Appleton 24-Hour Urgent Crypto
Computer Virus Assessment and Recovery Consulting

Ransomware : Your Feared IT Catastrophe
Ransomware has become a modern cyber pandemic that presents an extinction-level danger for businesses of all sizes poorly prepared for an assault. Versions of ransomware like the CrySIS, Fusob, Locky, NotPetya and MongoLock cryptoworms have been replicating for years and still inflict damage. Modern variants of ransomware such as Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, DopplePaymer, Conti or Nephilim, plus frequent as yet unnamed malware, not only do encryption of on-line critical data but also infect many available system backup. Information replicated to off-site disaster recovery sites can also be encrypted. In a poorly architected environment, this can make any recovery hopeless and effectively knocks the network back to zero.

Getting back on-line services and information following a crypto-ransomware event becomes a race against time as the targeted organization tries its best to contain and cleanup the crypto-ransomware and to restore enterprise-critical operations. Due to the fact that ransomware requires time to move laterally, attacks are often launched during weekends and nights, when attacks may take longer to recognize. This compounds the difficulty of quickly assembling and orchestrating a knowledgeable mitigation team.

Progent provides a range of solutions for protecting enterprises from ransomware attacks. These include staff training to help identify and not fall victim to phishing scams, ProSight Active Security Monitoring for remote monitoring and management, in addition to deployment of next-generation security gateways with machine learning capabilities from SentinelOne to discover and quarantine new cyber threats intelligently. Progent in addition offers the assistance of seasoned ransomware recovery professionals with the skills and commitment to restore a compromised network as soon as possible.

Progent's Ransomware Restoration Help
Soon after a ransomware penetration, paying the ransom demands in Bitcoin cryptocurrency does not guarantee that cyber hackers will provide the codes to unencrypt any of your data. Kaspersky Labs determined that 17% of ransomware victims never restored their information even after having sent off the ransom, resulting in increased losses. The gamble is also very costly. Ryuk ransoms often range from 15-40 BTC ($120,000 and $400,000). This is greatly higher than the usual ransomware demands, which ZDNET averages to be in the range of $13,000. The other path is to setup from scratch the critical components of your IT environment. Without access to essential information backups, this calls for a wide range of skills, professional project management, and the willingness to work non-stop until the task is finished.

For twenty years, Progent has offered professional Information Technology services for businesses in Appleton and throughout the U.S. and has achieved Microsoft's Gold Partnership certification status in the Datacenter and Cloud Productivity competencies. Progent's pool of subject matter experts includes professionals who have attained advanced certifications in foundation technologies such as Microsoft, Cisco, VMware, and major distributions of Linux. Progent's cyber security experts have earned internationally-recognized industry certifications including CISM, CISSP-ISSAP, ISACA CRISC, and SANS GIAC. (Visit Progent's certifications). Progent also has experience in financial management and ERP application software. This breadth of expertise affords Progent the capability to rapidly ascertain critical systems and consolidate the surviving pieces of your network system after a crypto-ransomware penetration and configure them into an operational system.

Progent's ransomware group utilizes powerful project management applications to coordinate the complicated restoration process. Progent knows the urgency of working rapidly and together with a customer's management and Information Technology staff to assign priority to tasks and to put essential applications back on-line as soon as possible.

Client Story: A Successful Crypto-Ransomware Virus Response
A small business hired Progent after their network system was penetrated by Ryuk ransomware. Ryuk is believed to have been developed by Northern Korean government sponsored criminal gangs, possibly using strategies exposed from the U.S. NSA organization. Ryuk targets specific businesses with little ability to sustain operational disruption and is one of the most lucrative incarnations of ransomware. Well Known targets include Data Resolution, a California-based information warehousing and cloud computing firm, and the Chicago Tribune. Progent's client is a single-location manufacturer located in Chicago with around 500 staff members. The Ryuk attack had shut down all essential operations and manufacturing processes. Most of the client's data protection had been directly accessible at the start of the intrusion and were eventually encrypted. The client was evaluating paying the ransom (in excess of two hundred thousand dollars) and wishfully thinking for good luck, but in the end reached out to Progent.

Progent worked hand in hand the customer to rapidly assess and assign priority to the mission critical elements that needed to be addressed to make it possible to continue departmental functions:

• Microsoft Active Directory
• Exchange Server
• Accounting and Manufacturing Software

Within 2 days, Progent was able to re-build Windows Active Directory to its pre-virus state. Progent then initiated setup and hard drive recovery of needed systems. All Exchange Server data and configuration information were usable, which greatly helped the restore of Exchange. Progent was able to assemble non-encrypted OST data files (Outlook Offline Folder Files) on various desktop computers and laptops to recover email messages. A not too old offline backup of the client's financials/ERP software made it possible to recover these vital applications back on-line. Although a large amount of work was left to recover fully from the Ryuk event, critical services were restored quickly:

Over the next few weeks critical milestones in the recovery process were completed in close cooperation between Progent team members and the client:

• Internal web sites were returned to operation without losing any data.
• The MailStore Exchange Server containing more than 4 million archived emails was brought on-line and accessible to users.
• CRM/Customer Orders/Invoicing/AP/AR/Inventory functions were 100% restored.
• A new Palo Alto Networks 850 security appliance was installed.
• Ninety percent of the user desktops and notebooks were back into operation.

Conclusion
A likely business-killing disaster was dodged with hard-working professionals, a broad array of knowledge, and close collaboration. Although in post mortem the ransomware virus penetration described here would have been identified and disabled with advanced security solutions and recognized best practices, user and IT administrator training, and well designed security procedures for data protection and keeping systems up to date with security patches, the fact remains that state-sponsored cyber criminals from Russia, China and elsewhere are relentless and represent an ongoing threat. If you do fall victim to a ransomware incident, feel confident that Progent's team of experts has proven experience in ransomware virus defense, removal, and data restoration.

To review or download a PDF version of this case study, please click:
Progent's Ryuk Incident Recovery Case Study Datasheet. (PDF - 282 KB)

Additional Ransomware Protection Services Available from Progent
Progent can provide companies in Appleton a portfolio of remote monitoring and security assessment services designed to assist you to reduce the threat from ransomware. These services include modern artificial intelligence technology to uncover new strains of ransomware that can escape detection by legacy signature-based anti-virus products.

• ProSight Active Security Monitoring: Endpoint Protection and Ransomware Defense
  ProSight Active Security Monitoring is an endpoint protection (EPP) service that utilizes SentinelOne's cutting edge behavior-based analysis tools to guard physical and virtual endpoint devices against modern malware attacks such as ransomware and file-less exploits, which routinely get by legacy signature-based anti-virus products. ProSight ASM safeguards local and cloud-based resources and offers a single platform to address the complete malware attack lifecycle including protection, identification, mitigation, remediation, and forensics. Top features include single-click rollback with Windows VSS and real-time system-wide immunization against newly discovered 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 Protection and Exchange Email Filtering
  ProSight Enhanced Security Protection (ESP) managed services deliver ultra-affordable multi-layer security for physical servers and virtual machines, workstations, mobile devices, and Exchange Server. ProSight ESP uses adaptive security and advanced heuristics for continuously monitoring and responding to cyber assaults from all vectors. ProSight ESP delivers two-way firewall protection, penetration alarms, endpoint management, and web filtering through cutting-edge technologies incorporated within one agent accessible from a single console. Progent's data protection and virtualization consultants can assist your business to design and configure a ProSight ESP environment that meets your company's unique requirements and that helps you prove compliance with legal and industry information security standards. Progent will assist you define and configure security policies that ProSight ESP will enforce, and Progent will monitor your network and react to alerts that require urgent action. Progent can also assist your company to install and test a backup and restore solution like ProSight Data Protection Services so you can get back in business rapidly from a destructive security attack like ransomware. Read more about Progent's ProSight Enhanced Security Protection (ESP) unified physical and virtual endpoint protection and Microsoft Exchange email filtering.

• ProSight Data Protection Services: Backup and Disaster Recovery Services
  Progent has partnered with leading backup technology providers to create ProSight Data Protection Services, a family of offerings that provide backup-as-a-service. ProSight DPS products automate and monitor your data backup operations and allow non-disruptive backup and fast recovery of critical files/folders, apps, system images, plus virtual machines. ProSight DPS helps your business recover from data loss caused by hardware failures, natural calamities, fire, malware like ransomware, user mistakes, malicious employees, or application bugs. Managed services in the ProSight DPS product line include ProSight DPS Altaro VM Backup, ProSight 365 Total Backup (formerly Altaro 365 Backup), ProSight DPS ECHO Backup using Barracuda purpose-built hardware, and ProSight MSP360 Cloud and On-prem Backup. Your Progent consultant can assist you to determine which of these managed services are most appropriate for your network.

• ProSight Email Guard: Inbound and Outbound Spam Filtering and Data Leakage Protection
  ProSight Email Guard is Progent's spam filtering service that incorporates the technology of top data security companies to deliver web-based control and comprehensive security for all your inbound and outbound email. The powerful structure of Progent's Email Guard combines cloud-based filtering with a local security gateway device to provide advanced protection against spam, viruses, Dos Attacks, Directory Harvest Attacks, and other email-borne malware. The cloud filter acts as a first line of defense and keeps most unwanted email from reaching your network firewall. This reduces your exposure to external attacks and saves system bandwidth and storage. Email Guard's onsite gateway device adds a deeper layer of analysis for incoming email. For outgoing email, the on-premises security gateway provides AV and anti-spam protection, policy-based Data Loss Prevention, and email encryption. The on-premises security gateway can also help Microsoft Exchange Server to monitor and protect internal email traffic that originates and ends within your corporate firewall. For more information, see ProSight Email Guard spam and content filtering.

• ProSight WAN Watch: Infrastructure Remote Monitoring and Management
  Progent's ProSight WAN Watch is a network infrastructure management service that makes it easy and affordable for small and mid-sized organizations to map, monitor, optimize and troubleshoot their networking appliances such as routers and switches, firewalls, and load balancers plus servers, client computers and other networked devices. Incorporating cutting-edge Remote Monitoring and Management technology, ProSight WAN Watch makes sure that infrastructure topology diagrams are always updated, captures and displays the configuration information of almost all devices connected to your network, monitors performance, and sends notices when issues are discovered. By automating time-consuming network management activities, ProSight WAN Watch can cut hours off ordinary chores like making network diagrams, reconfiguring your network, locating appliances that require important software patches, or resolving performance bottlenecks. Learn more about ProSight WAN Watch network infrastructure management services.

• ProSight LAN Watch: Server and Desktop Monitoring
  ProSight LAN Watch is Progent's server and desktop monitoring managed service that incorporates state-of-the-art remote monitoring and management techniques to help keep your IT system running at peak levels by tracking the state of critical assets that drive your business network. When ProSight LAN Watch detects an issue, an alert is transmitted automatically to your designated IT personnel and your Progent consultant so all potential problems can be resolved before they have a chance to disrupt your network. Find out more details about ProSight LAN Watch server and desktop remote monitoring consulting.

• ProSight Virtual Hosting: Hosted VMs 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 secure fault tolerant data center on a fast virtual host set up and maintained by Progent's network support experts. Under the ProSight Virtual Hosting service model, the customer retains ownership of the data, the OS software, and the applications. Because the environment is virtualized, it can be moved immediately to an alternate hosting solution without requiring a time-consuming and technically risky reinstallation process. With ProSight Virtual Hosting, your business is not locked into a single hosting provider. Find out 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 capture, maintain, retrieve and protect data related to your network infrastructure, procedures, business apps, and services. You can quickly locate passwords or serial numbers and be warned about upcoming expirations of SSLs or domains. By updating and organizing your IT infrastructure documentation, you can eliminate up to 50% of time thrown away trying to find vital information about your network. ProSight IT Asset Management includes a common repository for holding and sharing all documents related to managing your network infrastructure like recommended procedures and How-To's. ProSight IT Asset Management also supports advanced automation for collecting and associating IT data. Whether you're making improvements, doing maintenance, or responding to an emergency, ProSight IT Asset Management delivers the information you require the instant you need it. Learn more about Progent's ProSight IT Asset Management service.

• Active Defense Against Ransomware: Machine Learning-based Ransomware Identification and Remediation
  Progent's Active Defense Against Ransomware is an endpoint protection managed service that utilizes cutting edge behavior machine learning technology to guard endpoint devices and physical and virtual servers against new malware attacks such as ransomware and email phishing, which routinely escape legacy signature-matching anti-virus tools. Progent ASM services protect on-premises and cloud-based resources and provides a single platform to automate the complete threat lifecycle including protection, detection, mitigation, cleanup, and forensics. Key capabilities include single-click rollback using Windows VSS and real-time network-wide immunization against new attacks. Learn more about Progent's ransomware defense and cleanup services.

• Progent's Outsourced/Shared Help Desk: Support Desk Managed Services
  Progent's Help Center services enable your IT group to offload Call Center services to Progent or divide activity for Help Desk services transparently between your in-house support staff and Progent's nationwide pool of certified IT service engineers and subject matter experts (SMEs). Progent's Co-managed Help Desk Service provides a transparent extension of your corporate network support organization. User interaction with the Help Desk, provision of technical assistance, escalation, ticket generation and tracking, efficiency metrics, and management of the support database are consistent whether issues are taken care of by your core IT support staff, by Progent's team, or a mix of the two. Read more about Progent's outsourced/shared Service Center services.

• Progent's Patch Management: Software/Firmware Update Management Services
  Progent's managed services for patch management offer businesses of any size a flexible and cost-effective alternative for assessing, validating, scheduling, applying, and tracking software and firmware updates to your dynamic IT network. Besides optimizing the security and functionality of your IT environment, Progent's software/firmware update management services permit your IT team to focus on more strategic initiatives and tasks that derive the highest business value from your information network. Read more about Progent's software/firmware update management services.

• ProSight Duo Two-Factor Authentication: Identity Validation, Endpoint Remediation, and Secure Single Sign-on (SSO)
  Progent's Duo authentication services incorporate Cisco's Duo technology to defend against stolen passwords by using two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo enables one-tap identity verification with iOS, Android, and other personal devices. With 2FA, when you log into a protected application and give your password you are requested to confirm your identity via a device that only you possess and that uses a separate network channel. A broad range of devices can be utilized as this second form of authentication including an iPhone or Android or watch, a hardware/software token, a landline phone, etc. You may designate several validation devices. To find out more about Duo two-factor identity validation services, see Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services.

• ProSight Reporting: In-depth Reporting for Ticketing and Network Monitoring Applications
  ProSight Reporting is a growing line of real-time and in-depth reporting tools created to integrate with the leading ticketing and network monitoring platforms including 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-up or endpoints with missing patches. By exposing ticketing or network health problems clearly 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 platforms.