The Challenge
A 75-person accounting firm was hit by ransomware during tax season, encrypting their file servers, practice management system, and email. Their existing IT provider had no incident response plan, backups were 3 weeks old, and they were facing a $250,000 ransom demand with client tax returns due in days.
Our Solution
CloudTechForce was engaged for emergency incident response. Our team contained the attack within 2 hours, identified the entry point (a phishing email exploiting a lack of MFA), and restored all systems from cloud backups we discovered on their Azure tenant within 4 hours — without paying the ransom. We then implemented a complete Zero Trust security overhaul: MFA for all accounts, Conditional Access requiring compliant devices, EDR on every endpoint, email security with anti-phishing, network segmentation, and 24/7 SOC monitoring.
Results
Full recovery in under 4 hours with zero data loss
$250,000 ransom NOT paid
Zero Trust security implemented within 30 days
Zero security incidents in 18 months since implementation
Client confidence restored — zero client attrition from the incident
"We were facing a catastrophic situation during our busiest season. CloudTechForce had us back online in 4 hours without paying a cent in ransom. The Zero Trust security they implemented afterward means we sleep better at night knowing it won't happen again."
Thomas Anderson — Managing Partner, Pacific Ridge Accounting
