Akron Ransomware Protection and Recovery Expertise

Ransomware has been widely adopted by cybercriminals and rogue states, posing a potentially existential threat to businesses that fall victim. Current strains of crypto-ransomware target all vulnerable resources, including online backup, making even partial recovery a complex and expensive exercise. New variations of ransomware such as Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, Netwalker, DopplePaymer, Snatch and Egregor have emerged, displacing Locky, Spora, and Petya in prominence, elaborateness, and destructive impact.

90% of ransomware infections are caused by innocent-looking emails that have malicious hyperlinks or attachments, and many are so-called "zero-day" variants that elude the defenses of legacy signature-matching antivirus (AV) tools. While user education and up-front detection are critical to defend against ransomware, leading practices dictate that you take for granted some attacks will inevitably succeed and that you put in place a strong backup mechanism that enables you to recover quickly with minimal damage.

Progent's ProSight Ransomware Vulnerability Report is an ultra-affordable service centered around a remote interview with a Progent cybersecurity expert skilled in ransomware protection and recovery. During this assessment Progent will work with your Akron IT managers to gather critical information concerning your cybersecurity profile and backup environment. Progent will use this information to produce a Basic Security and Best Practices Report documenting how to adhere to leading practices for implementing and managing your security and backup systems to block or clean up after a ransomware assault.

Progent's Basic Security and Best Practices Report focuses on vital areas related to ransomware prevention and restoration recovery. The report addresses:

Security

• Correct use of admin accounts
• Assigning NTFS and SMB permissions
• Optimal firewall settings
• Safe RDP connections
• Advice about AntiVirus (AV) tools identification and deployment

• Split permission architecture for backup integrity
• Protecting required servers including Active Directory
• Geographically dispersed backups including cloud backup to Azure

About Ransomware
Ransomware is a variety of malware that encrypts or deletes a victim's files so they are unusable or are publicized. Crypto-ransomware sometimes locks the target's computer. To prevent the damage, the target is asked to pay a certain amount of money (the ransom), usually via a crypto currency like Bitcoin, within a short time window. There is no guarantee that paying the ransom will recover the lost files or avoid its publication. Files can be encrypted or deleted across a network depending on the target's write permissions, and you cannot solve the military-grade encryption technologies used on the compromised files. A common ransomware attack vector is booby-trapped email, in which the user is lured into interacting with by means of a social engineering technique known as spear phishing. This makes the email to appear to come from a trusted source. Another popular attack vector is an improperly protected Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) port.

The ransomware variant CryptoLocker opened the new age of ransomware in 2013, and the damage caused by the many strains of ransomware is estimated at billions of dollars annually, roughly doubling every two years. Famous attacks are WannaCry, and Petya. Recent high-profile threats like Ryuk, DoppelPaymer and CryptoWall are more complex and have caused more havoc than older versions. Even if your backup processes permit you to restore your encrypted data, you can still be threatened by so-called exfiltration, where stolen data are exposed to the public (known as "doxxing"). Because new variants of ransomware are launched every day, there is no guarantee that traditional signature-matching anti-virus filters will detect the latest malware. If an attack does show up in an email, it is important that your users have been taught to identify social engineering techniques. Your last line of defense is a sound process for scheduling and retaining remote backups plus the use of reliable recovery tools.

Ask Progent About the ProSight Crypto-Ransomware Susceptibility Checkup in Akron
For pricing information and to find out more about how Progent's ProSight Ransomware Readiness Assessment can bolster your defense against ransomware in Akron, phone Progent at 800-462-8800 or see Contact Progent.