Austin Ransomware Prevention and Restoration Consulting

Ransomware has become the weapon of choice for cyber extortionists and rogue governments, posing a potentially lethal risk to businesses that are victimized. The latest strains of crypto-ransomware target everything, including backup, making even selective restoration a long and costly exercise. New versions of ransomware like Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, Netwalker, DopplePaymer, Conti and Egregor have made the headlines, displacing Locky, Cerber, and Petya in prominence, sophistication, and destructiveness.

Most ransomware breaches are caused by innocent-looking emails that include malicious hyperlinks or file attachments, and many are so-called "zero-day" attacks that can escape detection by traditional signature-based antivirus tools. Although user education and frontline identification are important to protect your network against ransomware attacks, leading practices demand that you expect that some malware will eventually get through and that you implement a strong backup mechanism that permits you to repair the damage rapidly with little if any damage.

Progent's ProSight Ransomware Preparedness Report is a low-cost service built around an online discussion with a Progent cybersecurity expert experienced in ransomware protection and repair. In the course of this assessment Progent will work directly with your Austin IT managers to collect critical data concerning your cybersecurity setup and backup environment. Progent will use this data to create a Basic Security and Best Practices Report documenting how to apply best practices for implementing and managing your security and backup solution to prevent or recover from a crypto-ransomware attack.

Progent's Basic Security and Best Practices Assessment focuses on key issues associated with ransomware prevention and restoration recovery. The review covers:

Security

• Proper allocation and use of administration accounts
• Assigning NTFS and SMB authorizations
• Optimal firewall configuration
• Safe Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) access
• Guidance for AntiVirus filtering selection and configuration

• Split permission model for backup integrity
• Protecting required servers including Active Directory
• Offsite backups with cloud backup to Azure

About Ransomware
Ransomware is a type of malicious software that encrypts or steals files so they cannot be used or are made publicly available. Crypto-ransomware sometimes locks the target's computer. To avoid the carnage, the victim is required to send a specified amount of money, typically in the form of a crypto currency like Bitcoin, within a short period of time. It is not guaranteed that delivering the extortion price will recover the lost data or avoid its publication. Files can be altered or deleted throughout a network based on the victim's write permissions, and you cannot solve the military-grade encryption algorithms used on the compromised files. A common ransomware delivery package is spoofed email, whereby the user is lured into interacting with by means of a social engineering exploit called spear phishing. This causes the email message to look as though it came from a trusted source. Another common vulnerability is an improperly secured Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) port.

The ransomware variant CryptoLocker ushered in the new age of ransomware in 2013, and the damage attributed to by different versions of ransomware is said to be billions of dollars per year, more than doubling every other year. Notorious attacks include WannaCry, and Petya. Recent high-profile variants like Ryuk, Sodinokibi and Spora are more elaborate and have caused more havoc than earlier versions. Even if your backup procedures permit your business to recover your ransomed data, you can still be hurt by so-called exfiltration, where ransomed documents are exposed to the public. Because additional variants of ransomware crop up daily, there is no certainty that traditional signature-based anti-virus filters will detect a new malware. If an attack does show up in an email, it is important that your users have learned to identify social engineering techniques. Your last line of protection is a sound process for performing and retaining offsite backups and the deployment of reliable recovery tools.

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