Atlanta Ransomware Protection and Cleanup Services

Ransomware has been widely adopted by cyber extortionists and bad-actor states, posing a possibly existential risk to companies that are breached. The latest strains of ransomware go after everything, including online backup, making even selective recovery a long and expensive process. New strains of crypto-ransomware such as Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, Mailto (aka Netwalker), DopplePaymer, Snatch and Nephilim have made the headlines, displacing WannaCry, Cerber, and CryptoWall in prominence, sophistication, and destructive impact.

90% of ransomware breaches are caused by innocuous-looking emails that include malicious links or file attachments, and a high percentage are "zero-day" variants that elude detection by traditional signature-based antivirus tools. While user training and frontline detection are critical to defend against ransomware attacks, leading practices dictate that you assume some attacks will inevitably succeed and that you put in place a strong backup solution that permits you to recover rapidly with minimal losses.

Progent's ProSight Ransomware Preparedness Assessment is an ultra-affordable service built around a remote discussion with a Progent security consultant skilled in ransomware defense and repair. In the course of this assessment Progent will work directly with your Atlanta IT managers to collect critical data concerning your security profile and backup environment. Progent will use this information to create a Basic Security and Best Practices Report documenting how to follow leading practices for implementing and administering your security and backup solution to prevent or clean up after a ransomware assault.

Progent's Basic Security and Best Practices Report highlights key areas associated with ransomware defense and restoration recovery. The report addresses:

Cybersecurity

• Proper allocation and use of administration accounts
• Appropriate NTFS (New Technology File System) and SMB authorizations
• Optimal firewall setup
• Secure RDP connections
• Recommend AntiVirus (AV) filtering identification and deployment

• Split permission architecture for backup integrity
• Backing up required servers including Active Directory
• Geographically dispersed backups including cloud backup to Microsoft Azure

About Ransomware
Ransomware is a form of malicious software that encrypts or steals a victim's files so they cannot be used or are made publicly available. Ransomware sometimes locks the victim's computer. To avoid the damage, the target is asked to pay a certain amount of money (the ransom), typically in the form of a crypto currency such as Bitcoin, within a short period of time. It is never certain that paying the extortion price will recover the damaged data or avoid its publication. Files can be altered or erased throughout a network based on the victim's write permissions, and you cannot break the strong encryption technologies used on the hostage files. A common ransomware attack vector is booby-trapped email, in which the victim is lured into responding to by a social engineering exploit called spear phishing. This makes the email message to appear to come from a familiar source. Another common attack vector is a poorly secured Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) port.

The ransomware variant CryptoLocker opened the modern era of ransomware in 2013, and the damage attributed to by different versions of ransomware is said to be billions of dollars per year, more than doubling every other year. Notorious attacks include WannaCry, and Petya. Current high-profile threats like Ryuk, Sodinokibi and Spora are more sophisticated and have caused more damage than older strains. Even if your backup procedures allow your business to recover your ransomed data, you can still be threatened by so-called exfiltration, where ransomed data are exposed to the public (known as "doxxing"). Because additional variants of ransomware crop up daily, there is no certainty that traditional signature-based anti-virus tools will block a new attack. If an attack does show up in an email, it is critical that your users have learned to identify social engineering tricks. Your last line of protection is a sound scheme for performing and retaining offsite backups plus the deployment of dependable restoration platforms.

Ask Progent About the ProSight Crypto-Ransomware Readiness Review in Atlanta
For pricing details and to find out more about how Progent's ProSight Ransomware Preparedness Consultation can enhance your defense against crypto-ransomware in Atlanta, call Progent at 800-462-8800 or see Contact Progent.