Arlington Ransomware Filtering and Removal Expertise

Ransomware has been widely adopted by the major cyber-crime organizations and rogue governments, posing a potentially lethal threat to businesses that are victimized. The latest variations of crypto-ransomware go after all vulnerable resources, including backup, making even partial restoration a long and expensive process. New versions of crypto-ransomware like Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, Netwalker, DopplePaymer, LockBit and Egregor have emerged, replacing WannaCry, TeslaCrypt, and Petya in prominence, sophistication, and destructiveness.

90% of ransomware breaches are caused by innocuous-seeming emails that have dangerous hyperlinks or file attachments, and a high percentage are so-called "zero-day" attacks that elude the defenses of traditional signature-matching antivirus (AV) tools. While user training and up-front detection are important to defend your network against ransomware attacks, leading practices dictate that you expect that some malware will eventually get through and that you deploy a solid backup mechanism that permits you to repair the damage quickly with minimal losses.

Progent's ProSight Ransomware Preparedness Report is a low-cost service centered around a remote discussion with a Progent security consultant skilled in ransomware defense and repair. In the course of this interview Progent will cooperate directly with your Arlington network managers to gather critical data about your security setup and backup environment. Progent will use this information to create a Basic Security and Best Practices Assessment documenting how to follow best practices for configuring and administering your security and backup solution to block or clean up after a crypto-ransomware attack.

Progent's Basic Security and Best Practices Assessment focuses on key areas related to ransomware prevention and restoration recovery. The review covers:

Cybersecurity

• Proper use of administration accounts
• Correct NTFS (New Technology File System) and SMB (Server Message Block) authorizations
• Proper firewall settings
• Secure Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) configuration
• Guidance for AntiVirus tools selection and deployment

• Split permission model for backup integrity
• Protecting key servers such as Active Directory
• Offsite backups including cloud backup to Microsoft Azure

About Ransomware
Ransomware is a variety of malware that encrypts or deletes a victim's files so they are unusable or are made publicly available. Crypto-ransomware sometimes locks the victim's computer. To avoid the carnage, the target is required to send a specified ransom, typically in the form of a crypto currency such as Bitcoin, within a short time window. It is never certain that paying the extortion price will recover the damaged data or prevent its publication. Files can be encrypted or erased throughout a network depending on the target's write permissions, and you cannot reverse engineer the strong encryption algorithms used on the compromised files. A typical ransomware delivery package is spoofed email, whereby the user is tricked into interacting with by means of a social engineering technique known as spear phishing. This makes the email message to appear to come from a trusted sender. Another popular attack vector is an improperly protected Remote Desktop Protocol port.

CryptoLocker opened the modern era of ransomware in 2013, and the damage caused by different strains of ransomware is said to be billions of dollars per year, more than doubling every two years. Notorious examples are Locky, and NotPetya. Recent headline variants like Ryuk, DoppelPaymer and Spora are more sophisticated and have caused more damage than earlier versions. Even if your backup/recovery procedures permit your business to restore your ransomed files, you can still be hurt by exfiltration, where stolen data are made public (known as "doxxing"). Because new versions of ransomware are launched every day, there is no certainty that conventional signature-based anti-virus filters will detect the latest attack. If threat does show up in an email, it is important that your end users have learned to be aware of social engineering tricks. Your ultimate defense is a sound process for performing and keeping offsite backups plus the deployment of reliable recovery tools.

Ask Progent About the ProSight Crypto-Ransomware Readiness Evaluation in Arlington
For pricing details and to find out more about how Progent's ProSight Ransomware Preparedness Testing can bolster your protection against crypto-ransomware in Arlington, call Progent at 800-462-8800 or visit Contact Progent.