Austin Ransomware Defense and Remediation Expertise

Ransomware has been widely adopted by cybercriminals and rogue governments, posing a possibly existential threat to businesses that fall victim. Modern strains of crypto-ransomware go after everything, including backup, making even selective recovery a complex and costly exercise. Novel variations of ransomware such as Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, Netwalker, Phobos, LockBit and Egregor have made the headlines, displacing WannaCry, Spora, and NotPetya in notoriety, sophistication, and destructive impact.

90% of crypto-ransomware breaches come from innocent-looking emails that have malicious links or attachments, and a high percentage are so-called "zero-day" attacks that can escape detection by legacy signature-based antivirus (AV) tools. While user training and frontline identification are critical to protect against ransomware attacks, leading practices demand that you take for granted some attacks will inevitably succeed and that you prepare a strong backup solution that allows you to repair the damage quickly with little if any damage.

Progent's ProSight Ransomware Preparedness Report is a low-cost service centered around an online discussion with a Progent cybersecurity expert skilled in ransomware defense and recovery. In the course of this assessment Progent will work directly with your Austin network managers to gather pertinent information concerning your security setup and backup processes. Progent will utilize this data to generate a Basic Security and Best Practices Assessment detailing how to follow leading practices for configuring and managing your cybersecurity and backup systems to prevent or recover from a crypto-ransomware attack.

Progent's Basic Security and Best Practices Report focuses on key issues related to ransomware prevention and restoration recovery. The review addresses:

Security

• Proper use of administration accounts
• Appropriate NTFS (New Technology File System) and SMB permissions
• Proper firewall configuration
• Secure Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) connections
• Advice about AntiVirus tools identification and configuration

• Split permission model for backup protection
• Backing up required servers such as Active Directory
• Geographically dispersed backups with cloud backup to Microsoft Azure

About Ransomware
Ransomware is a variety of malicious software that encrypts or steals a victim's files so they are unusable or are publicized. Crypto-ransomware often locks the target's computer. To avoid the damage, the victim is asked to pay a specified ransom, typically in the form of a crypto currency like Bitcoin, within a brief period of time. There is no guarantee that delivering the ransom will restore the damaged files or avoid its exposure to the public. Files can be encrypted or deleted throughout a network depending on the target's write permissions, and you cannot solve the strong encryption algorithms used on the hostage files. A common ransomware attack vector is booby-trapped email, whereby the target is lured into interacting with by means of a social engineering technique known as spear phishing. This causes the email message to appear to come from a trusted source. Another popular attack vector is a poorly secured Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) port.

CryptoLocker ushered in the new age of crypto-ransomware in 2013, and the monetary losses attributed to by the many versions of ransomware is estimated at billions of dollars per year, roughly doubling every two years. Famous attacks include WannaCry, and Petya. Recent headline variants like Ryuk, Maze and CryptoWall are more complex and have caused more damage than older versions. Even if your backup/recovery processes permit your business to restore your encrypted data, you can still be threatened by exfiltration, where stolen documents are exposed to the public (known as "doxxing"). Because additional variants of ransomware are launched every day, there is no guarantee that conventional signature-based anti-virus filters will block the latest attack. If threat does appear in an email, it is critical that your end users have been taught to identify phishing techniques. Your ultimate protection is a sound process for scheduling and keeping offsite backups plus the deployment of reliable restoration tools.

Ask Progent About the ProSight Crypto-Ransomware Readiness Audit in Austin
For pricing details and to find out more about how Progent's ProSight Crypto-Ransomware Susceptibility Report can enhance your protection against ransomware in Austin, call Progent at 800-462-8800 or visit Contact Progent.