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Ransomware : Your Feared IT Catastrophe
Crypto-Ransomware has become a too-frequent cyber pandemic that presents an existential danger for organizations vulnerable to an assault. Different versions of ransomware such as Dharma, WannaCry, Bad Rabbit, SamSam and MongoLock cryptoworms have been replicating for many years and continue to cause destruction. Newer versions of ransomware like Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, DopplePaymer, LockBit or Nephilim, plus more as yet unnamed viruses, not only do encryption of online critical data but also infect all accessible system protection mechanisms. Information synchronized to the cloud can also be corrupted. In a vulnerable environment, it can render any restore operations useless and effectively knocks the network back to zero.

Restoring programs and information following a ransomware event becomes a sprint against the clock as the victim struggles to contain the damage, eradicate the crypto-ransomware, and restore business-critical activity. Because ransomware requires time to spread, penetrations are often sprung on weekends and holidays, when successful attacks typically take longer to discover. This multiplies the difficulty of quickly marshalling and organizing a qualified mitigation team.

Progent provides a range of services for protecting enterprises from ransomware attacks. Among these are team education to help identify and not fall victim to phishing scams, ProSight Active Security Monitoring for remote monitoring and management, along with deployment of next-generation security gateways with artificial intelligence capabilities from SentinelOne to identify and disable day-zero cyber attacks rapidly. Progent in addition offers the services of experienced crypto-ransomware recovery professionals with the track record and perseverance to reconstruct a breached environment as urgently as possible.

Progent's Crypto-Ransomware Recovery Help
Soon after a ransomware attack, even paying the ransom demands in cryptocurrency does not guarantee that merciless criminals will return the keys to decipher any or all of your information. Kaspersky Labs estimated that 17% of crypto-ransomware victims never recovered their data after having sent off the ransom, resulting in increased losses. The risk is also expensive. Ryuk ransoms are typically a few hundred thousand dollars. For larger enterprises, the ransom can reach millions. The alternative is to piece back together the mission-critical components of your IT environment. Absent access to full information backups, this requires a broad range of IT skills, professional team management, and the capability to work non-stop until the job is done.

For two decades, Progent has offered certified expert IT services for businesses throughout the U.S. and has earned Microsoft's Partnership certification status in the Datacenter and Cloud Productivity competencies. Progent's pool of subject matter experts (SMEs) includes consultants who have attained high-level industry certifications in leading technologies including Microsoft, Cisco, VMware, and major distributions of Linux. Progent's cyber security specialists have earned internationally-renowned industry certifications including CISA, CISSP, ISACA CRISC, GIAC, and CMMC 2.0. (Visit Progent's certifications). Progent also has expertise in accounting and ERP application software. This breadth of expertise gives Progent the capability to efficiently understand critical systems and consolidate the surviving components of your computer network system following a ransomware penetration and assemble them into an operational network.

Progent's security team has best of breed project management tools to orchestrate the complicated restoration process. Progent appreciates the urgency of working quickly and in unison with a client's management and IT team members to assign priority to tasks and to put key services back on-line as fast as humanly possible.

Customer Case Study: A Successful Crypto-Ransomware Attack Recovery
A client sought out Progent after their network system was brought down by Ryuk crypto-ransomware. Ryuk is believed to have been developed by North Korean state sponsored cybercriminals, suspected of using approaches exposed from the U.S. National Security Agency. Ryuk attacks specific companies with limited room for operational disruption and is one of the most profitable versions of ransomware. Well Known victims include Data Resolution, a California-based information warehousing and cloud computing company, and the Chicago Tribune. Progent's customer is a regional manufacturing business based in Chicago with around 500 workers. The Ryuk attack had shut down all company operations and manufacturing capabilities. Most of the client's information backups had been on-line at the time of the intrusion and were eventually encrypted. The client was taking steps for paying the ransom (in excess of $200,000) and hoping for good luck, but ultimately reached out to Progent.

Progent worked hand in hand the customer to rapidly identify and prioritize the mission critical systems that had to be restored in order to resume departmental operations:

• Active Directory (AD)
• Microsoft Exchange Email
• Accounting and Manufacturing Software

Within 2 days, Progent was able to recover Active Directory services to its pre-attack state. Progent then initiated reinstallations and hard drive recovery of critical servers. All Exchange data and attributes were intact, which greatly helped the rebuild of Exchange. Progent was able to find intact OST files (Microsoft Outlook Offline Data Files) on various desktop computers in order to recover email data. A not too old off-line backup of the client's accounting/ERP systems made it possible to return these required programs back on-line. Although a lot of work was left to recover totally from the Ryuk virus, core systems were recovered quickly:

Throughout the next few weeks critical milestones in the recovery process were achieved in close cooperation between Progent team members and the customer:

• Internal web applications were brought back up without losing any data.
• The MailStore Exchange Server with over four million historical messages was brought on-line and accessible to users.
• CRM/Orders/Invoices/Accounts Payable (AP)/Accounts Receivables/Inventory Control capabilities were 100% restored.
• A new Palo Alto 850 firewall was set up and programmed.
• 90% of the user PCs were being used by staff.

Conclusion
A likely business-killing catastrophe was avoided by results-oriented professionals, a broad array of knowledge, and tight teamwork. Although in hindsight the ransomware incident described here could have been disabled with current cyber security systems and NIST Cybersecurity Framework or ISO/IEC 27001 best practices, team education, and well designed security procedures for information backup and proper patching controls, the fact is that government-sponsored cyber criminals from Russia, China and elsewhere are tireless and represent an ongoing threat. If you do fall victim to a ransomware penetration, feel confident that Progent's roster of professionals has proven experience in ransomware virus blocking, mitigation, and information systems restoration.

To review or download a PDF version of this customer case study, please click:
Progent's Ransomware Virus Recovery Case Study Datasheet. (PDF - 282 KB)

Additional Crypto-Ransomware Protection Services Offered by Progent
Progent can provide companies in Austin a range of remote monitoring and security evaluation services designed to help you to reduce the threat from ransomware. These services utilize modern AI technology to uncover zero-day variants of ransomware that can escape detection by legacy signature-based anti-virus products.

• ProSight LAN Watch: Server and Desktop Monitoring
  ProSight LAN Watch is Progent's server and desktop monitoring managed service that incorporates state-of-the-art remote monitoring and management (RMM) techniques to help keep your network running efficiently by tracking the health of critical assets that power your business network. When ProSight LAN Watch detects a problem, an alarm is transmitted automatically to your specified IT personnel and your assigned Progent consultant so any looming issues can be addressed before they have a chance to impact productivity. Learn more about ProSight LAN Watch server and desktop monitoring services.

• ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM: Centralized RMM for Networks, Servers, and Desktops
  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, update management, automated repairs, endpoint configuration, backup and recovery, A/V defense, remote access, standard and custom scripts, resource inventory, endpoint profile reporting, and debugging support. When ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM identifies a serious issue, it sends an alarm to your designated IT management staff and your Progent technical consultant so that potential problems can be fixed before they interfere with productivity. Learn more details about ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM server and desktop monitoring consulting.

• ProSight WAN Watch: Network Infrastructure Management
  ProSight WAN Watch is a network infrastructure monitoring and management service that makes it simple and inexpensive for small and mid-sized businesses to map, track, optimize and debug their connectivity hardware such as switches, firewalls, and load balancers plus servers, printers, client computers and other networked devices. Using state-of-the-art Remote Monitoring and Management technology, WAN Watch ensures that network maps are kept current, captures and manages the configuration information of virtually all devices on your network, tracks performance, and generates alerts when issues are detected. By automating complex network management activities, ProSight WAN Watch can cut hours off common chores such as making network diagrams, expanding your network, finding appliances that require critical software patches, or resolving performance bottlenecks. Learn more about ProSight WAN Watch network infrastructure management services.

• ProSight Reporting: Real-time and In-depth Reporting for Ticketing and Network Monitoring Platforms
  ProSight Reporting is a growing line of real-time and in-depth management reporting tools designed to integrate with the industry's top ticketing and remote network monitoring platforms such as ConnectWise Manage, ConnectWise Automate, Customer Thermometer, Auvik, and SentinelOne. ProSight Reporting uses Microsoft Graph and features color coding to highlight and contextualize key issues like spotty support follow-through or machines with out-of-date AVs. By exposing ticketing or network health concerns concisely and in near-real time, ProSight Reporting enhances network value, lowers management overhead, and saves money. For more information, see ProSight Reporting for ticketing and network monitoring applications.

• ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS): Backup and Recovery Services
  Progent has worked with leading backup software companies to create ProSight Data Protection Services, a family of offerings that provide backup-as-a-service. ProSight DPS products manage and track your data backup operations and enable transparent backup and fast restoration of critical files, apps, system images, and virtual machines. ProSight DPS lets you recover from data loss caused by equipment failures, natural disasters, fire, malware like ransomware, user mistakes, ill-intentioned employees, or application bugs. Managed backup services available in the ProSight DPS product line include ProSight DPS Altaro VM Backup, ProSight 365 Total Backup (formerly Altaro 365 Backup), ProSight ECHO Backup using Barracuda purpose-built hardware, and ProSight DPS MSP360 Hybrid Backup. Your Progent expert can assist you to determine which of these managed backup services are best suited for your IT environment.

• ProSight Email Guard: Inbound and Outbound Spam Filtering and Data Leakage Protection
  ProSight Email Guard is Progent's spam filtering and email encryption service that uses the infrastructure of leading information security vendors to provide web-based control and world-class security for your inbound and outbound email. The powerful structure of Email Guard combines cloud-based filtering with an on-premises security gateway device to provide advanced protection against spam, viruses, Denial of Service Attacks, DHAs, and other email-based threats. Email Guard's Cloud Protection Layer acts as a preliminary barricade and blocks most threats from reaching your security perimeter. This reduces your vulnerability to inbound attacks and saves network bandwidth and storage space. Email Guard's onsite security gateway device provides a deeper level of inspection for incoming email. For outgoing email, the onsite gateway provides AV and anti-spam protection, policy-based Data Loss Prevention, and email encryption. The local security gateway can also assist Microsoft Exchange Server to track and protect internal email that originates and ends within your corporate firewall. For more details, visit 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 MFA service plans incorporate Cisco's Duo technology to defend against stolen passwords by using two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo supports one-tap identity verification on iOS, Google Android, and other out-of-band devices. Using 2FA, whenever you log into a protected online account and enter your password you are asked to confirm who you are via a unit that only you possess and that uses a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A wide selection of out-of-band devices can be used for this second means of ID validation such as a smartphone or wearable, a hardware/software token, a landline phone, etc. You may designate several validation devices. To find out more about Duo identity authentication services, visit Duo MFA two-factor authentication services.

• Progent's Outsourced/Shared Help Center: Call Center Managed Services
  Progent's Support Desk services enable your information technology group to outsource Help Desk services to Progent or divide responsibilities for support services seamlessly between your in-house network support staff and Progent's nationwide roster of IT service engineers and subject matter experts. Progent's Shared Service Desk provides a transparent supplement to your core IT support resources. Client access to the Help Desk, provision of support services, issue escalation, trouble ticket creation and updates, performance measurement, and maintenance of the service database are cohesive regardless of whether incidents are taken care of by your corporate support staff, by Progent's team, or both. Learn more about Progent's outsourced/shared Call Center services.

• Progent Active Protection Against Ransomware: AI-based Ransomware Identification and Cleanup
  Progent's Active Protection Against Ransomware is an endpoint protection (EPP) solution that utilizes cutting edge behavior machine learning tools to guard endpoints and physical and virtual servers against new malware assaults like ransomware and file-less exploits, which routinely evade legacy signature-matching anti-virus tools. Progent ASM services safeguard on-premises and cloud-based resources and provides a unified platform to automate the entire malware attack progression including filtering, identification, containment, cleanup, and forensics. Top capabilities include single-click rollback with Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) and automatic network-wide immunization against new attacks. Find out more about Progent's ransomware protection and recovery services.

• ProSight IT Asset Management: Network Documentation Management
  ProSight IT Asset Management service is an IT infrastructure documentation management service that allows you to capture, maintain, retrieve and protect data about your IT infrastructure, processes, business apps, and services. You can quickly find passwords or serial numbers and be warned automatically about upcoming expirations of SSLs ,domains or warranties. By updating and managing your IT infrastructure documentation, you can eliminate up to half of time spent searching for vital information about your IT network. ProSight IT Asset Management features a common repository for storing and collaborating on all documents related to managing your business network such as standard operating procedures (SOPs) and How-To's. ProSight IT Asset Management also offers advanced automation for gathering and associating IT data. Whether you're planning improvements, performing maintenance, or reacting to a crisis, ProSight IT Asset Management delivers the information you need when you need it. Learn more about Progent's ProSight IT Asset Management service.

• Patch Management: Patch Management Services
  Progent's managed services for patch management offer businesses of any size a flexible and affordable solution for assessing, validating, scheduling, applying, and documenting updates to your dynamic IT system. In addition to optimizing the security and functionality of your computer network, Progent's patch management services permit your IT team to focus on line-of-business initiatives and tasks that deliver maximum business value from your information network. Learn more about Progent's patch management support services.

• ProSight Virtual Hosting: Hosted Virtual Machines at Progent's Tier III Data Center
  With Progent's ProSight Virtual Hosting service, a small or mid-size organization can have its critical servers and applications hosted in a secure Tier III data center on a fast virtual machine host set up and managed by Progent's IT support professionals. With the ProSight Virtual Hosting model, the client retains ownership of the data, the OS platforms, and the applications. Since the environment is virtualized, it can be moved easily to an alternate hosting solution without a lengthy and difficult configuration process. With ProSight Virtual Hosting, your business is not tied a single hosting provider. Learn more details about ProSight Virtual Hosting services.

• ProSight Active Security Monitoring: Endpoint Protection and Ransomware Defense
  ProSight Active Security Monitoring is an endpoint protection solution that utilizes SentinelOne's next generation behavior analysis technology to guard physical and virtual endpoints against modern malware assaults like ransomware and file-less exploits, which routinely evade traditional signature-matching anti-virus products. ProSight Active Security Monitoring protects local and cloud resources and provides a unified platform to automate the complete threat lifecycle including filtering, detection, mitigation, remediation, and forensics. Key capabilities include one-click rollback with Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) and automatic network-wide immunization against newly discovered attacks. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. Find out more about Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) next-generation endpoint protection and ransomware defense.

• ProSight Enhanced Security Protection: Endpoint Protection and Microsoft Exchange Email Filtering
  ProSight Enhanced Security Protection (ESP) services offer economical in-depth protection for physical servers and virtual machines, desktops, mobile devices, and Exchange Server. ProSight ESP uses contextual security and advanced machine learning for continuously monitoring and responding to security threats from all attack vectors. ProSight ESP offers two-way firewall protection, intrusion alarms, endpoint management, and web filtering through leading-edge technologies packaged within a single agent accessible from a unified console. Progent's data protection and virtualization experts can help you to plan and implement a ProSight ESP environment that meets your organization's unique requirements and that allows you demonstrate compliance with legal and industry data security standards. Progent will assist you define and configure security policies that ProSight ESP will enforce, and Progent will monitor your network and react to alarms that require urgent attention. Progent's consultants can also help your company to install and verify a backup and disaster recovery solution like ProSight Data Protection Services so you can recover quickly from a destructive cyber attack such as ransomware. Find out more about Progent's ProSight Enhanced Security Protection unified physical and virtual endpoint protection and Microsoft Exchange email filtering.