Chattanooga Ransomware Prevention and Recovery Solutions

Ransomware has become the weapon of choice for the major cyber-crime organizations and bad-actor states, posing a possibly existential threat to companies that fall victim. Current variations of ransomware target everything, including online backup, making even selective recovery a complex and expensive process. Novel strains of ransomware such as Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, Mailto (aka Netwalker), DopplePaymer, Conti and Egregor have made the headlines, displacing Locky, Spora, and CryptoWall in notoriety, elaborateness, and destructiveness.

90% of crypto-ransomware penetrations are caused by innocuous-seeming emails that include dangerous hyperlinks or file attachments, and a high percentage are so-called "zero-day" strains that elude detection by traditional signature-matching antivirus tools. While user education and up-front detection are important to protect against ransomware, best practices demand that you assume some attacks will eventually succeed and that you prepare a strong backup mechanism that allows you to repair the damage quickly with minimal losses.

Progent's ProSight Ransomware Preparedness Checkup is an ultra-affordable service built around an online interview with a Progent security consultant skilled in ransomware protection and repair. During this interview Progent will collaborate with your Chattanooga network management staff to gather critical information concerning your cybersecurity profile and backup processes. Progent will utilize this information to create a Basic Security and Best Practices Report documenting how to apply leading practices for configuring and managing your security and backup solution to block or clean up after a crypto-ransomware attack.

Progent's Basic Security and Best Practices Assessment focuses on key issues related to crypto-ransomware prevention and restoration recovery. The report covers:

Security

• Correct allocation and use of administration accounts
• Correct NTFS (New Technology File System) and SMB authorizations
• Proper firewall settings
• Safe RDP configuration
• Recommend AntiVirus tools identification and deployment

• Split permission model for backup protection
• Protecting critical servers including AD
• Geographically dispersed backups with cloud backup to Azure

About Ransomware
Ransomware is a type of malicious software that encrypts or steals a victim's files so they cannot be used or are made publicly available. Crypto-ransomware often locks the target's computer. To prevent the carnage, the victim is asked to send a certain ransom, usually in the form of a crypto currency like Bitcoin, within a brief period of time. There is no guarantee that delivering the ransom will recover the damaged files or avoid its publication. Files can be encrypted or deleted throughout a network based on the victim's write permissions, and you cannot break the strong encryption algorithms used on the hostage files. A typical ransomware attack vector is spoofed email, whereby the target is tricked into interacting with by means of a social engineering technique known as spear phishing. This makes the email to look as though it came from a trusted sender. Another popular attack vector is a poorly secured Remote Desktop Protocol port.

CryptoLocker opened the new age of ransomware in 2013, and the monetary losses caused by different versions of ransomware is estimated at billions of dollars per year, roughly doubling every two years. Notorious attacks include Locky, and Petya. Current headline threats like Ryuk, DoppelPaymer and Cerber are more complex and have wreaked more damage than older strains. Even if your backup/recovery procedures allow your business to recover your ransomed files, you can still be threatened by exfiltration, where ransomed data are made public (known as "doxxing"). Because new variants of ransomware crop up daily, there is no certainty that conventional signature-based anti-virus filters will block a new malware. If threat does appear in an email, it is critical that your users have been taught to identify phishing tricks. Your last line of defense is a sound process for scheduling and keeping offsite backups plus the use of reliable recovery tools.

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