Columbus Ransomware Filtering and Removal Solutions

Ransomware has been weaponized by cyber extortionists and malicious states, posing a possibly lethal risk to businesses that are victimized. Current versions of crypto-ransomware go after everything, including backup, making even partial restoration a long and costly process. New strains of ransomware like Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, Netwalker, DopplePaymer, Snatch and Egregor have made the headlines, replacing WannaCry, TeslaCrypt, and NotPetya in notoriety, elaborateness, and destructive impact.

90% of ransomware breaches come from innocent-looking emails that have dangerous links or file attachments, and many are so-called "zero-day" variants that elude detection by legacy signature-matching antivirus (AV) filters. Although user education and frontline identification are important to protect against ransomware attacks, leading practices dictate that you assume some attacks will inevitably succeed and that you put in place a solid backup solution that permits you to restore files and services quickly with minimal damage.

Progent's ProSight Ransomware Preparedness Report is an ultra-affordable service centered around a remote interview with a Progent security consultant skilled in ransomware protection and repair. In the course of this interview Progent will collaborate directly with your Columbus IT managers to gather pertinent data about your security configuration and backup environment. Progent will utilize this data to create a Basic Security and Best Practices Assessment documenting how to adhere to leading practices for implementing and administering your cybersecurity and backup systems to block or clean up after a ransomware assault.

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

Cybersecurity

• Correct use of administration accounts
• Appropriate NTFS (New Technology File System) and SMB (Server Message Block) authorizations
• Proper firewall setup
• Secure RDP connections
• Advice about AntiVirus (AV) tools selection and configuration

• Split permission architecture for backup integrity
• Backing up required servers such as AD
• Offsite backups with cloud backup to Microsoft Azure

About Ransomware
Ransomware is a form of malware that encrypts or steals a victim's files so they are unusable or are made publicly available. Ransomware often locks the victim's computer. To prevent the damage, the victim is required to send a specified amount of money (the ransom), usually via a crypto currency like Bitcoin, within a short time window. It is never certain that delivering the extortion price will restore the damaged files or avoid its publication. Files can be altered or deleted throughout a network based on the target's write permissions, and you cannot solve the military-grade encryption technologies used on the hostage files. A typical ransomware delivery package is spoofed email, whereby the target is lured into interacting with by a social engineering exploit called spear phishing. This makes the email message to look as though it came from a trusted source. Another common attack vector is an improperly protected Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) port.

The ransomware variant CryptoLocker ushered in the modern era of ransomware in 2013, and the damage caused by different strains of ransomware is said to be billions of dollars per year, more than doubling every two years. Famous attacks are Locky, and Petya. Recent high-profile threats like Ryuk, Sodinokibi and Cerber are more sophisticated and have caused more damage than earlier strains. Even if your backup procedures allow you to restore your ransomed files, you can still be hurt by so-called exfiltration, where ransomed data are made public (known as "doxxing"). Because additional variants of ransomware are launched daily, there is no certainty that traditional signature-based anti-virus filters will detect a new attack. If threat does appear in an email, it is critical that your end users have been taught to identify social engineering tricks. Your last line of protection is a sound scheme for scheduling and keeping remote backups and the use of reliable restoration platforms.

Ask Progent About the ProSight Ransomware Readiness Evaluation in Columbus
For pricing details and to find out more about how Progent's ProSight Ransomware Susceptibility Consultation can bolster your defense against ransomware in Columbus, call Progent at 800-462-8800 or visit Contact Progent.