Addison Ransomware Protection and Cleanup Services

Ransomware has become the weapon of choice for the major cyber-crime organizations and malicious governments, posing a possibly lethal risk to businesses that fall victim. Modern versions of ransomware go after everything, including backup, making even selective restoration a long and expensive process. New versions of crypto-ransomware like Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, Netwalker, DopplePaymer, Conti and Nephilim have made the headlines, displacing Locky, Cerber, and Petya in notoriety, sophistication, and destructive impact.

90% of ransomware breaches are caused by innocent-looking emails that include malicious hyperlinks or file attachments, and many are so-called "zero-day" attacks that can escape detection by traditional signature-based antivirus (AV) filters. While user education and frontline identification are critical to defend your network against ransomware, best practices demand that you assume some attacks will eventually get through and that you put in place a strong backup solution that enables you to restore files and services rapidly with minimal losses.

Progent's ProSight Ransomware Vulnerability Assessment is a low-cost service centered around a remote interview with a Progent security consultant experienced in ransomware protection and repair. During this interview Progent will collaborate directly with your Addison IT management staff to gather pertinent information about your cybersecurity profile and backup environment. Progent will utilize this information to generate a Basic Security and Best Practices Assessment documenting how to adhere to best practices for implementing and managing your cybersecurity and backup solution to prevent or recover from a ransomware attack.

Progent's Basic Security and Best Practices Assessment focuses on key issues related to ransomware defense and restoration recovery. The review covers:

Cybersecurity

• Correct allocation and use of admin accounts
• Assigning NTFS (New Technology File System) and SMB (Server Message Block) permissions
• Proper firewall configuration
• Secure Remote Desktop Protocol configuration
• Guidance for AntiVirus filtering selection and configuration

• Split permission architecture for backup protection
• Protecting required servers such as Active Directory
• Offsite backups with cloud backup to Azure

About Ransomware
Ransomware is a variety of malicious software that encrypts or deletes files so they are unusable or are made publicly available. Ransomware often locks the victim's computer. To prevent the carnage, the target is asked to send a certain amount of money (the ransom), usually via a crypto currency such as Bitcoin, within a short period of time. It is never certain that delivering the extortion price will restore the lost files or prevent its publication. Files can be encrypted or erased across a network based on the target's write permissions, and you cannot break the strong encryption technologies used on the compromised files. A common ransomware attack vector is tainted email, whereby the user is tricked into responding to by means of a social engineering technique known as spear phishing. This causes the email to look as though it came from a familiar source. Another common attack vector is a poorly protected Remote Desktop Protocol port.

CryptoLocker ushered in the new age of ransomware in 2013, and the monetary losses caused by the many versions of ransomware is said to be billions of dollars per year, roughly doubling every other year. Famous examples include WannaCry, and Petya. Recent headline threats like Ryuk, Sodinokibi and Spora are more sophisticated and have caused more havoc than earlier strains. Even if your backup procedures allow you to recover your ransomed data, you can still be hurt by exfiltration, where ransomed documents are made public. Because new variants of ransomware are launched every day, there is no certainty that conventional signature-based anti-virus tools will detect a new malware. If threat does show up in an email, it is critical that your end users have been taught to be aware of social engineering techniques. Your ultimate defense is a solid scheme for scheduling and retaining remote backups and the use of reliable recovery tools.

Contact Progent About the ProSight Ransomware Preparedness Report in Addison
For pricing information and to find out more about how Progent's ProSight Ransomware Readiness Audit can bolster your protection against crypto-ransomware in Addison, call Progent at 800-462-8800 or see Contact Progent.