Arlington Ransomware Defense and Restoration Services

Ransomware has been weaponized by the major cyber-crime organizations and rogue governments, posing a possibly lethal threat to businesses that are successfully attacked. Modern strains of ransomware go after all vulnerable resources, including backup, making even partial restoration a complex and costly exercise. New versions of ransomware like Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, Netwalker, Phobos, Conti and Egregor have made the headlines, replacing Locky, Spora, and CryptoWall in notoriety, sophistication, and destructive impact.

90% of crypto-ransomware breaches are caused by innocent-looking emails that include malicious links or attachments, and many are so-called "zero-day" variants that elude the defenses of traditional signature-matching antivirus filters. While user education and up-front detection are critical to protect against ransomware attacks, best practices demand that you take for granted some malware will eventually get through and that you prepare a solid backup solution that permits you to recover rapidly with little if any losses.

Progent's ProSight Ransomware Vulnerability Assessment is a low-cost service built around a remote interview with a Progent cybersecurity expert skilled in ransomware protection and recovery. In the course of this interview Progent will collaborate directly with your Arlington IT managers to gather critical information concerning your security posture and backup processes. Progent will use this information to generate a Basic Security and Best Practices Report documenting how to follow leading practices for configuring and managing your cybersecurity and backup systems to prevent or recover from a ransomware assault.

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

Security

• Effective use of administration accounts
• Appropriate NTFS (New Technology File System) and SMB authorizations
• Proper firewall setup
• Secure Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) access
• Advice about AntiVirus filtering selection and configuration

• Split permission model for backup protection
• Backing up required servers such as Active Directory
• Geographically dispersed backups including 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 made publicly available. Crypto-ransomware sometimes locks the victim's computer. To prevent the damage, the target is asked to send a certain ransom, typically in the form of a crypto currency like Bitcoin, within a short time window. It is never certain that paying the extortion price will recover the lost data or prevent its exposure to the public. Files can be encrypted or deleted across a network depending on the victim's write permissions, and you cannot solve the strong encryption algorithms used on the compromised files. A typical ransomware attack vector is booby-trapped email, in which the target is lured into responding to by means of a social engineering technique called spear phishing. This makes the email message to look as though it came from a familiar sender. Another common vulnerability is an improperly protected RDP port.

The ransomware variant CryptoLocker ushered in the new age of crypto-ransomware in 2013, and the damage caused by different versions of ransomware is estimated at billions of dollars annually, more than doubling every two years. Famous examples include WannaCry, and NotPetya. Current high-profile threats like Ryuk, Maze and CryptoWall are more complex and have caused more damage than earlier strains. Even if your backup/recovery processes permit your business to recover your encrypted data, 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 certainty that traditional signature-based 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 identify phishing techniques. Your last line of defense is a solid scheme for performing and keeping offsite backups and the use of dependable recovery platforms.

Ask Progent About the ProSight Crypto-Ransomware Susceptibility Report in Arlington
For pricing information and to find out more about how Progent's ProSight Ransomware Preparedness Review can bolster your defense against ransomware in Arlington, call Progent at 800-462-8800 or visit Contact Progent.