Boston Ransomware Prevention and Cleanup Consulting

Ransomware has become the weapon of choice for the major cyber-crime organizations and rogue states, representing a possibly lethal threat to businesses that are victimized. Current strains of ransomware go after everything, including backup, making even partial restoration a long and costly process. Novel variations of crypto-ransomware like Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, Netwalker, Phobos, Snatch and Nephilim have made the headlines, displacing Locky, TeslaCrypt, and Petya in prominence, sophistication, and destructive impact.

Most crypto-ransomware infections are caused by innocuous-seeming emails with dangerous hyperlinks or attachments, and many are "zero-day" strains that can escape detection by legacy signature-matching antivirus (AV) filters. While user training and up-front detection are important to protect your network against ransomware attacks, leading practices dictate that you take for granted some attacks will eventually succeed and that you prepare a solid backup mechanism that permits you to recover rapidly with minimal damage.

Progent's ProSight Ransomware Preparedness Checkup is an ultra-affordable service centered around an online discussion with a Progent cybersecurity consultant experienced in ransomware protection and repair. During this assessment Progent will collaborate directly with your Boston network managers to collect critical information concerning your security setup and backup environment. Progent will utilize this information to create a Basic Security and Best Practices Report detailing how to apply best practices for implementing and administering your cybersecurity and backup systems to block or recover from a crypto-ransomware assault.

Progent's Basic Security and Best Practices Assessment focuses on key areas associated with crypto-ransomware defense and restoration recovery. The review covers:

Cybersecurity

• Effective use of administration accounts
• Correct NTFS and SMB permissions
• Proper firewall setup
• Safe RDP access
• Advice about AntiVirus filtering selection and configuration

• Split permission model for backup integrity
• Protecting required servers such as AD
• Offsite backups with cloud backup to Microsoft Azure

About Ransomware
Ransomware is a form of malicious software that encrypts or steals 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 pay a specified ransom, usually in the form of a crypto currency like Bitcoin, within a brief period of time. There is no guarantee that paying the extortion price will recover the lost files or avoid its exposure to the public. Files can be encrypted or deleted across 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 booby-trapped email, whereby the user is lured into responding to by a social engineering technique called spear phishing. This causes the email message to appear to come from a familiar sender. Another popular vulnerability is a poorly protected Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) port.

CryptoLocker ushered in the modern era of crypto-ransomware in 2013, and the damage caused by the many versions of ransomware is said to be billions of dollars annually, roughly doubling every other year. Notorious attacks are WannaCry, and NotPetya. Recent high-profile variants like Ryuk, Maze and Spora are more elaborate and have caused more damage than earlier versions. Even if your backup procedures enable you to recover your ransomed data, you can still be threatened by exfiltration, where stolen data are exposed to the public. Because additional variants of ransomware crop up every day, there is no guarantee that traditional signature-matching anti-virus filters will detect a new malware. If threat does appear in an email, it is critical that your end users have learned to be aware of social engineering techniques. Your last line of defense is a sound process for scheduling and keeping offsite backups and the use of reliable restoration tools.

Contact Progent About the ProSight Ransomware Readiness Testing in Boston
For pricing information and to find out more about how Progent's ProSight Ransomware Susceptibility Consultation can bolster your defense against ransomware in Boston, call Progent at 800-462-8800 or visit Contact Progent.