Alexandria Ransomware Prevention and Restoration Solutions

Ransomware has been widely adopted by cyber extortionists and bad-actor governments, posing a possibly existential threat to businesses that are breached. Modern strains of ransomware target all vulnerable resources, including online backup, making even selective restoration a challenging and costly exercise. New variations of ransomware like Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, Netwalker, Phobos, LockBit and Egregor have made the headlines, replacing Locky, Cerber, and NotPetya in prominence, elaborateness, and destructive impact.

Most ransomware infections come from innocuous-looking emails that include dangerous links or file attachments, and a high percentage are "zero-day" strains that elude detection by traditional signature-matching antivirus filters. While user education and up-front detection are critical to protect your network against ransomware attacks, leading practices demand that you assume some attacks will inevitably get through and that you put in place a solid backup mechanism that allows you to recover quickly with minimal damage.

Progent's ProSight Ransomware Preparedness Assessment is an ultra-affordable service built around an online discussion with a Progent cybersecurity expert skilled in ransomware defense and recovery. In the course of this interview Progent will cooperate directly with your Alexandria network managers to collect critical information about your cybersecurity profile and backup environment. Progent will use this information to produce a Basic Security and Best Practices Assessment detailing how to follow best practices for implementing and administering your security and backup systems to block or clean up after a ransomware attack.

Progent's Basic Security and Best Practices Report focuses on vital areas associated with crypto-ransomware defense and restoration recovery. The report covers:

Security

• Effective allocation and use of admin accounts
• Appropriate NTFS and SMB (Server Message Block) permissions
• Optimal firewall configuration
• Safe RDP access
• Recommend AntiVirus filtering selection and deployment

• Split permission model for backup integrity
• Backing up key servers including Active Directory
• Geographically dispersed backups including cloud backup to Microsoft Azure

About Ransomware
Ransomware is a form of malware that encrypts or deletes files so they cannot be used or are publicized. Crypto-ransomware often locks the target's computer. To avoid the carnage, the target is required to send a certain amount of money (the ransom), typically via a crypto currency such as Bitcoin, within a short period of time. It is never certain that paying the extortion price will recover the lost files or prevent its publication. Files can be altered or deleted throughout a network based on the victim's write permissions, and you cannot solve the military-grade encryption technologies used on the hostage files. A common ransomware attack vector is spoofed email, whereby the target is lured into responding to by means of a social engineering exploit known as spear phishing. This makes the email to appear to come from a familiar source. Another common attack vector is a poorly protected Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) port.

The ransomware variant CryptoLocker ushered in the modern era of ransomware in 2013, and the damage attributed to by different versions of ransomware is said to be billions of dollars annually, more than doubling every two years. Famous examples include Locky, and NotPetya. Current high-profile threats like Ryuk, Sodinokibi and TeslaCrypt are more complex and have wreaked more damage than older strains. Even if your backup/recovery procedures allow you to recover your encrypted data, you can still be threatened by exfiltration, where ransomed documents are made public (known as "doxxing"). Because new variants of ransomware crop up daily, there is no guarantee that conventional signature-based anti-virus filters will detect a new attack. If an attack does show up in an email, it is important that your end users have learned to be aware of phishing tricks. Your ultimate protection is a solid scheme for scheduling and retaining offsite backups and the use of reliable recovery platforms.

Ask Progent About the ProSight Ransomware Readiness Checkup in Alexandria
For pricing details and to find out more about how Progent's ProSight Ransomware Readiness Audit can enhance your protection against crypto-ransomware in Alexandria, call Progent at 800-462-8800 or see Contact Progent.