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Alvaka Networks was helping two businesses recover from ransomware when CRN reported on the cases. The victims were not named, neither recovery was complete, and the account offers a view of the disruption and competing costs—not a template for what every ransomware incident will cost or how a victim should respond.
What happened in the two ransomware incidents?
CRN reported that Irvine-based managed service provider Alvaka Networks was working to restore systems at two businesses after ransomware attacks. Alvaka CEO Oli Thordarson said roughly a dozen employees were working 105-hour weeks on the recoveries, which had begun around Christmastime. Those hours describe these specific emergency efforts, not a normal staffing benchmark.
One affected organization had several thousand systems; the other had a couple hundred. Neither had been an Alvaka client before the attacks. Thordarson declined to identify either business, and the report does not name the ransomware, explain how attackers gained access, or describe the victims’ technical controls.
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Why recovery was still difficult
Restoring systems can take longer than encrypting them
At the time of CRN’s report, neither recovery was finished. One business had been in active recovery for a week and was experiencing system problems. The other hoped to resume operations within a few days, but insurer approval requirements had slowed work.
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Thordarson said a full recovery typically took at least a week, explaining that decrypting many devices could take much longer than encrypting them. That is his estimate in the report; CRN supplied no measured dataset to establish it as a general recovery-time figure. Actual timelines depend on the incident and the systems and data that must be restored.
Recoverable backups can change the options
Thordarson said that when backups are unavailable or encrypted, a business may have to reconstruct information from fragments or consider paying a ransom. The report does not say what backup architecture either victim used, whether backups were tested, or whether attackers had reached them.
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A backup is useful in a recovery only if the needed data can be restored. This account does not endorse a particular device or backup setup, and buying a single external drive alone does not establish that an organization can recover from ransomware.
What can make ransomware recovery expensive?
Thordarson described costs in two broad stages: the immediate disruption and ransom question, followed by work to reduce the chance of another incident. He said that the later effort could include forensic examination and a full system rebuild. Other possible expense drivers he named were downtime, lost revenue, regulatory fines or penalties, and reputational damage.
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He argued that the ransom itself could be a small part of the overall cost. One victim in the report chose to pay, but CRN did not identify which business, disclose the amount, or report the final outcome. The report does not provide enough detail to assess that decision or recommend payment.
Thordarson estimated that businesses without cyber insurance should expect to spend at least $100,000 on recovery, potentially ten or twenty times that amount depending on organization size, infection extent, and data recoverability. This was his historical interview estimate, not a current price guide or independently validated cost study. He also estimated that attackers deleted or encrypted backups in roughly half of cases, but the report gives no sample or methodology; that figure should not be treated as a verified prevalence rate.
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- Help secure your important files with password protection and hardware encryption
- 3-year limited warranty
What the report says about cyber insurance
Thordarson said cyber insurance could cover recovery-related expenses but typically did not pay for preventive measures. He also described insurer approval as a source of delay in one of the two cases. Because the report does not identify the insurer, policy wording, exclusions, or payment, those comments cannot establish what another policy will cover or how quickly an insurer will approve work.
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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchFor a business reviewing its own coverage or planning a response, the practical questions raised by these incidents are whether recovery costs are covered, what approvals are required before work begins, and how the policy treats prevention and rebuilding. The answers depend on the individual policy and insurer.
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What businesses can take from these cases
- Plan around restoration, not just ransom. The account describes forensic work, rebuilding, downtime, and business impacts alongside the ransom decision.
- Know whether backups can actually be restored. The report identifies backup availability as a key factor, but does not disclose the victims’ backup arrangements.
- Understand approval steps before an incident. Insurer approval reportedly slowed one recovery, although the policy details are unknown.
- Treat the figures as attributed estimates. The reported costs, recovery duration, and backup estimate came from Thordarson and are not supported by a disclosed study methodology.
Thordarson described the work as professionally rewarding but exhausting for staff. His account portrays ransomware recovery as a prolonged operational effort; it does not establish the final outcomes for either business.
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