[Teknoman117]

> One researcher told a colleague she’d lost 15 years of work.

You're telling me that you had never backed up anything in the span of 15 years?

[pjc50]

This happens far more often than it should. Non-experts simply don't realise the importance of backups.

[SmellyGeekBoy]

It could be that the backups were "online" and therefore also wiped out by the malware.