Cincinnati Ransomware Defense and Recovery Services

Ransomware has been widely adopted by cyber extortionists and bad-actor states, representing a possibly lethal threat to businesses that are victimized. Current versions of crypto-ransomware go after all vulnerable resources, including online backup, making even selective restoration a complex and costly process. Novel versions of ransomware such as Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, Mailto (aka Netwalker), Phobos, Snatch and Egregor have made the headlines, displacing WannaCry, TeslaCrypt, and NotPetya in notoriety, elaborateness, and destructive impact.

90% of crypto-ransomware penetrations are caused by innocent-seeming emails that have malicious links or file attachments, and many are "zero-day" variants that elude detection by traditional signature-matching antivirus (AV) tools. While user training and frontline identification are critical to protect against ransomware attacks, best practices demand that you expect that some malware will eventually get through and that you implement a strong backup solution that permits you to repair the damage rapidly with minimal damage.

Progent's ProSight Ransomware Preparedness Report is a low-cost service centered around an online interview with a Progent cybersecurity expert experienced in ransomware defense and repair. During this assessment Progent will work directly with your Cincinnati IT managers to collect pertinent data concerning your cybersecurity profile and backup processes. Progent will utilize this information to produce a Basic Security and Best Practices Assessment documenting how to apply leading practices for implementing and managing your cybersecurity and backup systems to prevent or recover from a ransomware attack.

Progent's Basic Security and Best Practices Assessment highlights vital areas associated with crypto-ransomware defense and restoration recovery. The report covers:

Cybersecurity

• Proper use of admin accounts
• Appropriate NTFS (New Technology File System) and SMB (Server Message Block) authorizations
• Optimal firewall configuration
• Safe Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) access
• Recommend AntiVirus (AV) tools identification and deployment

• Split permission architecture for backup protection
• Protecting critical servers including Active Directory
• Offsite backups including cloud backup to Azure

About Ransomware
Ransomware is a type of malicious software that encrypts or steals files so they are unusable or are made publicly available. Ransomware sometimes locks the victim's computer. To prevent the carnage, the victim is required to send a certain ransom, typically in the form of a crypto currency like Bitcoin, within a brief time window. There is no guarantee that delivering the ransom will restore the damaged data or avoid its exposure to the public. Files can be encrypted or erased across a network depending on the victim's write permissions, and you cannot reverse engineer the military-grade encryption technologies used on the compromised files. A typical ransomware attack vector is tainted email, whereby the target is lured into interacting with by means of a social engineering exploit called spear phishing. This causes the email to look as though it came from a trusted source. Another common vulnerability is an improperly secured RDP port.

CryptoLocker ushered in the modern era of ransomware in 2013, and the monetary losses attributed to by different strains of ransomware is estimated at billions of dollars annually, roughly doubling every two years. Notorious examples are WannaCry, and NotPetya. Current headline variants like Ryuk, DoppelPaymer and Cerber are more complex and have wreaked more havoc than earlier strains. Even if your backup processes enable you to recover your ransomed files, you can still be threatened by exfiltration, where ransomed data are exposed to the public (known as "doxxing"). Because additional variants of ransomware are launched daily, there is no guarantee that traditional signature-based anti-virus tools will detect the latest malware. If an attack does show up in an email, it is important that your users have been taught to identify social engineering techniques. Your last line of protection is a sound scheme for performing and keeping offsite backups plus the use of dependable recovery tools.

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