Boston Ransomware Defense and Recovery Consulting

Ransomware has been weaponized by the major cyber-crime organizations and malicious governments, posing a possibly lethal risk to companies that are victimized. Current versions of ransomware go after everything, including backup, making even selective recovery a complex and costly exercise. New variations of crypto-ransomware such as Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, Mailto (aka Netwalker), DopplePaymer, LockBit and Egregor have made the headlines, displacing WannaCry, Cerber, and CryptoWall in prominence, elaborateness, and destructive impact.

Most ransomware infections come from innocent-looking emails with malicious hyperlinks or attachments, and many are "zero-day" variants that can escape detection by legacy signature-matching antivirus tools. Although user training and frontline detection are important to protect against ransomware attacks, best practices demand that you expect that some malware will inevitably get through and that you deploy a solid backup solution that allows you to recover quickly with little if any losses.

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. During this assessment Progent will collaborate directly with your Boston network managers to gather critical information about your security profile and backup environment. Progent will utilize this information to create a Basic Security and Best Practices Report detailing how to follow best practices for implementing and administering your cybersecurity and backup solution to prevent or clean up after a crypto-ransomware attack.

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

Security

• Effective use of admin accounts
• Correct NTFS (New Technology File System) and SMB permissions
• Proper firewall settings
• Secure RDP configuration
• Guidance for AntiVirus tools selection and configuration

• Split permission architecture for backup protection
• Backing up required servers such as AD
• Geographically dispersed backups with cloud backup to Azure

About Ransomware
Ransomware is a type of malicious software that encrypts or deletes files so they are unusable or are made publicly available. Crypto-ransomware sometimes locks the victim's computer. To prevent the carnage, the target is asked to send a certain ransom, usually in the form of a crypto currency such as Bitcoin, within a short period of time. It is not guaranteed that paying the ransom will restore the lost files or prevent its exposure to the public. Files can be encrypted or erased 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 delivery package is spoofed email, in which the victim is tricked into responding to by means of a social engineering exploit called spear phishing. This makes the email message to appear to come from a familiar source. Another popular vulnerability is an improperly secured Remote Desktop Protocol port.

CryptoLocker opened the new age of crypto-ransomware in 2013, and the monetary losses caused by the many strains of ransomware is said to be billions of dollars per year, more than doubling every other year. Famous attacks are Locky, and NotPetya. Recent headline variants like Ryuk, DoppelPaymer and CryptoWall are more elaborate and have caused more havoc than earlier versions. Even if your backup/recovery processes enable you to recover your ransomed data, you can still be hurt by exfiltration, where stolen data are exposed to the public (known as "doxxing"). Because new versions of ransomware are launched daily, there is no certainty that traditional signature-matching anti-virus filters will detect the latest attack. If an attack does appear in an email, it is important that your users have been taught to identify social engineering tricks. Your last line of defense is a sound scheme for scheduling and keeping offsite backups plus the deployment of reliable recovery tools.

Ask Progent About the ProSight Ransomware Vulnerability Report in Boston
For pricing details and to learn more about how Progent's ProSight Ransomware Vulnerability Report can bolster your protection against ransomware in Boston, phone Progent at 800-462-8800 or see Contact Progent.