Southampton Data Recovery — Ransomware Data Recovery Specialists (UK)

25 years in business • Advanced forensic lab • Free diagnostics • 48-hour critical service available

If you’ve been hit and need ransomware data recovery, our engineers deliver end-to-end ransomware data recovery services for laptops, desktops, external disks, NAS and RAID servers. We handle identification, containment, forensic imaging, and data recovery ransomware workflows across major strains (e.g., WannaCry, LockBit, REvil/Sodinokibi), including full or partial encryption, system lockdown, and exfiltration-led extortion. Our approach blends cryptanalysis, multi-GPU key search (where feasible), decryptor tooling, ransomware attack data recovery from snapshots/replicas, file-carving from disk images, and meticulous filesystem reconstruction—always imaging first and working on the clone.

What We Recover & Where We Work

• Endpoints and servers: Windows, Linux, macOS; on-prem, VMs, Hyper-V/ESXi, containers.
• Storage: Single disks (HDD/SSD/NVMe), USB/eSATA, NAS (Synology/QNAP/Netgear/TrueNAS), SAN/LUNs, RAID 0/1/5/6/10, Storage Spaces/ZFS/Btrfs/Refs.
• Filesystems: NTFS, ReFS, APFS, HFS+, exFAT/FAT32, EXT3/4, XFS, Btrfs, ZFS, proprietary app stores (Exchange/SQL/QuickBooks/AutoCAD/Vault, VM images VMDK/VHDX).

We do not modify originals. We stabilise → image → analyse/decrypt/restore on the clone.

Our Incident & Forensic Workflow (High-Level)

1. Triage & containment: Isolate hosts/segments; capture volatile indicators (note: do not shut down if memory capture required).
2. Forensic imaging: Bit-for-bit images of affected volumes (including unallocated/Slack/USN). Verify with hashes.
3. Strain identification: Extension/notes/YARA/signatures, crypto primitives (AES/ChaCha20/Salsa20, RSA/ECC wrappers), config extraction.
4. Key/IV path analysis: Per-file vs per-host keys, KDF parameters (PBKDF2/scrypt/Argon2), PRNG flaws, IV reuse, stream-cipher misuse.
5. Parallel tracks: (A) Decryption pursuit (lawful keys/weaknesses/tools) and (B) Non-decrypt recovery (snapshots, journals, replicas, app-level logs).
6. Logical rebuild: Filesystem & DB repair on the image, plus format-aware reconstruction (Office/Photos/Video/SQL/Exchange).
7. Verification & delivery: Hash sets, sample-open testing, chain-of-custody reporting, practical hardening recommendations.

We do not advise paying; where clients choose to negotiate, we ensure compliance, legal review, escrow validation and decryptor QA on test samples first.

25 Technical Techniques We Use for Ransomware Data Recovery

Each item includes the fault context and how we recover in lab conditions. We use commercial, in-house and open forensic suites; multi-GPU rigs (CUDA/OpenCL) where applicable.

1. Strain & Crypto Fingerprinting
   Fault: Unknown family; extensions/notes vary.
   Recovery: Identify family/variant via note text, mutexes, pathing, PE config; extract crypto stack (e.g., AES-256-CTR + RSA-2048 wrapper) to determine if per-file key or session key is used and whether offline decryptors exist. This steers whether decryption is feasible or we pivot to non-decrypt strategies.
2. Config Extraction from Droppers/Lockers
   Fault: Encrypted files; binary still present.
   Recovery: Static/dynamic analysis (unpacking/stub emulation) to pull embedded public keys, C2 domains, salts, KDF rounds, file masks. Config leaks can reveal hard-coded keys or weak parameters used to derive file keys.
3. Decryptor Validation & Sandbox Test
   Fault: Decryptor provided (from LE/vendor/attacker).
   Recovery: Execute against isolated cloned samples, monitor system calls, confirm no data corruption. We whitelist/blacklist extensions and seed known test files to verify correctness before any bulk run.
4. Multi-GPU Brute-Force / Dictionary / Hybrid Attacks (Where Feasible)
   Fault: Weak KDF/password-based crypto (older families, zip-wrapped payloads, private decryptor passwords).
   Recovery: GPU clusters (CUDA/OpenCL) for PBKDF2/scrypt/Argon2 guessing; rule-based wordlists from environment intel (organization lexicon); attack per-file headers or decryptor gates. Not applicable to strong asymmetric keys with proper entropy.
5. Side-Channel & Implementation Flaws
   Fault: Flawed IV/nonce reuse, partial keystream leaks, truncated MACs.
   Recovery: If AES-CTR/GCM nonce reuse or ChaCha20 key/nonce misuse is present, we can recover plaintext segments or infer keystream to undo sections; verify with known-plaintext blocks and format validators.
6. Shadow Copy & Snapshot Recovery
   Fault: Encrypted current state; previous snapshots may exist.
   Recovery: Rebuild VSS on imaged NTFS (even when deleted), pull pre-encryption copies. For NAS/SAN, enumerate Btrfs/ZFS snapshots, NetApp/WORM/HyperBackup; for VMware/Hyper-V, mount VM snapshots and export clean disks.
7. USN Journal / MFT-Mirr / $LogFile Reconstruction
   Fault: Massive rename/encrypt waves; directory lost.
   Recovery: Parse $UsnJrnl, $MFT, $MFTMirr, $LogFile on the clone to rebuild prior filenames/paths and recently deleted records. This can restore file lists and sometimes data extents if not overwritten.
8. Partial Encryption Reversal (Header-Only Lockers)
   Fault: Only file headers/first N MB encrypted to “brick” files.
   Recovery: For media/office formats, rebuild headers from unencrypted backups/templates; splice valid headers, re-index container structures (MOOV/IDAT/Central Directory). High recovery rates for zip/docx/pst/mp4 with intact tails.
9. Transaction Log-Based DB Recovery (SQL/Exchange)
   Fault: MDF/NDF/EDB encrypted but logs remain.
   Recovery: Replay WAL/transaction logs against pre-encrypt snapshots or carved pages; mount DBs in read-only to export tables/mailboxes. Where logs are intact, data loss can be limited to last committed intervals.
10. Copy-on-Write FS Rollback (ZFS/Btrfs)
    Fault: Datasets encrypted; snapshots present.
    Recovery: Import cloned pools, roll back dataset snapshots, scrub and export. For Btrfs, recover subvolumes/snapshots and balance metadata trees to reconstruct directories.
11. VM-First Restoration
    Fault: Guests encrypted; hosts clean.
    Recovery: Work at the VMDK/VHDX layer on the datastore clone; recover from host snapshots, redo logs, hypervisor-level backups; export clean guest disks without touching the live guest.
12. RAID Parameter Discovery & Virtual Rebuild
    Fault: RAIDed servers encrypted; one or more members degraded.
    Recovery: Clone each member; detect stripe size/order, parity rotation, offsets; reconstruct a virtual RAID; then apply snapshot/FS recovery or decryptor on the assembled clone.
13. WannaCry-Class Recovery (Legacy)
    Fault: SMB worm, hybrid crypto with known behaviours.
    Recovery: Validate patch level; use known decryptors/keys where applicable (older variants only). For data, pivot to VSS/backup/snapshot/JRNL/MFT pathways; attempt file-specific decrypt on known vulnerable builds.
14. LockBit/REvil Playbooks
    Fault: Modern robust crypto with notes/config markers.
    Recovery: Identify version; check if leaks/decryptors exist from LE takedowns; otherwise non-decrypt: snapshots, replicas, DB logs, carves. Validate any third-party decryptor against our sandboxes first.
15. Cold Forensics on SSD/NVMe (Trim-Aware)
    Fault: Recent writes; Trim may zero pages.
    Recovery: Immediate power-down, image via NVMe hardware imagers with queue limits/thermal control. Focus on metadata & journals, then carve; advise realistic limits (Trimmed extents unrecoverable).
16. Format-Aware Carving with Integrity Validators
    Fault: FS metadata destroyed; data extents linger.
    Recovery: Carve by signature but validate deep: ZIP central directory rebuild, Office OOXML relationships, PST folder maps, SQLite page/linkage, MP4 atom graphs, RAW image TIFF IFD chains. Produces openable files, not just byte dumps.
17. Cloud Sync Backflow & Tenant Snapshots
    Fault: Local copies encrypted; cloud copies intact or versioned.
    Recovery: Pull object-store version history (OneDrive/SharePoint/Dropbox/Google Drive), restore to pre-attack timestamps; prevent malicious sync by isolating agents; reconcile conflicts on the image, not on live data.
18. Email & Collaboration Store Salvage
    Fault: OST/PST/MBOX partially encrypted; servers unharmed.
    Recovery: Extract mail from server via EWS/IMAP export (separate from recovery), then reconcile with local archives recovered by carving/rebuild; deduplicate by headers/hashes.
19. Key-Leak Telemetry & Memory Artefacts
    Fault: Encryptor left artefacts in RAM/dumps.
    Recovery: If memory capture exists, search for resident keys, IVs, config blobs; cross-reference with per-file headers. Rare but high-value wins for in-progress attacks.
20. Mac (APFS/FileVault) Pathways
    Fault: APFS volumes encrypted by third-party locker.
    Recovery: Clone; rebuild NXSB/object maps/snapshots; where FileVault keys available, decrypt to secondary image; for locker activity, use APFS snapshots and Photos/Time Machine backups to backfill.
21. Linux LUKS + Locker Combo
    Fault: LUKS container plus user-space encryptor inside.
    Recovery: With valid passphrase, open LUKS on the clone; then apply strain-specific approach inside the filesystem. If LUKS header damaged, reconstruct from backup headers; otherwise non-decrypt strategies.
22. Immutable Backups, Tape & WORM Recovery
    Fault: Primary encrypted; backups intact but catalog damaged.
    Recovery: Rebuild backup catalogs (Veeam/Bacula/Commvault) from metadata; restore objects from immutable sets; re-hydrate to clean staging storage.
23. Network Share Rollback (NAS Apps)
    Fault: SMB shares encrypted by a workstation.
    Recovery: On Synology/QNAP/Netgear, enumerate and restore snapshots; if disabled, access btrfs/zfs subvolume metadata directly on the NAS disk clone; export clean trees.
24. Negotiation & Decryptor QA (Client-Directed)
    Fault: No other viable path; client opts to negotiate.
    Recovery: Validate proof-of-decryption on multiple file types; escrow controls; test on cloned samples only. Post-decrypt, we still re-hash/verify and rebuild any broken FS metadata. (We neither recommend nor broker payments; we focus on technical validation and data safety.)
25. Post-Incident Hardening & Canary Validation
    Fault: Risk of reinfection/rollback failure.
    Recovery: Validate restored data integrity via content hashes/canaries; document precise recovery lineage. Provide hardened restore runbooks: least-privilege, EDR, immutable backups, MFA on backup control planes, and isolate backup networks.

Example Targets & File Types We Reconstruct

• Office: docx/xlsx/pptx with cross-part relationship repair.
• Media/Creative: psd/ai/prproj/aep, ProRes/MP4/MXF with atom/index rebuild.
• Engineering: DWG/REVIT/STEP; dataset manifests.
• Mail/Collab: PST/OST/EDB/NSF/MBOX, Teams/Slack exports.
• Databases/Apps: SQL Server/Exchange/QuickBooks/Sage; log-driven salvage.

Verification & Delivery

We verify with cryptographic hashes, open representative samples, provide a forensic report (timeline, strain, tooling, recovered sets, irrecoverables), and hand over via secure transfer or encrypted media as requested.

Why Choose Southampton Data Recovery

• 25 years of ransomware data recovery services with thousands of successful outcomes.
• Multi-vendor expertise across endpoints, NAS/RAID, hypervisors and cloud-sync ecosystems.
• Advanced lab tooling: hardware imagers (SATA/NVMe), RAID analyzers, flash/NAND rigs, multi-GPU clusters for lawful key-search scenarios.
• Forensic methodology: image first, work on clones, preserve evidence for legal/regulatory follow-up.
• Free diagnostics and a 48-hour critical service option for urgent cases.

Get Help Now

Time matters. Isolate affected systems and contact Southampton Data Recovery for a free diagnostics today. We’ll identify your strain, map your best recovery path, and start data restoration immediately—with clear, technical updates at every step.