Jersey City Ransomware Filtering and Restoration Expertise

Ransomware has been widely adopted by the major cyber-crime organizations and rogue governments, posing a potentially existential risk to businesses that are successfully attacked. The latest versions of ransomware go after all vulnerable resources, including online backup, making even partial restoration a challenging and expensive process. Novel versions of crypto-ransomware like Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, Mailto (aka Netwalker), DopplePaymer, LockBit and Nephilim have emerged, replacing Locky, Cerber, and CryptoWall in notoriety, elaborateness, and destructiveness.

Most ransomware infections are caused by innocuous-seeming emails that have malicious links or attachments, and a high percentage are so-called "zero-day" strains that elude the defenses of legacy signature-based antivirus filters. Although user education and up-front identification are critical to defend your network against ransomware, leading practices dictate that you assume some attacks will eventually succeed and that you prepare a strong backup mechanism that allows you to restore files and services rapidly with minimal losses.

Progent's ProSight Ransomware Preparedness Assessment is a low-cost service centered around an online discussion with a Progent security consultant experienced in ransomware protection and recovery. During this assessment Progent will work directly with your Jersey City network management staff to gather critical information about your security posture and backup processes. Progent will use this data to produce a Basic Security and Best Practices Report documenting how to apply best practices for configuring and administering your cybersecurity and backup systems to block or clean up after a ransomware assault.

Progent's Basic Security and Best Practices Assessment focuses on key areas associated with ransomware defense and restoration recovery. The report covers:

Security

• Proper allocation and use of admin accounts
• Appropriate NTFS (New Technology File System) and SMB authorizations
• Optimal firewall settings
• Secure RDP connections
• Guidance for AntiVirus tools selection and deployment

• Split permission model for backup protection
• Backing up key servers such as AD
• Offsite backups including cloud backup to Azure

About Ransomware
Ransomware is a type of malware that encrypts or deletes files so they cannot be used or are publicized. Ransomware often locks the victim's computer. To avoid the carnage, the victim is asked to send a certain amount of money (the ransom), typically in the form of a crypto currency like Bitcoin, within a short time window. There is no guarantee that paying the ransom will restore the lost files or prevent its exposure to the public. Files can be encrypted or deleted across a network depending on the target's write permissions, and you cannot solve the strong encryption algorithms used on the compromised files. A typical ransomware attack vector is booby-trapped email, in which the target is lured into responding to by a social engineering exploit called spear phishing. This makes the email to appear to come from a trusted sender. Another common attack vector is a poorly secured Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) port.

CryptoLocker ushered in the new age of crypto-ransomware in 2013, and the damage attributed to by the many versions of ransomware is estimated at billions of dollars annually, roughly doubling every other year. Notorious examples are Locky, and NotPetya. Recent high-profile variants like Ryuk, Maze and CryptoWall are more complex and have caused more havoc than earlier versions. Even if your backup processes enable you to recover your ransomed files, you can still be threatened by so-called exfiltration, where stolen documents are made public. Because new versions of ransomware are launched every day, there is no certainty that traditional signature-matching anti-virus tools will detect the latest malware. If threat does show up in an email, it is critical that your end users have learned to identify phishing techniques. Your last line of protection is a sound process for performing and keeping remote backups plus the use of reliable restoration platforms.

Contact Progent About the ProSight Ransomware Susceptibility Assessment in Jersey City
For pricing information and to find out more about how Progent's ProSight Ransomware Preparedness Evaluation can bolster your protection against ransomware in Jersey City, phone Progent at 800-462-8800 or see Contact Progent.