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Computer Malware Identification and Recovery Services

Ransomware : Your Feared IT Catastrophe
Ransomware has become a too-frequent cyber pandemic that represents an extinction-level danger for businesses of all sizes poorly prepared for an attack. Multiple generations of ransomware like the Reveton, CryptoWall, Bad Rabbit, SamSam and MongoLock cryptoworms have been out in the wild for many years and continue to cause destruction. Newer variants of crypto-ransomware such as Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, DopplePaymer, LockBit or Egregor, along with daily unnamed newcomers, not only encrypt online data but also infiltrate many configured system protection mechanisms. Files replicated to cloud environments can also be held hostage. In a vulnerable system, it can render automatic restoration useless and basically knocks the datacenter back to zero.

Getting back programs and information following a ransomware event becomes a race against the clock as the targeted organization tries its best to stop the spread, clear the crypto-ransomware, and resume mission-critical operations. Due to the fact that ransomware takes time to spread, attacks are frequently launched during nights and weekends, when penetrations may take more time to notice. This compounds the difficulty of promptly marshalling and organizing a capable response team.

Progent provides an assortment of support services for securing enterprises from ransomware penetrations. These include user training to help identify and avoid phishing attempts, ProSight Active Security Monitoring for remote monitoring and management, along with deployment of modern security gateways with machine learning capabilities from SentinelOne to discover and disable day-zero threats intelligently. Progent also can provide the services of seasoned ransomware recovery engineers with the track record and perseverance to restore a compromised environment as soon as possible.

Progent's Ransomware Restoration Support Services
Soon after a crypto-ransomware attack, sending the ransom demands in cryptocurrency does not guarantee that merciless criminals will return the needed keys to decipher all your information. Kaspersky Labs estimated that 17% of ransomware victims never restored their information after having sent off the ransom, resulting in increased losses. The risk is also costly. Ryuk ransoms are often several hundred thousand dollars. For larger enterprises, the ransom can reach millions of dollars. The alternative is to re-install the critical components of your IT environment. Without access to complete data backups, this calls for a wide complement of skill sets, top notch project management, and the willingness to work non-stop until the recovery project is finished.

For twenty years, Progent has offered certified expert IT services for businesses across the United States and has achieved Microsoft's Partnership certification status in the Datacenter and Cloud Productivity competencies. Progent's team of subject matter experts (SMEs) includes consultants who have been awarded high-level industry certifications in foundation technologies like Microsoft, Cisco, VMware, and popular distributions of Linux. Progent's cybersecurity consultants have garnered internationally-recognized certifications including CISM, CISSP, ISACA CRISC, GIAC, and CMMC 2.0. (See Progent's certifications). Progent also has expertise in accounting and ERP software solutions. This breadth of expertise provides Progent the capability to quickly identify necessary systems and re-organize the surviving pieces of your IT system following a ransomware attack and assemble them into an operational network.

Progent's recovery team of experts has top notch project management applications to coordinate the complex recovery process. Progent appreciates the importance of acting quickly and in concert with a customer's management and IT resources to prioritize tasks and to put critical applications back on-line as soon as humanly possible.

Business Case Study: A Successful Ransomware Intrusion Restoration
A client contacted Progent after their organization was penetrated by Ryuk ransomware virus. Ryuk is thought to have been developed by North Korean government sponsored hackers, suspected of using algorithms exposed from the U.S. National Security Agency. Ryuk seeks specific companies with limited room for disruption and is among the most profitable incarnations of crypto-ransomware. Major targets include Data Resolution, a California-based information warehousing and cloud computing firm, and the Chicago Tribune. Progent's client is a small manufacturing company headquartered in Chicago with around 500 employees. The Ryuk intrusion had paralyzed all business operations and manufacturing processes. The majority of the client's data protection had been on-line at the beginning of the attack and were eventually encrypted. The client was taking steps for paying the ransom (exceeding $200,000) and wishfully thinking for the best, but in the end utilized Progent.

Progent worked together with the client to quickly identify and assign priority to the mission critical areas that had to be recovered to make it possible to resume business operations:

• Microsoft Active Directory
• E-Mail
• MRP System

Within 48 hours, Progent was able to recover Active Directory services to its pre-penetration state. Progent then completed setup and hard drive recovery on essential systems. All Microsoft Exchange Server ties and attributes were usable, which greatly helped the rebuild of Exchange. Progent was also able to find non-encrypted OST files (Outlook Email Offline Folder Files) on staff PCs and laptops in order to recover email data. A recent offline backup of the client's accounting/MRP systems made them able to return these essential services back on-line. Although a large amount of work remained to recover totally from the Ryuk virus, the most important services were recovered rapidly:

Throughout the following month critical milestones in the recovery project were achieved through tight collaboration between Progent consultants and the customer:

• Self-hosted web applications were brought back up with no loss of data.
• The MailStore Server exceeding 4 million archived emails was brought online and available for users.
• CRM/Customer Orders/Invoices/AP/Accounts Receivables/Inventory functions were 100 percent recovered.
• A new Palo Alto 850 firewall was installed.
• 90% of the desktops and laptops were functioning as before the incident.

Conclusion
A likely enterprise-killing disaster was evaded with top-tier professionals, a wide range of IT skills, and tight collaboration. Although upon completion of forensics the ransomware incident described here could have been identified and disabled with modern security systems and NIST Cybersecurity Framework or ISO/IEC 27001 best practices, user and IT administrator training, and properly executed incident response procedures for data protection and applying software patches, the fact is that government-sponsored criminal cyber gangs from Russia, North Korea and elsewhere are relentless and are not going away. If you do fall victim to a crypto-ransomware penetration, remember that Progent's team of experts has a proven track record in ransomware virus blocking, remediation, and data recovery.

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

Additional Ransomware Protection Services Offered by Progent
Progent offers companies in Hayward a portfolio of online monitoring and security assessment services designed to assist you to minimize the threat from crypto-ransomware. These services incorporate next-generation AI technology to detect zero-day variants of ransomware that are able to escape detection by traditional signature-based security products.

• ProSight LAN Watch: Server and Desktop Remote Monitoring
  ProSight LAN Watch is Progent's server and desktop remote monitoring managed service that incorporates advanced remote monitoring and management techniques to help keep your network operating efficiently by tracking the state of vital assets that drive your business network. When ProSight LAN Watch detects an issue, an alarm is sent automatically to your specified IT personnel and your Progent engineering consultant so that any potential problems can be resolved before they can disrupt productivity. Learn more details about ProSight LAN Watch server and desktop monitoring consulting.

• ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM: Centralized RMM for Networks, Servers, and Desktops
  ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM software delivers a unified, cloud-driven solution for managing your network, server, and desktop devices by offering an environment for performing common time-consuming jobs. These include health monitoring, update management, automated repairs, endpoint deployment, backup and restore, A/V response, secure remote access, built-in and custom scripts, asset inventory, endpoint profile reporting, and debugging support. When ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM uncovers a serious problem, it sends an alarm to your designated IT personnel and your assigned Progent technical consultant so that potential problems can be fixed before they impact productivity. Find out more details about ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM server and desktop remote monitoring services.

• ProSight WAN Watch: Infrastructure Remote Monitoring and Management
  Progent's ProSight WAN Watch is a network infrastructure management service that makes it easy and inexpensive for smaller businesses to diagram, track, reconfigure and troubleshoot their connectivity appliances like routers, firewalls, and wireless controllers as well as servers, printers, endpoints and other networked devices. Using cutting-edge Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) technology, WAN Watch makes sure that network maps are kept current, captures and displays the configuration of virtually all devices connected to your network, monitors performance, and sends alerts when potential issues are discovered. By automating tedious network management processes, WAN Watch can knock hours off ordinary tasks like making network diagrams, reconfiguring your network, locating devices that need critical software patches, or resolving performance problems. Learn more details about ProSight WAN Watch network infrastructure management consulting.

• ProSight Reporting: Real-time and In-depth Reporting for Ticketing and Network Monitoring Applications
  ProSight Reporting is an expanding line of real-time and in-depth reporting tools designed to integrate with the industry's top ticketing and remote network monitoring programs such as ConnectWise Manage, ConnectWise Automate, Customer Thermometer, Auvik, and SentinelOne. ProSight Reporting incorporates Microsoft Graph and features color coding to surface and contextualize critical issues such as inconsistent support follow-through or endpoints with out-of-date AVs. By exposing ticketing or network health problems clearly and in near-real time, ProSight Reporting enhances productivity, reduces management hassle, and saves money. For details, see ProSight Reporting for ticketing and network monitoring platforms.

• ProSight Data Protection Services: Backup and Disaster Recovery Services
  Progent has partnered with leading backup technology companies to create ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a portfolio of subscription-based management outsourcing plans that provide backup-as-a-service (BaaS). ProSight DPS services automate and monitor your data backup operations and enable non-disruptive backup and rapid recovery of important files/folders, apps, images, and Hyper-V and VMware virtual machines. ProSight DPS helps you protect against data loss resulting from equipment breakdown, natural calamities, fire, malware like ransomware, user error, malicious employees, or application bugs. Managed backup services in the ProSight Data Protection Services portfolio include ProSight Altaro VM Backup, ProSight 365 Total Backup (formerly Altaro 365 Backup), ProSight DPS ECHO Backup based on Barracuda purpose-built storage, and ProSight MSP360 Hybrid Backup. Your Progent service representative can help you to determine which of these fully managed backup services are most appropriate for your network.

• 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 top information security companies to deliver web-based management and comprehensive security for all your email traffic. The hybrid structure of Email Guard managed service combines cloud-based filtering with an on-premises gateway appliance to offer complete defense against spam, viruses, Dos Attacks, Directory Harvest Attacks (DHAs), and other email-based threats. Email Guard's cloud filter acts as a first line of defense and keeps most unwanted email from reaching your security perimeter. This reduces your vulnerability to inbound attacks and saves network bandwidth and storage space. Email Guard's on-premises security gateway device provides a further layer of analysis for incoming email. For outgoing email, the onsite gateway offers AV and anti-spam protection, protection against data leaks, and email encryption. The local gateway can also help Exchange Server to track and protect internal email that originates and ends inside your security perimeter. For more details, see ProSight Email Guard spam filtering and data leakage protection.

• ProSight Duo Two-Factor Authentication: Identity Validation, Endpoint Policy Enforcement, and Protected Single Sign-on
  Progent's Duo authentication service plans incorporate Cisco's Duo cloud technology to defend against password theft through the use of two-factor authentication. Duo enables single-tap identity verification with Apple iOS, Android, and other out-of-band devices. Using Duo 2FA, whenever you log into a secured online account and give your password you are asked to verify who you are via a device that only you have and that uses a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A wide range of devices can be utilized for this added means of ID validation such as a smartphone or wearable, a hardware/software token, a landline phone, etc. You can designate several verification devices. To learn more about ProSight Duo identity validation services, visit Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services.

• Outsourced/Co-managed Call Center: Help Desk Managed Services
  Progent's Support Center services allow your information technology team to offload Help Desk services to Progent or divide activity for Help Desk services seamlessly between your in-house support staff and Progent's nationwide pool of IT support technicians, engineers and subject matter experts (SMEs). Progent's Shared Service Desk offers a seamless supplement to your corporate IT support group. End user access to the Service Desk, provision of technical assistance, issue escalation, ticket creation and tracking, efficiency measurement, and maintenance of the service database are consistent regardless of whether issues are taken care of by your core IT support staff, by Progent, or a mix of the two. Read more about Progent's outsourced/shared Call Center services.

• Active Protection Against Ransomware: Machine Learning-based Ransomware Detection and Cleanup
  Progent's Active Defense Against Ransomware is an endpoint protection managed service that incorporates next generation behavior analysis technology to guard endpoints and physical and virtual servers against modern malware assaults like ransomware and email phishing, which easily evade legacy signature-matching AV products. Progent ASM services protect local and cloud resources and provides a unified platform to automate the complete threat lifecycle including blocking, infiltration detection, containment, remediation, and forensics. Key features include one-click rollback with Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) and automatic system-wide immunization against newly discovered attacks. Learn more about Progent's ransomware protection and cleanup services.

• ProSight IT Asset Management: Network Documentation Management
  Progent's ProSight IT Asset Management service is an IT infrastructure documentation management service that allows you to create, maintain, find and protect information about your network infrastructure, processes, business apps, and services. You can quickly find passwords or IP addresses and be alerted automatically about impending expirations of SSLs or warranties. By cleaning up and organizing your IT infrastructure documentation, you can save up to 50% of time wasted looking for vital information about your network. ProSight IT Asset Management includes a centralized repository for holding and collaborating on all documents required for managing your business network like standard operating procedures (SOPs) and self-service instructions. ProSight IT Asset Management also offers advanced automation for collecting and relating IT information. Whether you're making enhancements, performing maintenance, or reacting to a crisis, ProSight IT Asset Management gets you the data you require the instant you need it. Read more about Progent's ProSight IT Asset Management service.

• Patch Management: Software/Firmware Update Management Services
  Progent's support services for patch management offer businesses of any size a versatile and affordable solution for assessing, validating, scheduling, implementing, and documenting software and firmware updates to your dynamic information network. Besides optimizing the security and functionality of your IT environment, Progent's patch management services allow your IT staff to focus on line-of-business projects and tasks that deliver maximum business value from your information network. Find out more about Progent's software/firmware update management services.

• ProSight Virtual Hosting: Hosted Virtual Machines at Progent's World-class Data Center
  With Progent's ProSight Virtual Hosting service, a small organization can have its key servers and apps hosted in a secure fault tolerant data center on a high-performance virtual host set up and maintained by Progent's network support professionals. With Progent's ProSight Virtual Hosting service model, the customer retains ownership of the data, the OS software, and the applications. Because the system is virtualized, it can be ported immediately to an alternate hosting environment without requiring a lengthy and difficult reinstallation process. With ProSight Virtual Hosting, your business is not tied one hosting provider. Find out more about ProSight Virtual Hosting services.

• ProSight Active Security Monitoring: Endpoint Protection and Ransomware Defense
  Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) is an endpoint protection solution that utilizes SentinelOne's cutting edge behavior analysis tools to defend physical and virtual endpoint devices against modern malware attacks such as ransomware and file-less exploits, which routinely escape legacy signature-matching anti-virus products. ProSight Active Security Monitoring safeguards on-premises and cloud-based resources and provides a unified platform to manage the complete malware attack progression including filtering, detection, containment, cleanup, and post-attack forensics. Top features include single-click rollback using Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) and real-time system-wide immunization against newly discovered attacks. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. Find out more about Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring endpoint protection and ransomware recovery.

• ProSight Enhanced Security Protection (ESP): Physical and Virtual Endpoint Protection and Microsoft Exchange Email Filtering
  ProSight Enhanced Security Protection managed services deliver ultra-affordable in-depth security for physical and virtual servers, desktops, smartphones, and Microsoft Exchange. ProSight ESP utilizes contextual security and advanced machine learning for continuously monitoring and responding to cyber assaults from all attack vectors. ProSight ESP provides firewall protection, intrusion alerts, device control, and web filtering via cutting-edge technologies incorporated within a single agent managed from a unified console. Progent's security and virtualization experts can help you to design and configure a ProSight ESP deployment that meets your organization's unique requirements and that allows you prove compliance with legal and industry information security standards. Progent will assist you specify and configure security policies that ProSight ESP will enforce, and Progent will monitor your network and respond to alerts that call for urgent attention. Progent can also help your company to set up and test a backup and disaster recovery system such as ProSight Data Protection Services so you can recover quickly from a potentially disastrous security attack like ransomware. Read more about Progent's ProSight Enhanced Security Protection (ESP) unified endpoint protection and Exchange filtering.