Cincinnati Ransomware Filtering and Removal Services

Ransomware has become the weapon of choice for cyber extortionists and malicious governments, posing a possibly lethal threat to companies that are breached. Current strains of crypto-ransomware target all vulnerable resources, including backup, making even selective recovery a long and costly exercise. New strains of crypto-ransomware such as Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, Netwalker, Phobos, Snatch and Egregor have emerged, displacing Locky, TeslaCrypt, and CryptoWall in notoriety, sophistication, and destructiveness.

90% of crypto-ransomware penetrations are the result of innocuous-seeming emails that include dangerous hyperlinks or file attachments, and many are "zero-day" attacks that elude the defenses of legacy signature-based antivirus (AV) filters. While user education and frontline identification are important to defend your network against ransomware attacks, leading practices demand that you take for granted some attacks will eventually get through and that you deploy a strong backup solution that enables you to restore files and services quickly with little if any losses.

Progent's ProSight Ransomware Preparedness Checkup is an ultra-affordable service centered around an online interview with a Progent security consultant experienced in ransomware defense and recovery. During this interview Progent will collaborate with your Cincinnati IT managers to gather pertinent data about your cybersecurity posture and backup environment. Progent will use this information to create a Basic Security and Best Practices Report documenting how to adhere to best practices for implementing and administering your security and backup solution to prevent or clean up after a crypto-ransomware attack.

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

Security

• Effective allocation and use of admin accounts
• Correct NTFS (New Technology File System) and SMB authorizations
• Optimal firewall setup
• Safe Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) configuration
• Recommend AntiVirus filtering identification and deployment

• Split permission model for backup integrity
• Backing up critical servers including Active Directory
• Geographically dispersed backups with cloud backup to Azure

About Ransomware
Ransomware is a form of malicious software that encrypts or steals a victim's files so they are unusable or are made publicly available. Ransomware sometimes locks the target's computer. To prevent the damage, the victim is asked to send a specified amount of money (the ransom), typically in the form of a crypto currency like Bitcoin, within a short period of time. It is not guaranteed that paying the ransom will restore the damaged files or prevent its exposure to the public. Files can be altered or deleted throughout a network based on the victim's write permissions, and you cannot break the military-grade encryption technologies used on the hostage files. A common ransomware attack vector is spoofed email, whereby the target is lured into interacting with by means of a social engineering technique called spear phishing. This causes the email message to appear to come from a familiar source. Another common attack vector is a poorly secured RDP port.

CryptoLocker opened the modern era of 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 examples include WannaCry, and Petya. Current high-profile threats like Ryuk, Maze and CryptoWall are more elaborate and have caused more damage than older strains. Even if your backup procedures permit you to restore your ransomed files, you can still be threatened by so-called exfiltration, where stolen documents are made public. Because additional variants of ransomware are launched daily, there is no certainty that conventional signature-matching anti-virus tools will detect the latest attack. If threat does show up in an email, it is critical that your users have learned to identify phishing techniques. Your ultimate defense is a sound process for performing and keeping remote backups and the deployment of dependable recovery tools.

Contact Progent About the ProSight Ransomware Preparedness Checkup in Cincinnati
For pricing information and to find out more about how Progent's ProSight Ransomware Readiness Report can bolster your protection against crypto-ransomware in Cincinnati, phone Progent at 800-462-8800 or see Contact Progent.