Allen Ransomware Protection and Removal Solutions

Ransomware has been weaponized by cybercriminals and bad-actor governments, representing a potentially existential threat to businesses that are successfully attacked. Current variations of ransomware go after all vulnerable resources, including online backup, making even selective recovery a challenging and expensive process. New versions of ransomware like Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, Netwalker, Phobos, Conti and Egregor have emerged, displacing Locky, Cerber, and Petya in notoriety, elaborateness, and destructiveness.

Most crypto-ransomware breaches are caused by innocuous-seeming emails that have dangerous hyperlinks or attachments, and many are so-called "zero-day" strains that elude detection by traditional signature-based antivirus tools. While user education and up-front detection are critical to defend your network against ransomware attacks, leading practices dictate that you assume some attacks will eventually succeed and that you prepare a solid backup solution that enables you to recover rapidly with little if any damage.

Progent's ProSight Ransomware Vulnerability Assessment is a low-cost service built around an online discussion with a Progent cybersecurity expert experienced in ransomware defense and repair. During this interview Progent will collaborate with your Allen IT management staff to collect critical data concerning your cybersecurity posture and backup environment. Progent will use this data to produce a Basic Security and Best Practices Report detailing how to apply best practices for configuring and managing your cybersecurity and backup solution to block or recover from a crypto-ransomware assault.

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

Cybersecurity

• Proper use of administration accounts
• Appropriate NTFS and SMB (Server Message Block) permissions
• Optimal firewall configuration
• Secure RDP access
• Recommend AntiVirus filtering identification and deployment

• Split permission architecture for backup integrity
• Backing up key servers such as AD
• Geographically dispersed backups with cloud backup to Azure

About Ransomware
Ransomware is a form of malicious software that encrypts or deletes files so they are unusable or are made publicly available. Crypto-ransomware sometimes locks the victim's computer. To avoid the damage, the victim is asked to pay a specified amount of money, typically via a crypto currency like Bitcoin, within a short period of time. There is no guarantee that paying the extortion price will restore the lost files or avoid its exposure to the public. Files can be encrypted or erased across a network depending on the victim's write permissions, and you cannot break the strong encryption algorithms used on the compromised files. A common ransomware delivery package is spoofed email, in which the target is lured into responding to by a social engineering technique known as spear phishing. This makes the email to appear to come from a familiar source. Another popular vulnerability is an improperly protected Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) port.

The ransomware variant CryptoLocker ushered in the modern era of crypto-ransomware in 2013, and the monetary losses attributed to by different versions of ransomware is estimated at billions of dollars annually, roughly doubling every other year. Famous attacks include Locky, and Petya. Current high-profile variants like Ryuk, DoppelPaymer and Spora are more sophisticated and have caused more havoc than earlier versions. Even if your backup procedures enable your business to restore your encrypted files, you can still be threatened by exfiltration, where ransomed data are exposed to the public (known as "doxxing"). Because additional versions of ransomware are launched daily, there is no certainty that conventional signature-based anti-virus tools will detect the latest attack. If an attack does appear in an email, it is critical that your users have been taught to be aware of phishing tricks. Your ultimate protection is a sound scheme for scheduling and keeping remote backups and the deployment of reliable restoration tools.

Contact Progent About the ProSight Crypto-Ransomware Susceptibility Report in Allen
For pricing details and to find out more about how Progent's ProSight Ransomware Preparedness Review can bolster your protection against crypto-ransomware in Allen, phone Progent at 800-462-8800 or see Contact Progent.