Chatsworth Ransomware Protection and Remediation Expertise

Ransomware has become the weapon of choice for cyber extortionists and rogue governments, posing a potentially existential risk to businesses that are breached. Modern variations of crypto-ransomware go after all vulnerable resources, including online backup, making even partial recovery a long and costly exercise. Novel variations of crypto-ransomware such as Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, Netwalker, Phobos, Snatch and Egregor have emerged, displacing WannaCry, Spora, and NotPetya in notoriety, elaborateness, and destructive impact.

Most crypto-ransomware breaches are the result of innocent-seeming emails that have dangerous hyperlinks or file attachments, and many are so-called "zero-day" variants that can escape the defenses of legacy signature-matching antivirus tools. Although user training and up-front identification are critical to protect against ransomware attacks, best practices dictate that you take for granted some malware will inevitably succeed and that you prepare a strong backup solution that allows you to restore files and services rapidly with little if any damage.

Progent's ProSight Ransomware Preparedness Checkup is an ultra-affordable service centered around an online interview with a Progent security expert skilled in ransomware protection and repair. In the course of this interview Progent will cooperate directly with your Chatsworth IT management staff to gather critical data about your cybersecurity profile and backup processes. Progent will use this data to produce a Basic Security and Best Practices Assessment documenting how to follow best practices for configuring and administering your cybersecurity and backup solution to block or recover from a ransomware assault.

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

Cybersecurity

• Correct allocation and use of admin accounts
• Appropriate NTFS and SMB (Server Message Block) authorizations
• Proper firewall setup
• Secure Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) connections
• Recommend AntiVirus tools identification and deployment

• Split permission model for backup integrity
• Protecting required servers such as Active Directory
• Geographically dispersed backups including cloud backup to Microsoft Azure

About Ransomware
Ransomware is a type of malicious software that encrypts or steals files so they are unusable or are made publicly available. Crypto-ransomware sometimes locks the target's computer. To avoid the carnage, the target is asked to pay a specified amount of money (the ransom), typically via a crypto currency like Bitcoin, within a short period of time. It is not guaranteed that paying the extortion price will recover the lost data or avoid its publication. Files can be encrypted or deleted across a network based on the victim's write permissions, and you cannot reverse engineer the strong encryption algorithms used on the hostage files. A common ransomware delivery package is spoofed email, in which 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 vulnerability is an improperly protected Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) port.

The ransomware variant CryptoLocker ushered in the modern era of crypto-ransomware in 2013, and the monetary losses attributed to by the many versions of ransomware is said to be billions of dollars per year, roughly doubling every other year. Famous attacks are Locky, and NotPetya. Recent headline variants like Ryuk, Sodinokibi and Cerber are more sophisticated and have wreaked more havoc than older strains. Even if your backup processes enable you to restore your ransomed data, you can still be threatened by exfiltration, where ransomed data are made public (known as "doxxing"). Because additional versions of ransomware crop up daily, there is no certainty that conventional signature-based anti-virus tools will detect the latest attack. If threat does appear in an email, it is critical that your end users have learned to be aware of phishing tricks. Your ultimate defense is a sound process for performing and keeping remote backups and the deployment of dependable recovery platforms.

Ask Progent About the ProSight Ransomware Readiness Audit in Chatsworth
For pricing information and to learn more about how Progent's ProSight Crypto-Ransomware Preparedness Assessment can enhance your protection against ransomware in Chatsworth, call Progent at 800-462-8800 or see Contact Progent.