sierra-chatbot-shape2

Pear Ransomware Decryption and Recovery

Under attack by ransomware or suffering a cyber breach?

Speed is critical when facing a live cyber attack. If you believe you’ve been compromised, by the Pear ransomware group or another threat actor - contact us immediately.

About Pear ransomware group

Pear is a ransomware group with limited public reporting and a small but growing number of confirmed attacks. Unlike major ransomware gangs operating large ransomware-as-a-service models, Pear appears to function independently, targeting organisations based on opportunity rather than industry loyalty or geography.

Reported victims include healthcare providers, personal injury law firms, family law and probate estate planning practices, medical malpractice defense teams, social service agencies, and property management services supporting San Francisco property owners and South Florida individuals. This pattern reflects the industry and business complexity often found in organisations handling sensitive data and personal information.

Pear ransomware activity has also affected organisations involved in management services, business telecommunications, title insurance, tax return preparation, automotive retailing solutions, and job shop environments where cyber security controls may be inconsistent.

What we can help with:

Request a call back

If your organisation has been infected with ransomware contact us immediately.

How Pear operators work

Pear operators typically gain access through exposed remote access services, stolen passwords, credential reuse, or compromised personal info obtained from earlier data breaches. Environments relying on electronic health records, NextGen ambulatory EHR platforms, or legacy management systems are particularly vulnerable.

Once access is achieved, the ransomware attack proceeds rapidly. Encryption is deployed across local systems, shared drives, and network resources with minimal reconnaissance. This approach reflects a pure extraction model, prioritising operational disruption over stolen data publication or leak site pressure.

Business operations such as legal proceedings related to personal injury law, Illinois state compensation cases, intellectual property community services, or direct patient care can be immediately impacted.

We are equipped to deal with an attack from any ransomware group.

Don’t hesitate to contact us if you are under attack from a ransomware group not listed above. 

Recognising a Pear attack

A Pear ransomware incident may present through encrypted files across shared resources and business telecommunications systems, often accompanied by ransom notes appearing on endpoints and servers. Organisations may experience immediate disruption to legal proceedings, management services, or direct care delivery, particularly where operational platforms are critical to day-to-day functions.

Administrators may also detect suspicious authentication attempts, evidence of compromised credentials, or other indicators consistent with a confirmed data breach shortly before or during the attack. In many cases, access to electronic health records, cutting edge imaging systems, or accounting platforms that provide accounting and personalised financial guidance is lost, further increasing operational and financial risk.

Organisations delivering orthopedic excellence programmes, sports injuries treatment, spine injuries care, or wider orthopedic and musculoskeletal services may face heightened clinical, regulatory, and reputational impact due to the sensitivity of data involved and the reliance on continuous system availability.

Why you must not interfere with your ransomware environment

If you discover a physical break-in at your offices, your first instinct would be to call the police; touch nothing and let them search for clues. Then, your focus would shift to restoring business operations.

A cyber-attack requires the same approach. Your digital environment is a CRIME SCENE. It is crucial to leave the environment untouched to allow for a forensic investigation.

This is not a task for your IT team or MSP. Digital Forensic specialists are available 24/7 to assist you, just like in a physical crime.

Post breach actions

  • Call a NCSC Cyber Incident Response approved supplier Some NCSC providers will fund up to 48 hours of investigation into your incident.
  • Report the incident to Report Fraud
  • Locate your business continuity plan Work out what you can do without access to your systems and data.
  • Identify your business insurance contact details
Business woman contacting a Zensec ransomware recovery service

Who are we and what experience do we have in responding to cyber incidents?

We are accredited to ISO 27001 and recognised by the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).

We provide comprehensive cyber risk management services, with a core focus on Digital Forensics and Incident Response (DFIR). Our capabilities are driven by a 24/7 Security Operations Centre and a dedicated in-house intelligence team that delivers timely, actionable threat reporting.

With decades of collective cyber security experience, we have the expertise to assume operational ownership of your entire IT security architecture – simplifying and strengthening cyber security across your business.

As an Assured Service Provider for Cyber Incident Response (CIR) at the Standard Level. This accreditation demonstrates our ability to deliver high-assurance, effective support in response to a wide range of cyber threats.

Your NCSC-approved supplier is a specialist crime scene investigator who will:

  1. Isolate and preserve your environment for forensic investigation.
  2.  Identify where the data has been duplicated and issue a legal takedown order.
  3. Identify your data, application and systems restore points. These might be at different points in time and will need to be carefully restored and reconstructed in a pristine environment.
  4.  Liaise with your business insurance company and if needed, with the Police.
  5. Advise you on notifying your customers of your situation.
  6. Rebuild your systems, restore your data and get you back to full operation. Note: This process can take between 2 weeks – 2 months.

 

Working with us

Our response process

Our team are ransomware recovery specialists with a proven, streamlined approach to resolving incidents quickly and effectively.

Step 1: Triage

We deploy our incident response team the same day. From the first call, we begin onboarding, introduce key stakeholders, set communication schedules, and start gathering critical information to guide the response.

Step 2: Investigation

DFIR (Digital Forensic Incident Response) teams investigate breaches to identify vulnerabilities, attack vectors, and system impacts from ransomware such as Data Loss (PII). We deliver clear forensic insights to guide mitigation.

Step 3: Contain

Our onsite and remote teams act fast to stop the attack in its tracks. That includes isolating affected systems, removing malicious code, and putting protections in place to prevent further spread or damage.

Step 4: Remediate & Eradicate

Once contained, we work to fully eliminate the threat. This includes fixing exploited vulnerabilities, restoring systems to a secure state, and ensuring no traces of the attack remain.

Step 5: Recover

Our incident response teams help get your business back to normal. We restore access to systems, recover data, and ensure services are safe, stable, and functioning, with minimal downtime.

Step 6: Post Incident

We conduct a full review of the incident response and recovery efforts. Together we assess what happened, what worked, and what can be improved, helping you build stronger defences for the future.

Forensic analysis to drive recovery

Our process includes a thorough digital forensic analysis from step two where the output becomes a central component of business recovery. This is because understanding the attack is of critical importance:

  • Informing an initial infection date

  • The extent and spread of infection

  • Data exfiltration having an impact on regulatory positions

  • Ensuring that the attacker and any tooling or artefacts they leave behind are eradicated

It is critical that the analysis of digital evidence is carried out to an agreed plan.

Maximising early root cause discovery and legal leverage

The process is purpose-built to uncover the root cause as early as possible, which is essential to inform remediation / eradication and recovery as well as supporting a legal take-down case if this is applicable. A legal take-down means we can assist in the legal enforcement that stops the criminals from publishing the data, thus undermining the ransom notice.

Our Digital Forensic and Incident Response (DFIR) teams maintain consistent communication throughout. Dedicated Incident Managers and technical engineering leads provide updates during the Cyber Incident Response journey, utilising risk registers and working within change management processes, all from triage through to post-incident, delivering successful business recovery.

Key take aways

  • You will not be able to access your systems or data.
  • It is advised to disconnect from the internet and shut down your systems, including PCs, to prevent further infections.
  • Your Office 365 system might also be compromised, allowing the attackers to monitor your responses. Avoid communicating with individuals through your primary email or team systems.
  • Threat actors typically infiltrate your system at least 2-4 weeks before you become aware of the attack. Your data will have already been exfiltrated. If your system is encrypted, this was not an overnight event.
  • Ransom demands in the UK typically range from £500,000 to £3 million, with some sectors, like education, facing demands that exceed £5 million
  • Paying the ransom may violate financial sanctions, which is a criminal offence and could result in a custodial sentence or further financial penalties.
  • If your data is sold or published online, it puts your customers and staff at risk, potentially implicating you in a Data Protection breach.
  • You will need to submit a data takedown request to the initial location where the data was transferred.
  • Do not overwrite the encrypted data. It is crucial to determine when the infection began and where the data was sent.
  • Avoid rebuilding from the latest backup, as it is likely to be infected.

Why should I trust Zensec to do this work rather than my IT team?

A forensic analysis needs to be meticulous and a clean restore and recovery requires a wealth of experience not normally available in an in-house team who must provide a broader range of IT support skills:

Internal IT teams don’t have the necessary skill set to resolve security encryption issues themselves. 

IT teams may recover to the same position with indicators of compromise ready to do it again… which can lead to another breach.

Internal teams are pressured to restore business operations and may recover before forensic analysis even begins, potentially destroying the crime scene before completion.

We can help

Frequently asked questions

Key information when you’re under pressure.

Pure extraction and ransom describes attacks where business operations are disrupted through encryption, and payment is demanded to restore access, rather than threatening large-scale data leaks.

Pear does not appear to be linked to major ransomware gangs or affiliate-driven ransomware-as-a-service operations. Activity suggests a smaller, independent ransomware group.

Organisations handling sensitive data, including healthcare providers, law firms, human resources services, and property management businesses, may be at higher risk where access controls are weak.

There is limited evidence that Pear operates a dedicated data leak site. Known incidents suggest encryption-based disruption rather than systematic publication of stolen data.

sierra-chatbot-shape2

Dealing with a ransomware attack?
Our ransomware recovery service can help

Our expert team works quickly to contain the breach, recover your data, and restore your systems to full operation. We’ll guide you through every step of the recovery process and help strengthen your defences to prevent future attacks. Regain control with Zensec - trusted support when it matters most.