Alpharetta Ransomware Prevention and Cleanup Expertise

Ransomware has become the weapon of choice for the major cyber-crime organizations and rogue governments, posing a potentially lethal threat to businesses that are successfully attacked. The latest strains of crypto-ransomware target all vulnerable resources, including backup, making even partial recovery a challenging and costly process. New strains of crypto-ransomware like Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, Netwalker, Phobos, Conti and Nephilim have made the headlines, displacing Locky, Cerber, and Petya in prominence, sophistication, and destructiveness.

Most crypto-ransomware infections come from innocent-looking emails that include malicious links or attachments, and a high percentage are "zero-day" variants that elude detection by traditional signature-matching antivirus tools. While user training and up-front identification are important to defend against ransomware attacks, leading practices demand that you take for granted some malware will eventually succeed and that you put in place a strong backup mechanism that permits you to repair the damage quickly with little if any damage.

Progent's ProSight Ransomware Preparedness Assessment is a low-cost service centered around an online interview with a Progent security expert skilled in ransomware defense and recovery. During this assessment Progent will work with your Alpharetta network managers to collect pertinent data about your cybersecurity setup 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 configuring and managing your cybersecurity and backup solution to prevent or recover from a ransomware attack.

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

Security

• Proper allocation and use of admin accounts
• Correct NTFS and SMB (Server Message Block) authorizations
• Proper firewall settings
• Safe RDP access
• Guidance for AntiVirus filtering selection and deployment

• Split permission architecture for backup integrity
• Protecting required servers such as Active Directory
• Offsite backups with cloud backup to Azure

About Ransomware
Ransomware is a variety of malware that encrypts or deletes files so they are unusable or are publicized. Ransomware often locks the victim's computer. To avoid the carnage, the target is asked to pay a specified ransom, typically via a crypto currency such as Bitcoin, within a short time window. There is no guarantee that delivering the ransom will recover the damaged files or avoid its exposure to the public. Files can be altered or deleted throughout a network based on the target's write permissions, and you cannot reverse engineer the military-grade encryption algorithms used on the hostage files. A typical ransomware delivery package is booby-trapped email, in which the user is tricked into responding to by a social engineering exploit called spear phishing. This causes the email to look as though it came from a familiar sender. Another popular attack vector is a poorly protected Remote Desktop Protocol port.

The ransomware variant CryptoLocker ushered in the new age of crypto-ransomware in 2013, and the damage caused by the many strains of ransomware is said to be billions of dollars per year, roughly doubling every other year. Famous attacks include WannaCry, and NotPetya. Recent high-profile threats like Ryuk, Maze and Cerber are more complex and have wreaked more havoc than earlier strains. Even if your backup/recovery procedures enable your business to restore your ransomed data, you can still be hurt by exfiltration, where ransomed data are made public. Because new variants of ransomware are launched daily, there is no guarantee that conventional signature-matching anti-virus tools will detect a new malware. If threat does appear in an email, it is important that your end users have learned to be aware of social engineering techniques. Your last line of defense is a sound process for scheduling and keeping remote backups plus the use of reliable recovery tools.

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