Durham 24x7 Immediate Crypto-Ransomware
Computer Virus Detection and Restoration Experts

Crypto-Ransomware : Your Feared IT Disaster
Ransomware has become a modern cyber pandemic that poses an existential threat for businesses poorly prepared for an attack. Versions of ransomware like the Dharma, CryptoWall, Bad Rabbit, SamSam and MongoLock cryptoworms have been out in the wild for a long time and continue to inflict harm. More recent versions of ransomware such as Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, Netwalker, Conti or Egregor, as well as daily unnamed viruses, not only do encryption of on-line files but also infiltrate all available system protection. Data replicated to cloud environments can also be ransomed. In a poorly designed data protection solution, this can make automated recovery hopeless and basically knocks the entire system back to square one.

Getting back on-line programs and information following a ransomware event becomes a sprint against the clock as the targeted organization struggles to contain the damage, clear the crypto-ransomware, and restore enterprise-critical activity. Due to the fact that crypto-ransomware takes time to replicate, penetrations are usually sprung during weekends and nights, when penetrations in many cases take longer to notice. This compounds the difficulty of quickly marshalling and organizing an experienced mitigation team.

Progent has a range of services for protecting enterprises from ransomware events. These include team member training to help recognize and not fall victim to phishing attempts, ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) for remote monitoring and management, plus installation of modern security gateways with artificial intelligence capabilities from SentinelOne to discover and suppress new threats quickly. Progent in addition can provide the assistance of veteran ransomware recovery engineers with the skills and commitment to reconstruct a compromised network as quickly as possible.

Progent's Crypto-Ransomware Recovery Services
Subsequent to a ransomware event, sending the ransom demands in cryptocurrency does not provide any assurance that cyber hackers will return the needed keys to unencrypt any of your files. Kaspersky determined that 17% of ransomware victims never restored their information after having sent off the ransom, resulting in additional losses. The risk is also costly. Ryuk ransoms are often several hundred thousand dollars. For larger enterprises, the ransom demand can reach millions of dollars. The fallback is to setup from scratch the vital elements of your IT environment. Absent the availability of essential information backups, this requires a wide range of IT skills, professional team management, and the willingness to work 24x7 until the recovery project is complete.

For twenty years, Progent has offered professional Information Technology services for companies throughout the United States and has achieved Microsoft's Partnership certification status in the Datacenter and Cloud Productivity competencies. Progent's group of subject matter experts (SMEs) includes engineers who have earned advanced industry certifications in important technologies like Microsoft, Cisco, VMware, and major distributions of Linux. Progent's security experts have garnered internationally-recognized industry certifications including CISA, CISSP, ISACA CRISC, SANS GIAC, and CMMC 2.0. (See Progent's certifications). Progent also has expertise in accounting and ERP software solutions. This breadth of expertise affords Progent the skills to rapidly determine critical systems and organize the surviving pieces of your IT environment after a ransomware event and assemble them into an operational system.

Progent's security team utilizes powerful project management systems to orchestrate the complex recovery process. Progent appreciates the importance of working swiftly and in unison with a client's management and Information Technology resources to prioritize tasks and to put critical services back on-line as fast as possible.

Business Case Study: A Successful Ransomware Incident Response
A business sought out Progent after their network was crashed by the Ryuk ransomware. Ryuk is thought to have been developed by North Korean state sponsored criminal gangs, suspected of using technology exposed from the U.S. NSA organization. Ryuk targets specific businesses with little tolerance for disruption and is one of the most profitable incarnations of ransomware viruses. High publicized targets include Data Resolution, a California-based info warehousing and cloud computing firm, and the Chicago Tribune. Progent's customer is a regional manufacturing business located in Chicago with about 500 employees. The Ryuk penetration had frozen all business operations and manufacturing capabilities. The majority of the client's system backups had been on-line at the beginning of the intrusion and were damaged. The client was taking steps for paying the ransom demand (more than two hundred thousand dollars) and wishfully thinking for the best, but in the end called Progent.

Progent worked together with the client to quickly identify and prioritize the most important applications that had to be restored in order to resume business functions:

• Microsoft Active Directory
• Email
• Financials/MRP

Within two days, Progent was able to recover Windows Active Directory to its pre-attack state. Progent then performed rebuilding and hard drive recovery of the most important applications. All Exchange Server schema and configuration information were intact, which greatly helped the restore of Exchange. Progent was also able to collect local OST files (Microsoft Outlook Offline Folder Files) on team desktop computers in order to recover email messages. A recent offline backup of the customer's accounting software made them able to restore these vital services back available to users. Although a lot of work still had to be done to recover totally from the Ryuk damage, critical services were recovered rapidly:

Throughout the following few weeks key milestones in the restoration project were made through tight cooperation between Progent consultants and the customer:

• Self-hosted web sites were restored without losing any information.
• The MailStore Microsoft Exchange Server with over 4 million archived messages was brought on-line and available for users.
• CRM/Orders/Invoices/Accounts Payable/Accounts Receivables/Inventory Control modules were 100 percent functional.
• A new Palo Alto 850 firewall was installed and configured.
• Nearly all of the desktop computers were being used by staff.

Conclusion
A potential business-killing catastrophe was avoided with top-tier professionals, a wide spectrum of technical expertise, and close teamwork. Although in hindsight the ransomware penetration detailed here should have been prevented with advanced cyber security technology solutions and NIST Cybersecurity Framework best practices, team training, and appropriate incident response procedures for information backup and keeping systems up to date with security patches, the fact is that state-sponsored hackers from Russia, North Korea and elsewhere are tireless and will continue. If you do get hit by a crypto-ransomware penetration, feel confident that Progent's team of experts has extensive experience in ransomware virus blocking, remediation, and information systems disaster recovery.

To read or download a PDF version of this case study, click:
Progent's Crypto-Ransomware Virus Recovery Case Study Datasheet. (PDF - 282 KB)

Additional Ransomware Protection Services Available from Progent
Progent offers companies in Durham a variety of remote monitoring and security evaluation services designed to assist you to minimize your vulnerability to ransomware. These services utilize modern machine learning technology to uncover new strains of crypto-ransomware that are able to evade legacy signature-based security products.

• ProSight LAN Watch: Server and Desktop 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 IT system operating at peak levels by checking the state of vital computers that drive your business network. When ProSight LAN Watch uncovers a problem, an alarm is transmitted immediately to your designated IT management staff and your assigned Progent consultant so that any potential issues can be addressed before they can impact your network. Learn more about ProSight LAN Watch server and desktop remote monitoring services.

• ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM: Unified RMM Solution for Networks, Servers, and Desktops
  ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM software offers a unified, cloud-based platform for monitoring and managing your client-server infrastructure by offering tools for performing common time-consuming jobs. These include health checking, patch management, automated remediation, endpoint configuration, backup and recovery, anti-virus protection, secure remote access, built-in and custom scripts, asset inventory, endpoint status reports, and debugging help. When ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM spots a serious problem, it sends an alert to your designated IT management staff and your assigned Progent technical consultant so potential issues can be fixed before they impact productivity. Find out more about ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM server and desktop remote monitoring services.

• ProSight WAN Watch: Infrastructure Management
  ProSight WAN Watch is an infrastructure monitoring and management service that makes it simple and affordable for smaller organizations to map, track, enhance and troubleshoot their connectivity appliances such as switches, firewalls, and wireless controllers as well as servers, endpoints and other devices. Using state-of-the-art Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) technology, ProSight WAN Watch makes sure that infrastructure topology diagrams are always updated, captures and manages the configuration information of almost all devices connected to your network, tracks performance, and generates notices when issues are detected. By automating complex management and troubleshooting processes, ProSight WAN Watch can knock hours off ordinary tasks like network mapping, expanding your network, locating devices that require critical software patches, or identifying the cause of performance issues. Learn more about ProSight WAN Watch network infrastructure monitoring and management services.

• ProSight Reporting: Real-time Reporting for Ticketing and Network Monitoring Applications
  ProSight Reporting is a growing line of in-depth reporting utilities created to integrate with the industry's leading ticketing and network monitoring programs such as ConnectWise Manage, ConnectWise Automate, Customer Thermometer, Auvik, and SentinelOne. ProSight Reporting uses Microsoft Graph and features color coding to highlight and contextualize key issues such as spotty support follow-up or endpoints with missing patches. By identifying ticketing or network health problems concisely and in near-real time, ProSight Reporting enhances productivity, reduces management overhead, and saves money. For more information, visit ProSight Reporting for ticketing and network monitoring applications.

• ProSight Data Protection Services: Backup and Disaster Recovery Services
  Progent has worked with leading backup/restore technology companies to produce ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a selection of management offerings that deliver backup-as-a-service. ProSight DPS services automate and monitor your data backup processes and allow transparent backup and fast restoration of vital files/folders, applications, images, plus VMs. ProSight DPS helps you protect against data loss resulting from hardware failures, natural calamities, fire, cyber attacks like ransomware, user error, malicious insiders, or software bugs. Managed services available in the ProSight DPS product line include ProSight Altaro VM Backup, ProSight 365 Total Backup (formerly Altaro 365 Backup), ProSight DPS ECHO Backup using Barracuda purpose-built hardware, and ProSight DPS MSP360 Hybrid Backup. Your Progent expert can help you to determine which of these managed backup 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 filtering service that incorporates the infrastructure of top information security companies to deliver centralized control and comprehensive security for all your email traffic. The powerful architecture of Email Guard managed service combines cloud-based filtering with a local gateway appliance to provide advanced defense against spam, viruses, Denial of Service Attacks, Directory Harvest Attacks, and other email-based malware. Email Guard's cloud filter serves as a preliminary barricade and blocks most threats from making it to your security perimeter. This reduces your exposure to external attacks and conserves system bandwidth and storage space. Email Guard's onsite security gateway device provides a deeper layer of analysis for inbound email. For outbound email, the on-premises gateway offers anti-virus and anti-spam protection, protection against data leaks, and email encryption. The onsite gateway can also help Exchange Server to monitor and safeguard internal email traffic that originates and ends inside your corporate firewall. For more information, see Email Guard spam and content filtering.

• ProSight Duo Two-Factor Authentication: ID Confirmation, Endpoint Policy Enforcement, and Secure Single Sign-on
  Progent's Duo authentication service plans utilize Cisco's Duo cloud technology to protect against password theft by using two-factor authentication. Duo enables single-tap identity confirmation with iOS, Google Android, and other personal devices. Using Duo 2FA, whenever you log into a protected application and give your password you are requested to verify who you are via a unit that only you possess and that uses a different network channel. A broad selection of out-of-band devices can be utilized as this second form of authentication including an iPhone or Android or watch, a hardware token, a landline telephone, etc. You can designate several verification devices. To find out more about Duo identity authentication services, refer to Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication services.

• Outsourced/Co-managed Help Desk: Help Desk Managed Services
  Progent's Help Desk services permit your IT group to offload Call Center services to Progent or split activity for Service Desk support transparently between your in-house network support staff and Progent's nationwide roster of IT service engineers and subject matter experts (SMEs). Progent's Shared Service Desk offers a seamless supplement to your in-house IT support resources. End user interaction with the Help Desk, provision of support services, escalation, trouble ticket creation and updates, efficiency metrics, and maintenance of the service database are consistent whether issues are resolved by your core support resources, by Progent, or both. Learn more about Progent's outsourced/co-managed Service Desk services.

• Active Protection Against Ransomware: Machine Learning-based Ransomware Detection and Cleanup
  Progent's Active Protection Against Ransomware is an endpoint protection managed service that utilizes next generation behavior-based machine learning tools to defend endpoints as well as servers and VMs against new malware attacks such as ransomware and file-less exploits, which routinely evade traditional signature-matching AV products. Progent ASM services safeguard local and cloud-based resources and provides a single platform to address the entire malware attack lifecycle including filtering, infiltration detection, containment, remediation, and post-attack forensics. Key features include single-click rollback using Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service and automatic network-wide immunization against newly discovered attacks. Read more about Progent's ransomware protection and recovery services.

• ProSight IT Asset Management: Network Documentation Management
  Progent's ProSight IT Asset Management service is a cloud-based IT documentation management service that allows you to capture, maintain, find and protect information related to your network infrastructure, procedures, business apps, and services. You can instantly locate passwords or serial numbers and be alerted about impending expirations of SSLs ,domains or warranties. By cleaning up and managing your IT documentation, you can eliminate up to 50% of time spent looking for vital information about your IT network. ProSight IT Asset Management features a common location for holding and collaborating on all documents required for managing your business network such as recommended procedures and self-service instructions. ProSight IT Asset Management also supports advanced automation for gathering and associating IT data. Whether you're planning enhancements, doing regular maintenance, or responding to a crisis, ProSight IT Asset Management gets you the data you need the instant you need it. Find out more about ProSight IT Asset Management service.

• Progent's Patch Management: Patch Management Services
  Progent's managed services for software and firmware patch management offer businesses of all sizes a versatile and cost-effective solution for assessing, testing, scheduling, implementing, and documenting updates to your ever-evolving IT system. Besides maximizing the protection and reliability of your IT network, Progent's software/firmware update management services permit your IT staff to concentrate on line-of-business initiatives and tasks that derive maximum business value from your information network. Find out more about Progent's patch management support services.

• ProSight Virtual Hosting: Hosted Virtual Machines at Progent's World-class Data Center
  With ProSight Virtual Hosting service, a small business can have its key servers and apps hosted in a protected fault tolerant data center on a fast virtual host configured and maintained by Progent's network support experts. With Progent's ProSight Virtual Hosting model, the customer retains ownership of the data, the operating system software, and the applications. Since the environment is virtualized, it can be moved immediately to a different hosting environment without requiring a lengthy and technically risky configuration procedure. With ProSight Virtual Hosting, you are not tied one hosting provider. Find out more details about ProSight Virtual Hosting services.

• ProSight Active Security Monitoring: Endpoint Protection and Ransomware Defense
  ProSight Active Security Monitoring is an endpoint protection (EPP) service that utilizes SentinelOne's next generation behavior analysis technology to defend physical and virtual endpoint devices against modern malware assaults such as ransomware and email phishing, which easily get by legacy signature-matching AV products. ProSight Active Security Monitoring protects on-premises and cloud-based resources and offers a single platform to manage the complete threat lifecycle including protection, infiltration detection, containment, remediation, and post-attack forensics. Key features include single-click rollback using Windows VSS and automatic system-wide immunization against newly discovered attacks. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. Learn more about Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring next-generation endpoint protection and ransomware defense.

• ProSight Enhanced Security Protection (ESP): Physical and Virtual Endpoint Security and Microsoft Exchange Filtering
  ProSight Enhanced Security Protection (ESP) services deliver economical multi-layer security for physical servers and VMs, desktops, smartphones, and Exchange email. ProSight ESP utilizes adaptive security and advanced machine learning for continuously monitoring and responding to cyber assaults from all vectors. ProSight ESP delivers two-way firewall protection, intrusion alarms, device management, and web filtering via leading-edge tools incorporated within one agent managed from a single control. Progent's security and virtualization consultants can help you to design and configure a ProSight ESP environment that addresses your company's unique needs and that allows you demonstrate compliance with legal and industry data security regulations. Progent will help you define and implement policies that ProSight ESP will manage, and Progent will monitor your network and react to alerts that require immediate action. Progent can also assist your company to set up and verify a backup and restore solution like ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS) so you can recover rapidly from a destructive cyber attack like ransomware. Find out more about Progent's ProSight Enhanced Security Protection unified physical and virtual endpoint protection and Microsoft Exchange email filtering.