24x7 São Paulo Emergency Ransomware
Computer Virus Assessment and Repair Help

Ransomware : Your Crippling Information Technology Catastrophe
Ransomware has become a too-frequent cyberplague that represents an existential danger for organizations unprepared for an attack. Multiple generations of ransomware like the Reveton, WannaCry, Bad Rabbit, Syskey and MongoLock cryptoworms have been circulating for years and continue to inflict harm. Newer versions of crypto-ransomware like Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, DopplePaymer, LockBit or Egregor, along with frequent as yet unnamed viruses, not only encrypt on-line data but also infect most available system backups. Data synched to off-site disaster recovery sites can also be held hostage. In a poorly designed data protection solution, this can make any recovery impossible and effectively knocks the datacenter back to zero.

Restoring programs and information following a crypto-ransomware intrusion becomes a race against time as the victim fights to stop the spread, cleanup the virus, and restore enterprise-critical activity. Since ransomware needs time to move laterally, attacks are usually launched on weekends and holidays, when attacks are likely to take longer to recognize. This compounds the difficulty of quickly marshalling and coordinating an experienced response team.

Progent makes available an assortment of solutions for securing businesses from ransomware events. Among these are team member training to help identify and not fall victim to phishing attempts, ProSight Active Security Monitoring for remote monitoring and management, in addition to installation of modern security appliances with artificial intelligence capabilities from SentinelOne to discover and extinguish zero-day threats quickly. Progent in addition can provide the assistance of veteran crypto-ransomware recovery consultants with the track record and perseverance to reconstruct a breached system as quickly as possible.

Progent's Ransomware Recovery Services
Soon after a ransomware penetration, sending the ransom in cryptocurrency does not guarantee that merciless criminals will return the needed codes to decipher any or all of your information. Kaspersky Labs ascertained that 17% of ransomware victims never recovered their information even after having paid the ransom, resulting in increased losses. The risk is also costly. Ryuk ransoms are often a few hundred thousand dollars. For larger organizations, the ransom can be in the millions of dollars. The alternative is to re-install the essential elements of your IT environment. Without access to complete data backups, this requires a broad range of skills, top notch team management, and the ability to work non-stop until the job is complete.

For decades, Progent has made available professional IT services for businesses across the US and has achieved Microsoft's Partnership certification in the Datacenter and Cloud Productivity competencies. Progent's group of subject matter experts includes engineers who have earned advanced certifications in foundation technologies including Microsoft, Cisco, VMware, and major distributions of Linux. Progent's cyber security experts have earned internationally-renowned industry certifications including CISA, CISSP, ISACA CRISC, SANS GIAC, and CMMC 2.0. (Refer to Progent's certifications). Progent also has experience with accounting and ERP applications. This breadth of experience provides Progent the skills to knowledgably ascertain important systems and integrate the remaining pieces of your network system after a crypto-ransomware event and assemble them into a functioning network.

Progent's ransomware team uses powerful project management systems to orchestrate the sophisticated recovery process. Progent knows the urgency of acting quickly and together with a customer's management and Information Technology resources to assign priority to tasks and to get the most important services back online as fast as possible.

Client Story: A Successful Ransomware Penetration Recovery
A client contacted Progent after their network system was penetrated by Ryuk ransomware. Ryuk is generally considered to have been created by North Korean state sponsored criminal gangs, possibly adopting algorithms leaked from America's NSA organization. Ryuk goes after specific companies with limited room for disruption and is one of the most lucrative examples of crypto-ransomware. Major victims include Data Resolution, a California-based info warehousing and cloud computing company, and the Chicago Tribune. Progent's client is a regional manufacturing business headquartered in the Chicago metro area and has around 500 workers. The Ryuk event had disabled all company operations and manufacturing capabilities. The majority of the client's backups had been online at the start of the attack and were destroyed. The client was evaluating paying the ransom (exceeding $200,000) and praying for good luck, but ultimately reached out to Progent.

Progent worked hand in hand the customer to rapidly determine and prioritize the essential systems that had to be recovered to make it possible to resume company operations:

• Active Directory (AD)
• Electronic Mail
• Accounting/MRP

In less than 2 days, Progent was able to re-build Windows Active Directory to its pre-virus state. Progent then performed setup and hard drive recovery on essential applications. All Exchange schema and attributes were intact, which accelerated the restore of Exchange. Progent was also able to find local OST files (Outlook Email Off-Line Data Files) on team desktop computers and laptops to recover mail data. A not too old offline backup of the customer's manufacturing systems made it possible to return these vital services back on-line. Although a lot of work still had to be done to recover fully from the Ryuk event, core services were returned to operations quickly:

Over the next couple of weeks critical milestones in the recovery project were accomplished through close cooperation between Progent team members and the client:

• In-house web applications were brought back up without losing any information.
• The MailStore Exchange Server containing more than four million archived emails was brought on-line and available for users.
• CRM/Customer Orders/Invoices/Accounts Payable/Accounts Receivables (AR)/Inventory functions were fully recovered.
• A new Palo Alto Networks 850 security appliance was brought online.
• Ninety percent of the user desktops were fully operational.

Conclusion
A probable business-ending disaster was avoided by dedicated professionals, a wide array of IT skills, and tight collaboration. Although upon completion of forensics the ransomware virus incident detailed here could have been identified and blocked with modern cyber security technology and ISO/IEC 27001 best practices, user and IT administrator training, and well thought out incident response procedures for backup and proper patching controls, the reality is that government-sponsored criminal cyber gangs from Russia, China and elsewhere are relentless and will continue. If you do get hit by a crypto-ransomware attack, remember that Progent's team of experts has a proven track record in crypto-ransomware virus blocking, cleanup, and file recovery.

To read or download a PDF version of this customer story, click:
Progent's Ryuk Incident Recovery Case Study Datasheet. (PDF - 282 KB)

Additional Ransomware Protection Services Offered by Progent
Progent can provide companies in São Paulo a range of online monitoring and security evaluation services designed to help you to reduce your vulnerability to ransomware. These services include modern artificial intelligence technology to detect new strains of ransomware that are able to evade traditional signature-based security solutions.

• ProSight LAN Watch: Server and Desktop Monitoring and Management
  ProSight LAN Watch is Progent's server and desktop remote monitoring managed service that incorporates state-of-the-art remote monitoring and management (RMM) technology to help keep your IT system running at peak levels by checking the health of vital assets that drive your information system. When ProSight LAN Watch detects an issue, an alarm is sent automatically to your specified IT management personnel and your Progent engineering consultant so any potential issues can be resolved before they have a chance to impact your network. Find out more about ProSight LAN Watch server and desktop remote monitoring services.

• ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM: Centralized RMM for Networks, Servers, and Workstations
  ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM software delivers a centralized, cloud-based platform for managing your client-server infrastructure by providing an environment for streamlining common time-consuming jobs. These can include health monitoring, patch management, automated repairs, endpoint deployment, backup and restore, anti-virus defense, remote access, standard and custom scripts, asset inventory, endpoint profile reporting, and troubleshooting support. If ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM uncovers a serious incident, it transmits an alert to your specified IT management staff and your assigned Progent consultant so emerging problems can be fixed before they impact productivity. Find out more about ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM server and desktop monitoring services.

• ProSight WAN Watch: Infrastructure Management
  Progent's ProSight WAN Watch is an infrastructure management service that makes it easy and affordable for smaller businesses to map out, monitor, reconfigure and troubleshoot their networking hardware such as routers, firewalls, and load balancers plus servers, client computers and other devices. Incorporating cutting-edge RMM technology, WAN Watch ensures that infrastructure topology maps are always updated, captures and manages the configuration of virtually all devices on your network, monitors performance, and generates notices when issues are discovered. By automating tedious management processes, ProSight WAN Watch can knock hours off ordinary chores such as network mapping, expanding your network, finding devices that require important software patches, or identifying the cause of performance problems. Find out more details about ProSight WAN Watch infrastructure monitoring and management consulting.

• ProSight Reporting: Real-time and In-depth Reporting for Ticketing and Network Monitoring Applications
  ProSight Reporting is a growing family of in-depth reporting tools designed to integrate with the top ticketing and network monitoring applications such as ConnectWise Manage, ConnectWise Automate, Customer Thermometer, Auvik, and SentinelOne. ProSight Reporting incorporates Microsoft Graph and utilizes color coding to surface and contextualize key issues such as inconsistent support follow-through or machines with missing patches. By identifying ticketing or network health concerns concisely and in near-real time, ProSight Reporting improves network value, lowers management hassle, and saves money. For details, visit ProSight Reporting for ticketing and network monitoring applications.

• ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS): Backup and Recovery Services
  Progent has worked with advanced backup software companies to produce ProSight Data Protection Services, a portfolio of offerings that provide backup-as-a-service (BaaS). ProSight DPS products automate and track your data backup operations and allow transparent backup and rapid recovery of important files, apps, system images, and virtual machines. ProSight DPS helps your business protect against data loss caused by hardware failures, natural calamities, fire, cyber attacks like ransomware, user error, ill-intentioned employees, or software bugs. Managed services in the ProSight Data Protection Services product family include ProSight DPS Altaro VM Backup, ProSight 365 Total Backup (formerly Altaro 365 Backup), ProSight ECHO Backup based on Barracuda dedicated hardware, and ProSight MSP360 Cloud and On-prem Backup. Your Progent service representative can assist you to identify which of these managed backup services are best suited for your network.

• ProSight Email Guard: Inbound and Outbound Spam Filtering and Data Leakage Protection
  ProSight Email Guard is Progent's spam filtering service that uses the technology of top information security vendors to deliver centralized management and comprehensive protection for your inbound and outbound email. The hybrid structure of Email Guard managed service integrates cloud-based filtering with a local gateway appliance to offer advanced defense against spam, viruses, Denial of Service (DoS) Attacks, Directory Harvest Attacks (DHAs), and other email-based threats. The cloud filter serves as a first line of defense and keeps the vast majority of unwanted email from making it to your security perimeter. This reduces your exposure to external threats and saves system bandwidth and storage. Email Guard's onsite gateway appliance adds a deeper level of analysis for inbound email. For outgoing email, the on-premises security gateway provides anti-virus and anti-spam protection, protection against data leaks, and email encryption. The on-premises security gateway can also assist Microsoft Exchange Server to monitor and protect internal email traffic that stays within your security perimeter. For more details, see ProSight Email Guard spam filtering and data leakage protection.

• ProSight Duo Two-Factor Authentication: ID Confirmation, Endpoint Policy Enforcement, and Secure Single Sign-on (SSO)
  Progent's Duo authentication service plans incorporate Cisco's Duo technology to protect against password theft through the use of two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo enables one-tap identity verification on Apple iOS, Android, and other out-of-band devices. With Duo 2FA, whenever you log into a protected online account and enter your password you are asked to confirm your identity on a unit that only you have and that is accessed using a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A wide selection of devices can be utilized for this second means of ID validation including an iPhone or Android or watch, a hardware token, a landline phone, etc. You can register several validation devices. For more information about Duo two-factor identity authentication services, refer to Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for access security.

• Progent's Outsourced/Shared Help Desk: Support Desk Managed Services
  Progent's Support Desk services allow your information technology group to offload Support Desk services to Progent or split responsibilities for Help Desk services seamlessly between your internal support resources and Progent's nationwide pool of certified IT service engineers and subject matter experts. Progent's Co-managed Help Desk Service offers a seamless supplement to your corporate network support group. End user interaction with the Service Desk, delivery of technical assistance, escalation, ticket generation and tracking, efficiency metrics, and maintenance of the service database are cohesive regardless of whether incidents are resolved by your core IT support organization, by Progent, or by a combination. Find out more about Progent's outsourced/co-managed Help Center services.

• Progent Active Protection Against Ransomware: AI-based Ransomware Detection and Cleanup
  Progent's Active Defense Against Ransomware is an endpoint protection service that incorporates cutting edge behavior analysis technology to guard endpoints as well as physical and virtual servers against modern malware attacks like ransomware and email phishing, which easily escape legacy signature-matching anti-virus products. Progent Active Security Monitoring services protect on-premises and cloud resources and offers a unified platform to manage the entire malware attack progression including blocking, detection, mitigation, remediation, and forensics. Top capabilities include one-click rollback using Windows VSS and automatic system-wide immunization against newly discovered attacks. Learn more about Progent's ransomware defense and recovery services.

• ProSight IT Asset Management: Network Documentation Management
  Progent's ProSight IT Asset Management service is an IT infrastructure documentation management service that makes it easy to create, update, retrieve and safeguard information about your IT infrastructure, processes, business apps, and services. You can quickly find passwords or serial numbers and be alerted automatically about impending expirations of SSL certificates ,domains or warranties. By cleaning up and organizing your network documentation, you can eliminate up to 50% of time spent searching for vital information about your IT network. ProSight IT Asset Management features a common repository for holding and collaborating on all documents required for managing your business network such as recommended procedures and self-service instructions. ProSight IT Asset Management also offers advanced automation for collecting and relating IT information. Whether you're planning improvements, performing maintenance, or reacting to an emergency, ProSight IT Asset Management delivers the knowledge you require when you need it. Find out more about ProSight IT Asset Management service.

• Patch Management: Software/Firmware Update Management Services
  Progent's managed services for patch management offer businesses of any size a flexible and affordable solution for evaluating, validating, scheduling, implementing, and tracking software and firmware updates to your ever-evolving IT network. In addition to maximizing the security and functionality of your computer network, Progent's software/firmware update management services permit your IT staff to concentrate on line-of-business projects and tasks that deliver maximum business value from your network. Read more about Progent's software/firmware update management support services.

• ProSight Virtual Hosting: Hosted VMs at Progent's World-class Data Center
  With ProSight Virtual Hosting service, a small organization can have its critical servers and apps hosted in a protected Tier III data center on a high-performance virtual machine host set up and managed by Progent's network support professionals. Under the ProSight Virtual Hosting service model, the customer retains ownership of the data, the operating system platforms, and the apps. Since the system is virtualized, it can be moved immediately to an alternate hosting environment without requiring a time-consuming and difficult reinstallation procedure. With ProSight Virtual Hosting, you are not tied one hosting service. Find out more about ProSight Virtual Hosting services.

• ProSight Active Security Monitoring: Endpoint Protection and Ransomware Defense
  Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring is an endpoint protection (EPP) service that utilizes SentinelOne's next generation behavior analysis technology to defend physical and virtual endpoint devices against modern malware attacks like ransomware and file-less exploits, which easily escape legacy signature-matching anti-virus tools. ProSight Active Security Monitoring safeguards on-premises and cloud resources and offers a single platform to automate the entire malware attack progression including blocking, identification, containment, remediation, and forensics. Top capabilities include single-click rollback using Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) and automatic network-wide immunization against new threats. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. Learn more about Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) next-generation endpoint protection and ransomware recovery.

• ProSight Enhanced Security Protection: Endpoint Protection and Microsoft Exchange Email Filtering
  Progent's ProSight Enhanced Security Protection managed services offer ultra-affordable in-depth security for physical servers and virtual machines, workstations, smartphones, and Exchange email. ProSight ESP utilizes contextual security and modern behavior analysis for round-the-clock monitoring and reacting to cyber threats from all attack vectors. ProSight ESP delivers two-way firewall protection, intrusion alerts, device control, and web filtering through cutting-edge tools packaged within one agent accessible from a unified control. Progent's security and virtualization consultants can assist your business to design and implement a ProSight ESP deployment that addresses your organization's unique requirements and that helps you demonstrate compliance with government and industry data protection regulations. Progent will assist you specify and implement policies that ProSight ESP will enforce, and Progent will monitor your IT environment and react to alerts that call for urgent attention. Progent's consultants can also assist you to install and verify a backup and disaster recovery solution such as ProSight Data Protection Services so you can get back in business rapidly from a destructive security attack such as ransomware. Find out more about Progent's ProSight Enhanced Security Protection unified physical and virtual endpoint protection and Exchange filtering.