Irvine Ransomware Filtering and Restoration Consulting

Ransomware has been weaponized by cyber extortionists and malicious states, representing a possibly lethal risk to businesses that are breached. Current variations of ransomware target all vulnerable resources, including online backup, making even selective restoration a long and costly process. New versions of crypto-ransomware such as Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, Netwalker, Phobos, Snatch and Egregor have emerged, displacing Locky, TeslaCrypt, and Petya in notoriety, sophistication, and destructive impact.

90% of ransomware breaches are caused by innocuous-looking emails that have dangerous hyperlinks or file attachments, and a high percentage are so-called "zero-day" attacks that elude the defenses of legacy signature-matching antivirus (AV) filters. While user education and up-front identification are critical to protect against ransomware attacks, best practices demand that you expect that some attacks will inevitably succeed and that you put in place a strong backup solution that allows you to recover rapidly with minimal losses.

Progent's ProSight Ransomware Preparedness Assessment is an ultra-affordable service built around an online discussion with a Progent cybersecurity expert skilled in ransomware defense and repair. In the course of this assessment Progent will cooperate with your Irvine network management staff to gather critical information concerning your cybersecurity setup and backup environment. Progent will use this information to produce a Basic Security and Best Practices Report documenting how to apply leading practices for configuring and administering your cybersecurity and backup systems to block or recover from a ransomware attack.

Progent's Basic Security and Best Practices Report highlights vital areas related to crypto-ransomware defense and restoration recovery. The report addresses:

Security

• Proper use of administration accounts
• Assigning NTFS and SMB permissions
• Optimal firewall settings
• Safe Remote Desktop Protocol access
• Advice about AntiVirus (AV) filtering selection and deployment

• Split permission architecture for backup protection
• Backing up required servers including AD
• Offsite backups with cloud backup to Azure

About Ransomware
Ransomware is a variety of malicious software that encrypts or deletes a victim's files so they cannot be used or are made publicly available. Crypto-ransomware sometimes locks the victim's computer. To prevent the damage, the victim is required to send a specified amount of money, typically via a crypto currency like Bitcoin, within a brief period of time. There is no guarantee that delivering the ransom will restore the damaged files or prevent its publication. Files can be encrypted or erased across a network based on the victim's write permissions, and you cannot reverse engineer the military-grade encryption algorithms used on the compromised files. A common ransomware delivery package is booby-trapped email, whereby the user is tricked into interacting with by means of a social engineering exploit called spear phishing. This makes the email to appear to come from a familiar sender. Another popular vulnerability is a poorly protected RDP port.

The ransomware variant CryptoLocker ushered in the modern era of crypto-ransomware in 2013, and the damage caused by the many versions of ransomware is said to be billions of dollars per year, more than doubling every two years. Notorious attacks are WannaCry, and NotPetya. Current high-profile variants like Ryuk, Sodinokibi and TeslaCrypt are more elaborate and have caused more havoc than older strains. Even if your backup procedures permit your business to restore your encrypted data, you can still be hurt by exfiltration, where ransomed data are exposed to the public (known as "doxxing"). Because new versions of ransomware crop up every day, there is no certainty that conventional signature-matching anti-virus tools will block a new malware. If threat does appear in an email, it is important that your end users have been taught to be aware of social engineering tricks. Your last line of protection is a solid scheme for scheduling and keeping offsite backups plus the deployment of dependable restoration tools.

Ask Progent About the ProSight Crypto-Ransomware Preparedness Testing in Irvine
For pricing details and to find out more about how Progent's ProSight Ransomware Preparedness Evaluation can bolster your protection against crypto-ransomware in Irvine, phone Progent at 800-462-8800 or visit Contact Progent.