24-Hour Columbus Emergency CryptoLocker
Malware Damage Assessment and Restoration Consulting

Ransomware : Your Feared IT Nightmare
Ransomware has become an escalating cyber pandemic that represents an extinction-level threat for businesses of all sizes unprepared for an assault. Versions of ransomware such as CrySIS, Fusob, Bad Rabbit, Syskey and MongoLock cryptoworms have been circulating for a long time and continue to inflict havoc. Recent variants of ransomware such as Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, Netwalker, Snatch or Nephilim, as well as daily as yet unnamed malware, not only encrypt online data files but also infect all configured system protection. Information replicated to cloud environments can also be ransomed. In a poorly designed system, it can make any restore operations useless and effectively knocks the datacenter back to zero.

Getting back online applications and data following a ransomware attack becomes a race against the clock as the victim fights to stop the spread and cleanup the ransomware and to restore mission-critical activity. Due to the fact that crypto-ransomware takes time to spread, assaults are frequently sprung during nights and weekends, when penetrations may take longer to identify. This multiplies the difficulty of rapidly mobilizing and orchestrating an experienced response team.

Progent provides an assortment of solutions for protecting enterprises from crypto-ransomware penetrations. Among these are user education to help recognize and not fall victim to phishing attempts, ProSight Active Security Monitoring for remote monitoring and management, plus installation of the latest generation security appliances with artificial intelligence technology from SentinelOne to discover and quarantine zero-day cyber attacks automatically. Progent in addition provides the services of seasoned ransomware recovery engineers with the talent and commitment to restore a breached network as rapidly as possible.

Progent's Crypto-Ransomware Recovery Services
After a ransomware penetration, sending the ransom in cryptocurrency does not provide any assurance that cyber hackers will respond with the keys to unencrypt all your files. Kaspersky Labs ascertained that 17% of ransomware victims never recovered their files after having sent off the ransom, resulting in more losses. The risk is also costly. Ryuk ransoms frequently range from fifteen to forty BTC ($120,000 and $400,000). This is greatly above the usual ransomware demands, which ZDNET determined to be in the range of $13,000. The other path is to piece back together the key parts of your IT environment. Absent the availability of complete information backups, this calls for a broad complement of IT skills, well-coordinated team management, and the ability to work non-stop until the job is completed.

For decades, Progent has made available expert Information Technology services for businesses in Columbus and across the US and has achieved Microsoft's Partnership certification status in the Datacenter and Cloud Productivity competencies. Progent's team of subject matter experts (SMEs) includes consultants who have been awarded high-level certifications in leading technologies such as Microsoft, Cisco, VMware, and popular distros of Linux. Progent's security engineers have garnered internationally-renowned certifications including CISM, CISSP, ISACA CRISC, and SANS GIAC. (Visit Progent's certifications). Progent in addition has experience with financial systems and ERP application software. This breadth of expertise provides Progent the capability to knowledgably determine critical systems and re-organize the remaining components of your IT system after a ransomware attack and rebuild them into a functioning system.

Progent's ransomware team utilizes best of breed project management applications to coordinate the complex restoration process. Progent understands the importance of acting quickly and in unison with a client's management and IT staff to assign priority to tasks and to get the most important systems back online as soon as possible.

Case Study: A Successful Ransomware Attack Restoration
A client hired Progent after their network system was crashed by the Ryuk ransomware virus. Ryuk is thought to have been launched by North Korean state sponsored cybercriminals, suspected of adopting techniques leaked from the United States National Security Agency. Ryuk goes after specific businesses with little room for disruption and is among the most profitable incarnations of ransomware. Well Known victims include Data Resolution, a California-based information warehousing and cloud computing business, and the Chicago Tribune. Progent's customer is a regional manufacturer located in Chicago and has about 500 employees. The Ryuk penetration had disabled all business operations and manufacturing capabilities. The majority of the client's information backups had been directly accessible at the beginning of the attack and were destroyed. The client considered paying the ransom demand (in excess of $200K) and praying for good luck, but ultimately utilized Progent.

Progent worked hand in hand the client to rapidly assess and prioritize the most important applications that had to be restored to make it possible to continue departmental functions:

• Active Directory (AD)
• Microsoft Exchange Server
• Accounting and Manufacturing Software

Within two days, Progent was able to rebuild Active Directory services to its pre-virus state. Progent then helped perform setup and hard drive recovery of key systems. All Exchange Server data and configuration information were usable, which greatly helped the restore of Exchange. Progent was able to collect non-encrypted OST data files (Microsoft Outlook Off-Line Folder Files) on various workstations in order to recover mail data. A not too old offline backup of the customer's accounting systems made them able to restore these required programs back online for users. Although major work still had to be done to recover fully from the Ryuk damage, core systems were returned to operations quickly:

Over the next few weeks critical milestones in the restoration project were made through close collaboration between Progent team members and the customer:

• Self-hosted web sites were returned to operation with no loss of data.
• The MailStore Exchange Server with over four million historical emails was brought online and accessible to users.
• CRM/Orders/Invoicing/Accounts Payable (AP)/Accounts Receivables/Inventory Control functions were 100 percent operational.
• A new Palo Alto Networks 850 security appliance was brought on-line.
• 90% of the user PCs were functioning as before the incident.

Conclusion
A likely business disaster was avoided by results-oriented experts, a broad spectrum of technical expertise, and tight collaboration. Although in post mortem the ransomware attack described here should have been identified and stopped with current security systems and security best practices, team education, and properly executed incident response procedures for backup and proper patching controls, the fact remains that government-sponsored cyber criminals from Russia, North Korea and elsewhere are tireless and represent an ongoing threat. If you do fall victim to a ransomware penetration, feel confident that Progent's roster of professionals has a proven track record in ransomware virus defense, remediation, and data recovery.

To review or download a PDF version of this customer story, click:
Progent's Ransomware Incident Recovery Case Study Datasheet. (PDF - 282 KB)

Additional Crypto-Ransomware Protection Services Offered by Progent
Progent can provide companies in Columbus a range of online monitoring and security assessment services to help you to reduce your vulnerability to ransomware. These services utilize next-generation artificial intelligence capability to detect new variants of ransomware that can get past legacy signature-based anti-virus solutions.

• ProSight Active Security Monitoring: Endpoint Protection and Ransomware Defense
  Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring is an endpoint protection service that utilizes SentinelOne's cutting edge behavior-based analysis technology to guard physical and virtual endpoints against new malware attacks like ransomware and file-less exploits, which easily get by traditional signature-based AV products. ProSight Active Security Monitoring safeguards on-premises and cloud resources and provides a single platform to automate the complete malware attack progression including filtering, infiltration detection, mitigation, remediation, and forensics. Key capabilities include single-click rollback using Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) and automatic system-wide immunization against new threats. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. Learn more about Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring next-generation endpoint protection and ransomware recovery.

• ProSight Enhanced Security Protection: Physical and Virtual Endpoint Security and Microsoft Exchange Filtering
  Progent's ProSight Enhanced Security Protection managed services deliver ultra-affordable in-depth security for physical servers and virtual machines, workstations, mobile devices, and Exchange email. ProSight ESP utilizes adaptive security and advanced heuristics for continuously monitoring and responding to security threats from all attack vectors. ProSight ESP delivers firewall protection, penetration alarms, endpoint control, and web filtering through cutting-edge tools incorporated within one agent managed from a single console. Progent's data protection and virtualization experts can assist your business to plan and configure a ProSight ESP environment that addresses your organization's unique requirements and that helps you demonstrate compliance with government and industry information security standards. Progent will help you specify and configure security policies that ProSight ESP will enforce, and Progent will monitor your network and respond to alarms that call for urgent attention. Progent can also help your company to set up and test a backup and restore system such as ProSight Data Protection Services so you can recover rapidly from a potentially disastrous security attack such as ransomware. Find out more about Progent's ProSight Enhanced Security Protection (ESP) unified endpoint security and Microsoft Exchange filtering.

• ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS): Backup and Recovery Services
  Progent has partnered with leading backup software companies to create ProSight Data Protection Services, a selection of subscription-based management outsourcing plans that provide backup-as-a-service. ProSight DPS services manage and track your backup operations and allow transparent backup and fast restoration of important files, applications, images, and VMs. ProSight DPS lets you protect against data loss resulting from equipment breakdown, natural disasters, fire, malware like ransomware, user mistakes, malicious employees, or application bugs. Managed backup services available in the ProSight Data Protection Services product family include ProSight Altaro VM Backup, ProSight 365 Total Backup (formerly Altaro 365 Backup), ProSight ECHO Backup based on Barracuda purpose-built storage, and ProSight DPS MSP360 Hybrid Backup. Your Progent expert can assist you to identify which of these fully managed services are most appropriate for your IT environment.

• ProSight Email Guard: Inbound and Outbound Spam Filtering and Data Leakage Protection
  ProSight Email Guard is Progent's spam and virus filtering and email encryption service that incorporates the infrastructure of top information security companies to deliver web-based control and comprehensive protection for all your email traffic. The hybrid structure of Email Guard combines cloud-based filtering with a local gateway device to provide complete protection against spam, viruses, Dos Attacks, Directory Harvest Attacks, and other email-based malware. Email Guard's cloud filter acts as a preliminary barricade and keeps most threats from reaching your security perimeter. This reduces your exposure to inbound attacks and conserves network bandwidth and storage. Email Guard's on-premises gateway appliance adds a deeper level of inspection for inbound email. For outbound email, the local gateway provides anti-virus and anti-spam protection, DLP, and email encryption. The local security gateway can also assist Microsoft Exchange Server to track and protect internal email that originates and ends inside your security perimeter. For more information, visit ProSight Email Guard spam and content filtering.

• ProSight WAN Watch: Network Infrastructure Management
  ProSight WAN Watch is an infrastructure management service that makes it simple and inexpensive for small and mid-sized businesses to map, track, reconfigure and debug their networking hardware such as routers, firewalls, and access points plus servers, endpoints and other devices. Using cutting-edge Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) technology, WAN Watch makes sure that network diagrams are kept current, captures and displays the configuration information of almost all devices connected to your network, monitors performance, and generates alerts when issues are detected. By automating time-consuming management activities, ProSight WAN Watch can cut hours off common chores like making network diagrams, expanding your network, finding devices that require important software patches, or resolving performance problems. Find out more details about ProSight WAN Watch infrastructure monitoring and management consulting.

• ProSight LAN Watch: Server and Desktop Remote Monitoring
  ProSight LAN Watch is Progent's server and desktop remote monitoring managed service that uses state-of-the-art remote monitoring and management techniques to keep your network running efficiently by tracking the health of vital computers that drive your business network. When ProSight LAN Watch uncovers an issue, an alert is transmitted automatically to your specified IT management personnel and your assigned Progent engineering consultant so any looming issues can be addressed before they have a chance to impact productivity. Learn more about ProSight LAN Watch server and desktop remote monitoring consulting.

• ProSight Virtual Hosting: Hosted Virtual Machines at Progent's Tier III Data Center
  With Progent's ProSight Virtual Hosting service, a small or mid-size organization can have its critical servers and apps hosted in a protected Tier III data center on a fast virtual machine host configured and managed by Progent's network support experts. With Progent's ProSight Virtual Hosting service model, the customer retains ownership of the data, the OS software, and the apps. Because the environment is virtualized, it can be ported easily to a different hardware environment without a lengthy and difficult configuration process. With ProSight Virtual Hosting, your business is not tied one hosting service. Learn more details about ProSight Virtual Hosting services.

• ProSight IT Asset Management: Network Documentation Management
  ProSight IT Asset Management service is an IT infrastructure documentation management service that makes it easy to create, update, find and protect data related to your IT infrastructure, procedures, applications, and services. You can instantly find passwords or serial numbers and be warned about upcoming expirations of SSLs or warranties. By updating and organizing your network documentation, you can eliminate as much as 50% of time wasted looking for critical information about your IT network. ProSight IT Asset Management features a common location for storing and collaborating on all documents required for managing your network infrastructure like standard operating procedures and How-To's. ProSight IT Asset Management also offers advanced automation for collecting and relating IT data. Whether you're planning enhancements, doing maintenance, or reacting to an emergency, ProSight IT Asset Management delivers the data you require when you need it. Learn more about Progent's ProSight IT Asset Management service.

• Progent Active Protection Against Ransomware: AI-based Ransomware Detection and Cleanup
  Progent's Active Protection Against Ransomware is an endpoint protection (EPP) service that incorporates next generation behavior-based analysis technology to defend endpoints and servers and VMs against modern malware assaults like ransomware and file-less exploits, which routinely get by traditional signature-matching anti-virus tools. Progent ASM services protect local and cloud resources and provides a unified platform to address the entire malware attack lifecycle including filtering, detection, containment, cleanup, and post-attack forensics. Key features include one-click rollback using Windows VSS and real-time system-wide immunization against newly discovered threats. Learn more about Progent's ransomware defense and recovery services.

• Outsourced/Co-managed Help Desk: Help Desk Managed Services
  Progent's Support Desk services enable your IT staff to outsource Help Desk services to Progent or divide activity for Service Desk support transparently between your internal support staff and Progent's nationwide roster of certified IT service technicians, engineers and subject matter experts. Progent's Co-managed Service Desk offers a transparent supplement to your corporate support staff. Client access to the Help Desk, delivery of support, escalation, ticket creation and tracking, performance measurement, and management of the service database are cohesive whether incidents are taken care of by your internal IT support group, by Progent, or a mix of the two. Find out more about Progent's outsourced/co-managed Call Desk services.

• Patch Management: Patch Management Services
  Progent's managed services for software and firmware patch management provide businesses of any size a versatile and cost-effective alternative for assessing, validating, scheduling, implementing, and tracking updates to your ever-evolving information system. In addition to maximizing the protection and reliability of your IT environment, Progent's patch management services free up time for your IT team to concentrate on line-of-business projects and tasks that derive the highest business value from your information network. Read more about Progent's software/firmware update management services.

• ProSight Duo Multi-Factor Authentication: Access Security, Endpoint Remediation, and Secure Single Sign-on
  Progent's Duo MFA service plans incorporate Cisco's Duo technology to defend against stolen passwords through the use of two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo supports one-tap identity verification on Apple iOS, Google Android, and other personal devices. With Duo 2FA, when you log into a protected application and enter your password you are requested to confirm your identity on a device that only you possess and that uses a different network channel. A wide range of devices can be used as this added means of ID validation including an iPhone or Android or wearable, a hardware token, a landline telephone, etc. You can register multiple validation devices. To find out more about ProSight Duo two-factor identity authentication services, refer to Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for access security.

• ProSight Reporting: In-depth Reporting for Ticketing and Network Monitoring Platforms
  ProSight Reporting is an expanding line of real-time and in-depth management reporting tools designed to work with the industry's leading ticketing and remote network monitoring programs such as ConnectWise Manage, ConnectWise Automate, Customer Thermometer, Auvik, and SentinelOne. ProSight Reporting incorporates Microsoft Graph and features color coding to surface and contextualize key issues like spotty support follow-through or endpoints with missing patches. By exposing ticketing or network health concerns concisely and in near-real time, ProSight Reporting improves productivity, reduces management hassle, and saves money. For more information, see ProSight Reporting for ticketing and network monitoring applications.