Birmingham Ransomware Filtering and Cleanup Services

Ransomware has become the weapon of choice for cyber extortionists and rogue governments, representing a potentially existential risk to companies that are victimized. The latest variations of ransomware go after all vulnerable resources, including online backup, making even partial restoration a long and expensive process. Novel versions of ransomware like Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, Mailto (aka Netwalker), Phobos, Conti and Nephilim have emerged, replacing Locky, Cerber, and NotPetya in notoriety, elaborateness, and destructive impact.

90% of ransomware infections come from innocent-looking emails that have dangerous links or attachments, and a high percentage are "zero-day" strains that elude detection by traditional signature-matching antivirus (AV) filters. Although user education and frontline identification are important to defend your network against ransomware attacks, leading practices demand that you take for granted some attacks will inevitably succeed and that you put in place a strong backup mechanism that enables you to repair the damage quickly with little if any losses.

Progent's ProSight Ransomware Preparedness Checkup is an ultra-affordable service centered around a remote discussion with a Progent cybersecurity consultant skilled in ransomware defense and recovery. In the course of this interview Progent will collaborate directly with your Birmingham IT managers to gather pertinent information about your cybersecurity configuration and backup processes. Progent will use this information to produce a Basic Security and Best Practices Assessment detailing how to adhere to leading practices for implementing and managing your cybersecurity and backup systems to prevent or clean up after a ransomware attack.

Progent's Basic Security and Best Practices Report highlights key issues related to crypto-ransomware defense and restoration recovery. The report addresses:

Cybersecurity

• Correct allocation and use of administration accounts
• Appropriate NTFS and SMB (Server Message Block) permissions
• Optimal firewall setup
• Secure Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) access
• Advice about AntiVirus (AV) tools identification and configuration

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

About Ransomware
Ransomware is a form of malicious software that encrypts or deletes a victim's files so they are unusable or are made publicly available. Crypto-ransomware often locks the victim's computer. To prevent the damage, the victim is asked to send a specified ransom, typically via a crypto currency such as Bitcoin, within a brief time window. It is never certain that delivering the extortion price will recover the damaged files or prevent its exposure to the public. Files can be altered or deleted across a network depending on the victim's write permissions, and you cannot solve the military-grade encryption technologies used on the compromised files. A common ransomware delivery package is booby-trapped email, in which the victim is tricked into responding to by means of a social engineering exploit known as spear phishing. This causes the email message to look as though it came from a trusted sender. Another common vulnerability is a poorly secured Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) port.

CryptoLocker ushered in the modern era of crypto-ransomware in 2013, and the damage caused by the many strains of ransomware is said to be billions of dollars per year, roughly doubling every other year. Famous attacks include WannaCry, and NotPetya. Recent headline variants like Ryuk, Sodinokibi and TeslaCrypt are more complex and have wreaked more damage than older strains. Even if your backup/recovery processes permit your business to recover your ransomed data, you can still be hurt by so-called exfiltration, where ransomed data are exposed to the public (known as "doxxing"). Because additional variants of ransomware are launched every day, there is no guarantee that traditional signature-matching anti-virus tools will block a new attack. If an attack does show up in an email, it is critical that your end users have learned to identify social engineering techniques. Your ultimate defense is a sound process for performing and retaining offsite backups plus the deployment of reliable restoration platforms.

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