Columbus Ransomware Defense and Cleanup Consulting

Ransomware has been weaponized by cybercriminals and bad-actor states, posing a potentially lethal risk to businesses that are victimized. Modern strains of ransomware target all vulnerable resources, including backup, making even selective restoration a long and expensive process. New variations of crypto-ransomware like Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, Netwalker, Phobos, LockBit and Nephilim have made the headlines, displacing WannaCry, Spora, and NotPetya in notoriety, sophistication, and destructive impact.

90% of crypto-ransomware breaches are caused by innocuous-seeming emails that have malicious links or attachments, and many are "zero-day" strains that elude detection by legacy signature-based antivirus filters. Although user training and frontline detection are critical to protect against ransomware attacks, best practices dictate that you take for granted some attacks will eventually succeed and that you prepare a strong backup solution that enables you to restore files and services rapidly with minimal losses.

Progent's ProSight Ransomware Preparedness Checkup is a low-cost service built around a remote interview with a Progent security consultant experienced in ransomware protection and repair. In the course of this assessment Progent will work directly with your Columbus IT management staff to gather pertinent data concerning your security setup and backup environment. Progent will utilize this information to generate a Basic Security and Best Practices Assessment documenting how to apply best practices for configuring and administering your security and backup solution to block or recover from a ransomware attack.

Progent's Basic Security and Best Practices Assessment highlights key areas associated with ransomware prevention and restoration recovery. The report addresses:

Security

• Proper allocation and use of admin accounts
• Assigning NTFS and SMB (Server Message Block) permissions
• Optimal firewall configuration
• Safe Remote Desktop Protocol access
• Advice about AntiVirus filtering identification and configuration

• Split permission model for backup protection
• Protecting required servers including Active Directory
• Geographically dispersed backups including cloud backup to Microsoft Azure

About Ransomware
Ransomware is a type of malware that encrypts or steals files so they are unusable or are publicized. Ransomware sometimes locks the victim's computer. To avoid the damage, the victim is asked to pay a specified amount of money (the ransom), usually via a crypto currency such as Bitcoin, within a short period of time. It is not guaranteed that delivering the ransom will restore the lost data or avoid its publication. Files can be altered or deleted across a network depending on the target's write permissions, and you cannot solve the strong encryption algorithms used on the hostage files. A common ransomware attack vector is spoofed email, in which the target is tricked into interacting with by means of a social engineering technique called spear phishing. This makes the email message to appear to come from a familiar sender. Another common vulnerability is a poorly protected Remote Desktop Protocol port.

The ransomware variant CryptoLocker opened the modern era of crypto-ransomware in 2013, and the monetary losses caused by different versions of ransomware is said to be billions of dollars per year, more than doubling every two years. Famous examples include WannaCry, and NotPetya. Current high-profile threats like Ryuk, Sodinokibi and Spora are more complex and have caused more havoc than older strains. Even if your backup/recovery procedures allow your business to recover your ransomed data, you can still be threatened by exfiltration, where ransomed documents are made public. Because new variants of ransomware crop up daily, there is no guarantee that traditional signature-matching anti-virus filters will detect the latest attack. If threat does show up in an email, it is important that your end users have been taught to be aware of phishing tricks. Your last line of defense is a sound scheme for scheduling and retaining offsite backups and the use of dependable restoration tools.

Contact Progent About the ProSight Ransomware Readiness Checkup in Columbus
For pricing information and to learn more about how Progent's ProSight Ransomware Vulnerability Assessment can enhance your defense against crypto-ransomware in Columbus, call Progent at 800-462-8800 or see Contact Progent.