Atlanta Ransomware Defense and Restoration Solutions

Ransomware has become the weapon of choice for cyber extortionists and malicious governments, representing a possibly existential threat to businesses that are breached. Current variations of crypto-ransomware target everything, including online backup, making even selective recovery a complex and expensive process. Novel strains of ransomware like Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, Netwalker, DopplePaymer, Conti and Nephilim have made the headlines, displacing Locky, Spora, and NotPetya in prominence, elaborateness, and destructive impact.

Most ransomware breaches come from innocent-seeming emails that have malicious links or attachments, and a high percentage are "zero-day" attacks that can escape detection by legacy signature-matching antivirus (AV) filters. Although user training and up-front identification are important to protect against ransomware, best practices dictate that you expect that some attacks will eventually succeed and that you prepare a strong backup mechanism that enables you to recover quickly with minimal damage.

Progent's ProSight Ransomware Vulnerability Checkup is an ultra-affordable service centered around a remote interview with a Progent security expert experienced in ransomware protection and repair. During this assessment Progent will cooperate directly with your Atlanta IT managers to gather critical information concerning your security posture and backup environment. Progent will use this data to produce a Basic Security and Best Practices Report documenting how to adhere to leading practices for configuring and administering your security and backup solution to block or recover from a ransomware assault.

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

Security

• Effective allocation and use of administration accounts
• Assigning NTFS and SMB permissions
• Optimal firewall settings
• Safe Remote Desktop Protocol connections
• Guidance for AntiVirus (AV) filtering selection and deployment

• Split permission model for backup integrity
• Protecting critical servers such as Active Directory
• Geographically dispersed backups including cloud backup to Azure

About Ransomware
Ransomware is a variety of malicious software that encrypts or deletes a victim's files so they are unusable or are publicized. Crypto-ransomware often locks the target's computer. To avoid the carnage, the target is asked to send a specified ransom, typically via a crypto currency like Bitcoin, within a brief period of time. There is no guarantee that paying the ransom will restore the damaged data or avoid its publication. Files can be encrypted or erased across a network depending on the victim's write permissions, and you cannot solve the strong encryption algorithms used on the hostage files. A typical ransomware delivery package is booby-trapped email, whereby the user is lured into interacting with by a social engineering technique known as spear phishing. This causes the email message to look as though it came from a trusted source. Another common vulnerability is an improperly secured RDP port.

CryptoLocker ushered in the modern era of ransomware in 2013, and the monetary losses attributed to by different strains of ransomware is estimated at billions of dollars annually, more than doubling every two years. Notorious examples are Locky, and NotPetya. Current headline threats like Ryuk, DoppelPaymer and Spora are more elaborate and have caused more damage than older versions. Even if your backup procedures permit your business to recover your ransomed files, you can still be threatened by so-called exfiltration, where stolen documents are exposed to the public (known as "doxxing"). Because additional variants of ransomware crop up every day, there is no certainty that conventional signature-based anti-virus tools will detect a new attack. If an attack does appear in an email, it is important that your users have been taught to be aware of phishing techniques. Your last line of defense is a solid scheme for performing and retaining offsite backups and the deployment of dependable recovery tools.

Ask Progent About the ProSight Ransomware Readiness Checkup in Atlanta
For pricing information and to learn more about how Progent's ProSight Ransomware Vulnerability Checkup can bolster your defense against crypto-ransomware in Atlanta, phone Progent at 800-462-8800 or visit Contact Progent.