Chesapeake Ransomware Protection and Remediation Consulting

Ransomware has become the weapon of choice for cyber extortionists and malicious states, posing a potentially lethal risk to businesses that are breached. Modern versions of crypto-ransomware target all vulnerable resources, including backup, making even selective recovery a long and expensive exercise. Novel strains of crypto-ransomware such as Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, Netwalker, Phobos, LockBit and Egregor have made the headlines, replacing Locky, Cerber, and CryptoWall in notoriety, sophistication, and destructive impact.

90% of crypto-ransomware penetrations come from innocent-seeming emails that have dangerous links or file attachments, and many are so-called "zero-day" variants that elude the defenses of traditional signature-matching antivirus (AV) filters. Although user education and up-front identification are important to protect your network against ransomware, best practices demand that you take for granted some attacks will inevitably succeed and that you implement a solid backup mechanism that enables you to recover quickly with minimal losses.

Progent's ProSight Ransomware Vulnerability Checkup is a low-cost service centered around a remote discussion with a Progent security consultant experienced in ransomware protection and recovery. In the course of this interview Progent will cooperate with your Chesapeake IT management staff to gather critical data about your cybersecurity setup and backup environment. Progent will use this information to generate a Basic Security and Best Practices Assessment detailing how to adhere to best practices for configuring and managing your cybersecurity and backup systems to prevent or clean up after a ransomware assault.

Progent's Basic Security and Best Practices Report highlights vital issues associated with crypto-ransomware prevention and restoration recovery. The review addresses:

Cybersecurity

• Effective allocation and use of admin accounts
• Appropriate NTFS and SMB authorizations
• Proper firewall configuration
• Safe Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) connections
• Advice about AntiVirus filtering selection and configuration

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

About Ransomware
Ransomware is a variety of malicious software that encrypts or deletes files so they cannot be used or are publicized. Ransomware sometimes locks the target's computer. To avoid the damage, the target is asked to pay a specified ransom, typically in the form of a crypto currency such as Bitcoin, within a short time window. It is never certain that paying the extortion price will recover the lost files or prevent its exposure to the public. Files can be encrypted or erased throughout a network depending on the target's write permissions, and you cannot reverse engineer the military-grade encryption algorithms used on the hostage files. A typical ransomware delivery package is booby-trapped email, in which the victim is lured into interacting with by means of a social engineering technique called spear phishing. This makes the email to look as though it came from a familiar sender. Another popular attack vector is an improperly secured RDP port.

CryptoLocker opened the new age of crypto-ransomware in 2013, and the monetary losses attributed to by different strains of ransomware is said to be billions of dollars annually, more than doubling every two years. Famous attacks include Locky, and NotPetya. Current high-profile variants like Ryuk, Maze and Cerber are more elaborate and have caused more damage than older versions. Even if your backup/recovery processes permit your business to restore your encrypted data, you can still be threatened by exfiltration, where ransomed documents are exposed to the public. Because additional versions of ransomware are launched daily, there is no certainty that conventional signature-matching anti-virus tools will block the latest malware. If threat does appear in an email, it is critical that your end users have learned to identify phishing tricks. Your ultimate protection is a solid scheme for performing and keeping remote backups and the use of dependable restoration tools.

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