Atlanta Ransomware Protection and Recovery Expertise

Ransomware has been widely adopted by cyber extortionists and malicious governments, representing a possibly lethal threat to businesses that fall victim. The latest strains of crypto-ransomware go after all vulnerable resources, including online backup, making even selective restoration a complex and expensive exercise. New strains of crypto-ransomware such as Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, Mailto (aka Netwalker), DopplePaymer, Conti and Egregor have made the headlines, displacing WannaCry, Spora, and CryptoWall in prominence, elaborateness, and destructiveness.

Most ransomware penetrations come from innocuous-seeming emails with dangerous hyperlinks or attachments, and many are "zero-day" attacks that elude detection by legacy signature-based antivirus (AV) tools. While user education and frontline detection are critical to defend against ransomware, leading practices dictate that you take for granted some attacks will eventually succeed and that you prepare a strong backup solution that allows you to recover quickly with minimal damage.

Progent's ProSight Ransomware Preparedness Report is a low-cost service built around a remote discussion with a Progent security consultant experienced in ransomware protection and recovery. During this interview Progent will cooperate with your Atlanta network managers to gather pertinent information concerning your cybersecurity profile and backup environment. Progent will utilize this data to create a Basic Security and Best Practices Assessment documenting how to adhere to leading practices for implementing and managing your security and backup systems to block or clean up after a crypto-ransomware assault.

Progent's Basic Security and Best Practices Report highlights key areas related to ransomware defense and restoration recovery. The review covers:

Cybersecurity

• Effective use of admin accounts
• Appropriate NTFS and SMB (Server Message Block) authorizations
• Proper firewall settings
• Secure Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) connections
• Guidance for AntiVirus (AV) filtering selection and deployment

• Split permission model for backup protection
• Backing up critical servers including AD
• Geographically dispersed backups including cloud backup to Azure

About Ransomware
Ransomware is a variety of malicious software that encrypts or deletes files so they cannot be used or are publicized. Crypto-ransomware sometimes locks the victim's computer. To avoid the carnage, the victim is required to send a certain amount of money (the ransom), usually in the form of a crypto currency like Bitcoin, within a brief period of time. There is no guarantee that delivering the ransom will recover the lost files or avoid its exposure to the public. Files can be encrypted or erased throughout a network based on the target's write permissions, and you cannot reverse engineer the strong encryption technologies used on the hostage files. A common ransomware attack vector is tainted email, whereby the user is lured into interacting with by a social engineering technique known as spear phishing. This causes the email to appear to come from a trusted source. Another common attack vector is a poorly protected Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) port.

The ransomware variant CryptoLocker ushered in the modern era of crypto-ransomware in 2013, and the damage caused by different strains of ransomware is estimated at billions of dollars per year, more than doubling every other year. Famous attacks include Locky, and NotPetya. Current high-profile threats like Ryuk, DoppelPaymer and Cerber are more elaborate and have caused more damage than older versions. Even if your backup processes permit you to restore your encrypted data, you can still be hurt by exfiltration, where stolen documents are exposed to the public. Because additional variants of ransomware crop up every day, there is no certainty that conventional signature-matching anti-virus filters will detect the latest malware. If an attack does appear in an email, it is critical that your users have been taught to identify social engineering techniques. Your last line of protection is a sound scheme for scheduling and keeping offsite backups and the use of dependable restoration tools.

Contact Progent About the ProSight Ransomware Susceptibility Consultation in Atlanta
For pricing details and to learn more about how Progent's ProSight Ransomware Vulnerability Audit can bolster your defense against crypto-ransomware in Atlanta, phone Progent at 800-462-8800 or see Contact Progent.