection
• Off-site replication
• Microsoft 365 backups
• Network segmentation
• Multi-factor authentication
• Recovery testing

A single layer of protection is rarely enough anymore.

How Epis Technology Helps Businesses Prepare

Epis Technology helps organizations build secure, resilient IT environments using Synology storage infrastructure, Microsoft 365 backup protection, disaster recovery planning, and proactive cybersecurity strategies. The company specializes in helping businesses reduce downtime, strengthen backup architecture, and improve operational continuity against modern cyber threats.

Services include:

• Synology consulting and deployment
• Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace backups
• Large-scale storage solutions
• Fully managed PC backups
• Backup automation and monitoring
• Disaster recovery planning
• IT infrastructure optimization

By combining modern storage architecture with layered security and recovery planning, Epis Technology helps businesses stay operational even when facing increasingly sophisticated threats.