Alpharetta Ransomware Protection and Cleanup Services

Ransomware has become the weapon of choice for the major cyber-crime organizations and malicious states, representing a potentially lethal threat to companies that are victimized. Modern versions of crypto-ransomware target all vulnerable resources, including online backup, making even selective restoration a challenging and expensive process. New versions of ransomware like Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, Netwalker, DopplePaymer, LockBit and Nephilim have made the headlines, replacing WannaCry, TeslaCrypt, and NotPetya in prominence, elaborateness, and destructive impact.

90% of ransomware infections are caused by innocuous-looking emails that have dangerous hyperlinks or attachments, and many are "zero-day" attacks that elude detection by legacy signature-matching antivirus (AV) tools. While user education and frontline detection are critical to defend against ransomware, leading practices dictate that you assume some malware will eventually get through and that you put in place a solid backup solution that allows you to recover rapidly with minimal damage.

Progent's ProSight Ransomware Preparedness Assessment is a low-cost service built around an online interview with a Progent cybersecurity consultant skilled in ransomware defense and repair. In the course of this interview Progent will cooperate directly with your Alpharetta IT management staff to gather critical data about your cybersecurity profile and backup processes. Progent will utilize this data to generate a Basic Security and Best Practices Report documenting how to apply leading practices for implementing and administering your cybersecurity and backup systems to prevent or recover from a ransomware attack.

Progent's Basic Security and Best Practices Assessment focuses on key issues associated with ransomware defense and restoration recovery. The report covers:

Cybersecurity

• Proper allocation and use of admin accounts
• Assigning NTFS and SMB permissions
• Proper firewall setup
• Secure Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) configuration
• Advice about AntiVirus tools selection and configuration

• Split permission architecture for backup protection
• Protecting key servers including AD
• Geographically dispersed backups with cloud backup to Azure

About Ransomware
Ransomware is a variety of malware that encrypts or steals a victim's files so they are unusable or are publicized. Ransomware often locks the target's computer. To prevent the carnage, the target is asked to send a specified amount of money, typically via a crypto currency such as Bitcoin, within a short time window. It is never certain that delivering the extortion price will recover the damaged data or avoid its exposure to the public. Files can be altered or erased throughout a network based on the victim's write permissions, and you cannot solve the military-grade encryption technologies used on the compromised files. A common ransomware delivery package is tainted email, in which the target is tricked into responding to by a social engineering technique called spear phishing. This causes the email to appear to come from a trusted sender. Another common attack vector is a poorly secured Remote Desktop Protocol port.

The ransomware variant CryptoLocker ushered in the new age of crypto-ransomware in 2013, and the monetary losses caused by the many versions of ransomware is said to be billions of dollars annually, more than doubling every two years. Famous examples are Locky, and NotPetya. Recent high-profile threats like Ryuk, Maze and Spora are more complex and have wreaked more havoc than older strains. Even if your backup/recovery procedures permit you to restore your ransomed files, you can still be threatened by exfiltration, where ransomed data are made public (known as "doxxing"). Because new variants of ransomware are launched every day, there is no guarantee that traditional signature-matching anti-virus tools will block the latest malware. If threat does show up in an email, it is critical that your users have been taught to identify phishing tricks. Your ultimate defense is a sound process for performing and retaining remote backups and the deployment of reliable recovery tools.

Contact Progent About the ProSight Ransomware Readiness Consultation in Alpharetta
For pricing information and to learn more about how Progent's ProSight Ransomware Susceptibility Checkup can bolster your protection against ransomware in Alpharetta, call Progent at 800-462-8800 or see Contact Progent.