Long Beach 24-Hour Urgent Ransomware
Malware Assessment and Removal Services

Crypto-Ransomware : Your Worst IT Catastrophe
Ransomware has become a too-frequent cyber pandemic that represents an enterprise-level threat for businesses vulnerable to an attack. Different versions of crypto-ransomware like the CrySIS, CryptoWall, Locky, SamSam and MongoLock cryptoworms have been circulating for a long time and continue to cause damage. Modern versions of crypto-ransomware such as Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, DopplePaymer, LockBit or Egregor, as well as frequent as yet unnamed newcomers, not only encrypt on-line information but also infect many accessible system restores and backups. Files synchronized to the cloud can also be encrypted. In a poorly architected system, it can render automatic restore operations useless and basically sets the network back to square one.

Getting back on-line services and data following a crypto-ransomware outage becomes a race against time as the targeted business tries its best to contain the damage, cleanup the ransomware, and restore mission-critical operations. Since ransomware requires time to replicate, assaults are frequently launched on weekends, when successful penetrations may take longer to detect. This multiplies the difficulty of quickly mobilizing and organizing an experienced response team.

Progent provides an assortment of services for protecting organizations from ransomware penetrations. Among these are user training to become familiar with and avoid phishing scams, ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) for remote monitoring and management, in addition to deployment of the latest generation security appliances with AI technology from SentinelOne to identify and disable zero-day cyber attacks rapidly. Progent in addition can provide the assistance of veteran crypto-ransomware recovery consultants with the talent and commitment to rebuild a compromised system as soon as possible.

Progent's Crypto-Ransomware Recovery Help
After a crypto-ransomware event, paying the ransom demands in cryptocurrency does not guarantee that cyber criminals will return the needed codes to unencrypt any of your information. Kaspersky Labs determined that 17% of ransomware victims never restored their data even after having sent off the ransom, resulting in increased losses. The risk is also expensive. Ryuk ransoms are often a few hundred thousand dollars. For larger enterprises, the ransom can be in the millions of dollars. The alternative is to setup from scratch the critical components of your IT environment. Absent the availability of essential information backups, this calls for a broad range of IT skills, professional project management, and the ability to work 24x7 until the job is finished.

For twenty years, Progent has made available certified expert IT services for businesses throughout the US and has earned Microsoft's Partnership certification status in the Datacenter and Cloud Productivity competencies. Progent's pool of subject matter experts (SMEs) includes engineers who have attained top industry certifications in foundation technologies like Microsoft, Cisco, VMware, and major distributions of Linux. Progent's cybersecurity engineers have garnered internationally-renowned certifications including CISM, CISSP, CRISC, GIAC, and CMMC 2.0. (Visit Progent's certifications). Progent in addition has experience with financial systems and ERP software solutions. This breadth of expertise affords Progent the skills to knowledgably ascertain important systems and integrate the surviving pieces of your IT system following a ransomware event and rebuild them into an operational network.

Progent's recovery team utilizes powerful project management tools to orchestrate the sophisticated restoration process. Progent knows the importance of working swiftly and in concert with a client's management and Information Technology team members to prioritize tasks and to get essential services back online as fast as possible.

Client Story: A Successful Ransomware Attack Recovery
A small business hired Progent after their network system was crashed by the Ryuk ransomware. Ryuk is believed to have been developed by North Korean state cybercriminals, suspected of using techniques leaked from America's NSA organization. Ryuk goes after specific companies with limited tolerance for operational disruption and is among the most lucrative instances of ransomware. High publicized victims include Data Resolution, a California-based data warehousing and cloud computing firm, and the Chicago Tribune. Progent's client is a single-location manufacturing company based in the Chicago metro area and has about 500 employees. The Ryuk attack had shut down all business operations and manufacturing capabilities. The majority of the client's backups had been on-line at the time of the intrusion and were eventually encrypted. The client was evaluating paying the ransom demand (more than $200K) and praying for good luck, but ultimately called Progent.

Progent worked together with the customer to rapidly understand and prioritize the mission critical services that had to be addressed in order to continue company functions:

• Microsoft Active Directory
• Exchange Server
• Accounting/MRP

In less than two days, Progent was able to restore Active Directory to its pre-attack state. Progent then charged ahead with reinstallations and storage recovery of key systems. All Exchange ties and configuration information were usable, which facilitated the restore of Exchange. Progent was also able to locate intact OST data files (Outlook Offline Data Files) on user workstations in order to recover email data. A not too old offline backup of the businesses accounting/MRP systems made them able to restore these essential programs back available to users. Although a large amount of work still had to be done to recover completely from the Ryuk virus, critical systems were recovered rapidly:

During the next month key milestones in the recovery project were achieved through close collaboration between Progent team members and the customer:

• Self-hosted web sites were returned to operation with no loss of information.
• The MailStore Exchange Server containing more than four million archived emails was spun up and available for users.
• CRM/Product Ordering/Invoices/Accounts Payable/Accounts Receivables/Inventory Control modules were 100% operational.
• A new Palo Alto Networks 850 firewall was installed.
• Ninety percent of the user desktops and notebooks were operational.

Conclusion
A likely business catastrophe was dodged due to top-tier professionals, a wide spectrum of knowledge, and tight teamwork. Although in analyzing the event afterwards the crypto-ransomware attack detailed here could have been identified and disabled with up-to-date cyber security systems and NIST Cybersecurity Framework or ISO/IEC 27001 best practices, user training, and well designed incident response procedures for data backup and keeping systems up to date with security patches, the reality is that state-sponsored criminal cyber gangs from Russia, North Korea and elsewhere are tireless and are an ongoing threat. If you do fall victim to a ransomware incident, feel confident that Progent's team of experts has substantial experience in crypto-ransomware virus blocking, mitigation, and information systems disaster recovery.

To read or download a PDF version of this ransomware incident report, please click:
Progent's Crypto-Ransomware Recovery Case Study Datasheet. (PDF - 282 KB)

Additional Crypto-Ransomware Protection Services Offered by Progent
Progent offers businesses in Long Beach a variety of online monitoring and security assessment services designed to assist you to minimize your vulnerability to ransomware. These services utilize modern artificial intelligence technology to uncover new variants of ransomware that are able to get past traditional 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 uses state-of-the-art remote monitoring and management (RMM) technology to help keep your network running efficiently by tracking the health of vital assets that drive your business network. When ProSight LAN Watch uncovers a problem, an alert is transmitted immediately to your designated IT personnel and your assigned Progent consultant so that all looming problems can be addressed before they have a chance to disrupt productivity. Learn more details about ProSight LAN Watch server and desktop monitoring services.

• ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM: Unified RMM for Networks, Servers, and Workstations
  ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM software delivers a unified, cloud-based platform for monitoring and managing your network, server, and desktop devices by providing tools for performing common tedious jobs. These include health monitoring, patch management, automated repairs, endpoint deployment, backup and recovery, anti-virus response, secure remote access, built-in and custom scripts, asset inventory, endpoint status reporting, and debugging assistance. If ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM spots a serious issue, it transmits an alert to your designated IT staff and your Progent technical consultant so that potential problems can be fixed before they interfere with productivity. Learn more 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 an infrastructure management service that makes it easy and affordable for smaller businesses to map, track, reconfigure and debug their connectivity appliances such as routers, firewalls, and wireless controllers plus servers, printers, client computers and other networked devices. Using cutting-edge Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) technology, ProSight WAN Watch makes sure that infrastructure topology maps are always current, copies and manages the configuration of almost all devices on your network, tracks performance, and sends notices when issues are discovered. By automating complex management and troubleshooting processes, ProSight WAN Watch can cut hours off common chores such as network mapping, reconfiguring your network, finding devices that require important updates, or identifying the cause of performance problems. Learn more about ProSight WAN Watch network infrastructure monitoring and management services.

• ProSight Reporting: Real-time Reporting for Ticketing and Network Monitoring Applications
  ProSight Reporting is a growing line of real-time and in-depth management reporting plug-ins created to work with the top ticketing and network monitoring programs including ConnectWise Manage, ConnectWise Automate, Customer Thermometer, Auvik, and SentinelOne. ProSight Reporting incorporates Microsoft Graph and utilizes color coding to highlight and contextualize critical issues like spotty support follow-up or machines with out-of-date AVs. By identifying ticketing or network health concerns clearly and in near-real time, ProSight Reporting enhances productivity, reduces management overhead, and saves money. For more information, visit ProSight Reporting for ticketing and network monitoring applications.

• ProSight Data Protection Services: Backup and Disaster Recovery Services
  Progent has partnered with advanced backup technology providers to produce ProSight Data Protection Services, a family of subscription-based management outsourcing plans that provide backup-as-a-service (BaaS). ProSight DPS services automate and monitor your backup operations and allow non-disruptive backup and rapid recovery of critical files/folders, applications, system images, and VMs. ProSight DPS lets you avoid data loss resulting from equipment failures, natural calamities, fire, cyber attacks like ransomware, user error, malicious insiders, or software bugs. Managed services in the ProSight DPS product family include ProSight Altaro VM Backup, ProSight 365 Total Backup (formerly Altaro 365 Backup), ProSight ECHO Backup based on Barracuda purpose-built hardware, and ProSight DPS MSP360 Cloud and On-prem Backup. Your Progent expert can help you to determine which of these fully 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 and virus filtering and email encryption service that incorporates the infrastructure of top data security vendors to deliver web-based management and world-class protection for all your inbound and outbound email. The hybrid architecture of Progent's Email Guard integrates a Cloud Protection Layer with an on-premises gateway appliance to provide advanced defense against spam, viruses, Denial of Service Attacks, Directory Harvest Attacks (DHAs), and other email-borne threats. The cloud filter serves as a first line of defense and keeps the vast majority of threats from reaching your network firewall. This decreases your exposure to external threats and saves system bandwidth and storage space. Email Guard's on-premises security gateway appliance provides a deeper level of analysis for inbound email. For outbound email, the on-premises security gateway offers anti-virus and anti-spam filtering, policy-based Data Loss Prevention, and email encryption. The local gateway can also assist Exchange Server to track and safeguard internal email traffic that originates and ends within your corporate firewall. For more details, see Email Guard spam filtering and data leakage protection.

• ProSight Duo Multi-Factor Authentication: ID Confirmation, Endpoint Remediation, and Secure Single Sign-on
  Progent's Duo MFA service plans incorporate Cisco's Duo technology to defend against compromised passwords through the use of two-factor authentication. Duo enables single-tap identity confirmation with iOS, Android, and other out-of-band devices. With 2FA, whenever you sign into a secured application and give your password you are requested to confirm who you are via a device that only you possess and that uses a different network channel. A broad range of out-of-band devices can be used for this added form of authentication such as a smartphone or wearable, a hardware token, a landline phone, etc. You may register several verification devices. To learn more about ProSight Duo identity validation services, go to Duo MFA two-factor authentication services.

• Outsourced/Co-managed Service Desk: Support Desk Managed Services
  Progent's Call Center services allow your information technology group to outsource Support Desk services to Progent or split activity for Help Desk services transparently between your internal support team and Progent's nationwide pool of certified IT service engineers and subject matter experts (SMEs). Progent's Co-managed Service Desk offers a seamless supplement to your core network support resources. User interaction with the Service Desk, delivery of support services, issue escalation, ticket generation and updates, efficiency measurement, and maintenance of the service database are cohesive whether incidents are taken care of by your corporate IT support resources, by Progent's team, or by a combination. Read more about Progent's outsourced/co-managed Help Desk services.

• Progent Active Protection Against Ransomware: Machine Learning-based Ransomware Detection and Remediation
  Progent's Active Protection Against Ransomware is an endpoint protection solution that utilizes next generation behavior analysis technology to defend endpoint devices and servers and VMs against new malware assaults like ransomware and email phishing, which routinely get by traditional signature-based anti-virus tools. Progent Active Security Monitoring services safeguard on-premises and cloud-based resources and offers a unified platform to manage the entire malware attack lifecycle including protection, infiltration detection, containment, cleanup, and forensics. Top capabilities include single-click rollback with Windows VSS and automatic network-wide immunization against newly discovered threats. Find out more about Progent's ransomware defense and recovery services.

• ProSight IT Asset Management: Network Documentation Management
  Progent's ProSight IT Asset Management service is a cloud-based IT documentation management service that allows you to capture, update, retrieve and protect data about your IT infrastructure, processes, business apps, and services. You can instantly find passwords or serial numbers and be warned about upcoming expirations of SSL certificates or domains. By updating and managing your IT infrastructure documentation, you can eliminate as much as half of time thrown away trying to find vital information about your IT network. ProSight IT Asset Management includes a common repository for storing and sharing all documents required for managing your business network like standard operating procedures (SOPs) and self-service instructions. ProSight IT Asset Management also supports advanced automation for collecting and associating IT data. Whether you're planning enhancements, doing regular maintenance, or reacting to a crisis, ProSight IT Asset Management gets you the data you need when you need it. Read more about Progent's ProSight IT Asset Management service.

• Progent's Patch Management: Software/Firmware Update Management Services
  Progent's managed services for patch management offer businesses of any size a flexible and cost-effective alternative for assessing, validating, scheduling, implementing, and documenting updates to your dynamic IT system. In addition to maximizing the protection and reliability of your IT network, Progent's software/firmware update management services allow your IT staff to focus on more strategic projects and tasks that deliver maximum business value from your network. Learn more about Progent's software/firmware update management services.

• ProSight Virtual Hosting: Hosted VMs at Progent's World-class Data Center
  With ProSight Virtual Hosting service, a small organization can have its key servers and applications hosted in a protected Tier III data center on a high-performance virtual machine host set up and managed by Progent's IT support professionals. With the ProSight Virtual Hosting service model, the customer owns the data, the OS platforms, and the applications. Because the environment is virtualized, it can be moved easily to an alternate hardware solution without requiring a time-consuming and technically risky configuration procedure. With ProSight Virtual Hosting, your business is not tied a single 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 (ASM) is an endpoint protection (EPP) solution that utilizes SentinelOne's next generation behavior-based analysis technology to guard physical and virtual endpoints against new malware attacks such as ransomware and file-less exploits, which easily evade legacy signature-based AV products. ProSight Active Security Monitoring safeguards local and cloud-based resources and offers a unified platform to manage the entire malware attack lifecycle including blocking, detection, mitigation, remediation, and post-attack forensics. Key features include one-click rollback using Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service and automatic system-wide immunization against new threats. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, 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 Exchange Filtering
  Progent's ProSight Enhanced Security Protection (ESP) services deliver economical in-depth security for physical servers and virtual machines, desktops, mobile devices, and Microsoft Exchange. ProSight ESP uses contextual security and advanced machine learning for round-the-clock monitoring and responding to security threats from all vectors. ProSight ESP provides firewall protection, intrusion alarms, endpoint management, and web filtering through leading-edge technologies packaged within one agent accessible from a unified console. Progent's security and virtualization consultants can help your business to design and implement a ProSight ESP deployment that meets your organization's specific needs and that helps you demonstrate compliance with government and industry data protection regulations. Progent will assist you specify and configure policies that ProSight ESP will manage, and Progent will monitor your network and react to alarms that call for immediate action. Progent can also assist you to set up and verify a backup and disaster recovery solution like ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS) so you can recover rapidly from a destructive security attack like ransomware. Read more about Progent's ProSight Enhanced Security Protection unified physical and virtual endpoint protection and Microsoft Exchange email filtering.