WED2B

Established in 2009, WED2B runs a web storefront and network of retail stores specializing in dresses and accessories for brides and bridesmaids. Offering designs for every style, shape, and budget, the company operates more than 50 locations across the UK and Northern Europe and is planning further expansion. Assured Data Protection (Assured) backs up all WED2B’s business-critical data. Assured helps its customers benefit from the power of Rubrik by providing technically and commercially viable solutions for small and large data sizes, on-premises or in the cloud. “I used to treat recovery with a laissez-faire attitude. The ransomware situation completely changed that. I cannot recommend Assured Data Protection and the Rubrik platform enough.” – Jamie Jeeves, IT Systems Administrator, WED2B

At 11PM on a Friday evening, Jamie Jeeves began receiving email alerts that antivirus (AV) clients were crashing at WED2B’s central office. Logging into the remote system, he discovered a mass encryption attack in progress—WED2B had been hit with ransomware. “All WED2B website files, including text, videos, and high-res images, were being encrypted,” said Jamie. In total, 8 terabytes of critical NAS data were affected—including backups from a third-party system that used Azure for storage.

Recovering Within 24 Hours

Jamie acted quickly, shutting down all servers and devices remotely. However, two machines were missed by the remote software, and the attack couldn’t be completely stopped. The following morning, he began recovery efforts with Assured. “We generate the bulk of our weekly sales on weekends. Time was of the essence. I immediately disconnected the network from all store locations so they could continue operating independently without impact.” Using Rubrik’s Zero Trust Data Security, Jamie prioritized critical assets. Active Directory was restored in less than 30 minutes. SQL databases—over 1 TB—were recovered in just one hour. By early Saturday afternoon, all critical systems were back online.

“There were essentially two recoveries taking place: one for data managed by Assured using Rubrik, and one for Azure backups. While our data on Rubrik was back up and running within 24 hours, it took weeks upon weeks to get NAS back up and running since it was not managed by Assured or protected by Rubrik. One of them was painless, and the other was not.”

Thanks to Rubrik and Assured, WED2B’s business operations resumed rapidly with minimal impact on weekend sales. Following this success, the company increased its investment in the Rubrik platform. “All of our data, including NAS, is now being protected by Rubrik’s Zero Trust Data Security. We have upgraded to a newer version and are considering future investments because with Assured and Rubrik it just works.”

Business Outcomes

$0 paid in ransom: “To be honest, it never even occurred to me to pay the ransom demand because I was that confident in the Assured team and Rubrik’s ransomware recovery capabilities.”
No data loss and 100% recovery from ransomware within 24 hours: “If we didn’t have Rubrik as a managed service, not only would we have lost a lot of critical data, but we would also have had no way of getting that data back. We would’ve had to either decrypt the data or start from scratch. I’ve always had confidence in Rubrik’s immutability. I never worried that the data on Rubrik would be reached on encrypted and was confident in the team at Assured’s capabilities.
Zero impact to the business: “There was minimal, close to zero impact to the business because we were able to recover so quickly. There was no disruption to the WED2B website, and our bridal stores didn’t even realize there was an issue. Everything was fixed before they noticed anything,”
Restored SQL database and Active Directory immediately: “Restoring Active Directory through Rubrik took less than 30 minutes. Our SQL databases took an hour to recover 1TB+ of data. It just works.”