Alexandria Ransomware Protection and Remediation Services

Ransomware has been widely adopted by the major cyber-crime organizations and bad-actor states, representing a potentially existential risk to companies that are successfully attacked. Current versions of ransomware target everything, including online backup, making even partial recovery a long and costly process. New versions of crypto-ransomware like Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, Netwalker, DopplePaymer, LockBit and Nephilim have made the headlines, displacing Locky, TeslaCrypt, and CryptoWall in notoriety, elaborateness, and destructiveness.

Most crypto-ransomware penetrations are caused by innocuous-looking emails with malicious hyperlinks or file attachments, and many are so-called "zero-day" attacks that elude the defenses of traditional signature-based antivirus (AV) tools. Although user training and frontline detection are important to protect against ransomware, leading practices dictate that you expect that some malware will inevitably get through and that you implement a strong backup solution that enables you to repair the damage rapidly with minimal losses.

Progent's ProSight Ransomware Preparedness Assessment is a low-cost service centered around an online interview with a Progent cybersecurity consultant experienced in ransomware protection and recovery. In the course of this assessment Progent will collaborate with your Alexandria IT management staff to collect pertinent information concerning your cybersecurity posture and backup processes. Progent will utilize this information to create a Basic Security and Best Practices Assessment documenting how to apply best practices for implementing and managing your security and backup solution to block or clean up after a ransomware assault.

Progent's Basic Security and Best Practices Assessment highlights key areas related to crypto-ransomware defense and restoration recovery. The report covers:

Security

• Correct allocation and use of admin accounts
• Appropriate NTFS (New Technology File System) and SMB authorizations
• Proper firewall setup
• Secure RDP configuration
• Advice about AntiVirus tools identification and configuration

• Split permission model for backup protection
• Protecting required servers such as Active Directory
• Geographically dispersed backups including cloud backup to Microsoft Azure

About Ransomware
Ransomware is a form of malicious software that encrypts or deletes files so they cannot be used or are publicized. Crypto-ransomware sometimes locks the target's computer. To avoid the carnage, the victim is asked to pay a certain amount of money, typically in the form of a crypto currency like Bitcoin, within a short period of time. There is no guarantee that paying the ransom will restore the damaged data or prevent its publication. Files can be altered or erased throughout a network depending on the victim's write permissions, and you cannot reverse engineer the military-grade encryption algorithms used on the hostage files. A common ransomware attack vector is booby-trapped email, whereby the target is tricked into interacting with by means of a social engineering technique called spear phishing. This causes the email message to appear to come from a trusted source. Another common attack vector is a poorly protected Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) port.

CryptoLocker opened the new age of ransomware in 2013, and the monetary losses attributed to by the many strains of ransomware is estimated at billions of dollars annually, more than doubling every other year. Notorious examples include Locky, and Petya. Current headline variants like Ryuk, Sodinokibi and Spora are more elaborate and have wreaked more damage than older strains. Even if your backup procedures allow your business to recover your encrypted files, you can still be hurt by so-called exfiltration, where ransomed data are made public. Because additional versions of ransomware crop up daily, there is no guarantee that conventional signature-based anti-virus tools will block a new attack. If threat does appear in an email, it is important that your end users have learned to identify phishing tricks. Your last line of protection is a solid scheme for scheduling and keeping offsite backups and the deployment of dependable recovery tools.

Contact Progent About the ProSight Crypto-Ransomware Susceptibility Report in Alexandria
For pricing information and to find out more about how Progent's ProSight Crypto-Ransomware Preparedness Report can enhance your protection against ransomware in Alexandria, call Progent at 800-462-8800 or see Contact Progent.