Everything You Need to Know about Google Drive Ransomware Recovery

Article Summary: 

Ransomware is a major threat to businesses, and Google Drive is not immune. This article explores how ransomware targets Google Drive, signs of infection, built-in security features, recovery methods, and best practices to mitigate risks.

Google Drive Ransomware Recovery Insights:

• Ransomware Threats: 89% of companies were targeted in 2024, with ransom demands increasing.
• Google Drive Vulnerabilities: Attackers exploit weak credentials, over-privileged accounts, and third-party apps.
• Recovery Methods: Options include Google Drive Trash, Admin Console, and third-party backups.
• Security Measures: Google offers encryption, two-step verification, risk management tools, and AI-powered SecOps.
• Best Practices: Regular backups, strong passwords, user training, and anti-ransomware solutions help mitigate risks.

For seamless ransomware recovery, automated backup solutions like SpinBackup provide fast and reliable protection.

Cybersecurity experts may disagree on a lot of things. However, one thing that they do agree on is that ransomware is one of the biggest and most sinister cyber-threats affecting modern organizations worldwide. And recent statistics show why.

In 2024, 89% of companies were targeted by ransomware at least once. In 88% of these cases, ransomware was successfully executed. But ransomware is not only a high-frequency attack. It is also a costly one. Per one report, ransom demands are getting bigger. In fact, demands of $1 million or more accounted for a whopping 66% of all demands in 2023. Unfortunately, such attacks are expected to increase in both volume and sophistication in the coming years. Some experts even predict that global ransomware damage costs could exceed a staggering $265 billion by 2031.

Another problem is that it’s not just large organizations with deep pockets that have to worry about this alarming threat. If anything, any organization can become a victim. Also, an infection can affect any internet-connected device. It can also affect cloud services like Google Drive.

So, how can you protect your organization’s Google Drive data from ransomware attacks?

How can you initiate fast and accurate Google Drive ransomware recovery?

Read on to discover the answers.

Ransomware Overview

Ransomware is a type of malware that manifests itself openly. Many ransomware attacks start with a phishing email. Such emails look as if they come from a legitimate sender and include either a malicious link or malware-infected attachment. Once a careless or ignorant user clicks on the link or opens the attachment, the malware gets installed on their system and encrypts its files. This essentially locks the user out so they cannot access their data. This can halt business operations and lead to severe financial and reputational losses for the affected organization.

To avoid these issues and restore data access, victims need a digital decryptor key. The attacker promises to provide the key – in exchange for a hefty ransom. However, not all attackers keep their promise after receiving the ransom. In 2024, 16.3% of attacked organizations paid the ransom. But 75% of them were unable to recover their data. This is one reason why the FBI discourages the practice of ransom payments.

How Ransomware Targets Google Drive

According to the CyberArk Threat Landscape Report 2024, ransomware is one of the biggest cloud security concerns for 21% of organizations. This is because all cloud environments are vulnerable to ransomware. This includes Google Cloud. Even Google admits that ransomware remains one of the most enduring threats to cloud environments.

Google’s H1 2025 Threat Horizons Report spotlights a ransomware syndicate called UNC2165.

This group has impacted nearly every industry in every region around the world since 2019. Its members follow a systematic multi-step attack lifecycle to execute large-scale attacks and maximize their chances of success. They also employ cost-effective Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) offerings to broaden their ransomware operations, hide their identities, and increase the probability of receiving ransom payments.

Signs of Ransomware Infection on Google Drive

If Google Drive is infected with ransomware, victims you usually experience any or all of the below:

1. You see illegible or gibberish text in Google Drive documents or sheets.
2. You can’t open some files, like pictures or videos.
3. You can’t open emails.
4. One or more users see a ransom note on the system screen that looks something like this:

Many attacks on Google Drive happen because organizations use over-privileged service accounts and/or weak credentials. Others are the result of clever attackers using refined tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) to exploit vulnerabilities in the Drive environment. These threats could target your Google Drive setup in multiple ways:

Encryption of Drive Files

An attacker may steal and exploit an authorized user’s Google account credentials in order to access that account and encrypt Google Drive files. The more credentials they can steal, the more accounts they can access and the more files they can encrypt.

Encryption of Local Files

The ransomware infects a local machine and encrypts its files. So how is Google Drive affected? Answer: through Google’s desktop sync client. This client, known as Drive for desktop, automatically syncs local files and folders with Drive, ensuring that they remain up-to-date and easily accessible. However, once the sync process completes, the files in the cloud will also get encrypted, so you will be locked out of the files in both locations.

Exploitation of Third-Party Apps

Third-party apps and browser extensions downloaded from a trustworthy source like the Google Workspace Marketplace or the Chrome Web Store can simplify many business workflows and boost user productivity. However, not all apps and extensions can be trusted. If anything, 75% of apps pose a “high” or “medium” risk to your Google Workspace data. 51% of extensions are also high-risk, meaning attackers can exploit them to run ransomware and steal your data.

Built-in Security Features in Google Drive

Google provides numerous security and resiliency controls to detect and block ransomware threats. These include:

Two-step Verification

2-step verification is a good way to protect your Google Drive files and data. By turning it on, you can stop hackers from getting into your organization’s Google accounts, even if they manage to steal users’ credentials. Google advises using security keys or Google prompts to eliminate the phishing and ransomware risks associated with text message codes.

My Activity

My Activity is a central place to view and manage Google-related activities. In addition to showing familiar activities like searches and website visits, My Activity will show if someone accessed your organization’s Google account(s) without the authorized user’s permission. Users or admins can then take steps to make the account more secure. For example, they can add account recovery options, turn on screen locks, or remove high-risk apps or browser extensions that are no longer needed.

Data Encryption

All Google Drive files are stored in Google’s secure data centers. Also, the data in the files – both in-transit and at-rest – is encrypted with strong AES256 bit encryption. You can also encrypt files with Workspace Client-side encryption to add an extra layer of protection for your domain.

Cloud Asset Inventory

Cloud Asset Inventory is a global metadata inventory service that provides a five-week history of your resources in Google Cloud. Use this information to understand your assets and their state. You can also set up monitoring feeds to track changes to these assets. By doing so, you can keep an eye out for potential attacks and take proactive action to prevent them.

Sensitive Data Protection

This fully managed service will help you to discover and protect your Google Drive data. Use the service to analyze vulnerabilities in high-value data assets and proactively address security risks. You will also get tools to classify and de-identify sensitive data, and to apply fine-grained access control rules.

Risk Manager

The Risk Manager tool is part of Google’s Risk Protection Program (RPP). It scans your Google Cloud workloads and generates reports to clarify your risk posture. Additionally, it provides recommendations to help you reduce risk and strengthen your security posture.

Google Security Operations (SecOps)

The Google SecOps AI-powered platform helps security teams to detect and respond to ransomware threats across Google Drive. You can leverage its AI-generated summaries and recommendations to speed up threat investigations, and built-in security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR) capabilities to automatically respond to known threats quickly and precisely.

Recovery Methods for Google Drive Ransomware-affected Files

If your Drive is infected with ransomware, you may be able to recover lost files using one of these methods:

Check the Trash

Some ransomware strains move your original files to the Drive Trash so they can be restored. The catch is that these files will only remain in Trash for 30 days. After this, they will be permanently deleted so it’s crucial to initiate recovery operations early.

To recover deleted files from Google Drive Trash:

1. Go to drive.google.com.
2. Click Trash.
3. To restore a file, right-click and click Restore.

You can also use Google’s file recovery robot to recover files that were permanently deleted from Drive Trash within the last 25 days. To start your file recovery, send a request to the robot by clicking here.

Use Google Admin Console

Admins can recover users’ deleted Drive files from the Google Admin Console, if those files were deleted within the last 25 days. As long as they have the appropriate user management privileges, they can follow these steps to restore Drive data:

1) Sign in to the console with an administrator account.

2) Go to Menu > Directory > Users.

3) Find the user whose data is to be restored.

4) Click More options > Restore data.

5) Select the date range for the data to be restored.

6) Under Application, click Drive.

7) Click Restore.

Use a Third-Party Data Recovery Tool

A reliable third-party tool like SpinBackup provides an easy way to restore data following a ransomware attack. SpinBackup creates a copy of your entire Google Workspace multiple times a day on a cloud of your choice. If a ransomware attack encrypts your main files, SpinBackup will restore your backup within just a few minutes, minimizing downtime and preventing permanent data loss disasters.

Best Practices to Mitigate the Impact of Ransomware Attacks on Google Drive

Since ransomware has evolved into a commonplace threat, it’s hard to avoid it completely. However, you can mitigate an attack’s impact and cost. The key is to adopt the best practices highlighted below:

Regularly Backup All Drive Data

Backing up your Google Drive data will help safeguard you from data losses in the event of a ransomware attack. Make sure to store backups in a secure location and away from your primary location. Even the FBI advises organizations to maintain regular backups and store them separately from source systems! Doing this will enable you to recover data even if the primary location is held hostage. An automated tool will simplify the backup process and ensure fast, accurate data recovery with minimal need for human inputs. We recommend SpinBackup from Spin.AI.

Create a Disaster Recovery Plan

A disaster recovery plan (DRP) for Google Workspace can help you prepare for a ransomware attack. Preparation is essential for effective and timely mitigation. The plan should clearly define your recovery time objective (RTO) and recovery point objective (RPO), and include specific recovery tasks and control measures. Make sure to test the plan regularly and make adjustments as needed.

Use Strong Passwords and Two-Step Verification

Complex, unique passwords are hard to steal (say, via brute-force attacks) and can thus help protect your Google accounts. Also activate Google’s two-step verification feature to provide additional security and protection.

Deploy Anti-ransomware Solutions

Strengthen your Google Drive security program with an anti-ransomware solution. Select a solution that can detect multiple ransomware strains and variants and can automatically restore encrypted data.

Secure All Software, Apps, and Browser Extensions

Frequently patch and update all operating systems and software to remove known vulnerabilities. Also remove unnecessary, suspicious, and overly permissive third-party apps and browser extensions that increase your risk of attack.

Educate Users on Ransomware Risks

Train all employees on the risks and warning signs of ransomware attacks. Make sure they are cautious of opening emails from unknown senders and aware of common phishing tactics, and know what to do in the event of an attack.

Easy Google Drive Ransomware Recovery with SpinBackup

A ransomware attack on your Google Drive can affect your organization in a myriad negative ways. Fortunately, you can mitigate the impact of such attacks by regularly backing up your Google Drive data. However, manual backups can be time-consuming and error-prone, and provide incomplete data loss protection.

An automated backup solution is the best way to protect your Google Drive data – and organization. SpinBackup will automatically backup your data 1x or 3x a day in a secure cloud location, so it remains protected and easy to recover. It will also ensure 99.9% accurate Google Drive ransomware recovery, empowering you to reduce costly downtime and productivity losses.Try SpinBackup for yourself. Click here to request a free demo!