Memphis 24-7 Critical Crypto-Ransomware
Virus Assessment and Removal Consultants

Ransomware : Your Feared Information Technology Disaster
Ransomware has become a modern cyber pandemic that presents an existential threat for businesses of all sizes poorly prepared for an attack. Different iterations of ransomware such as Reveton, Fusob, Bad Rabbit, SamSam and MongoLock cryptoworms have been running rampant for years and continue to inflict harm. More recent variants of crypto-ransomware like Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, DopplePaymer, Conti or Egregor, plus daily as yet unnamed malware, not only do encryption of on-line critical data but also infect all available system restores and backups. Information synchronized to cloud environments can also be held hostage. In a vulnerable system, it can make automated restoration useless and basically sets the entire system back to square one.

Recovering services and data following a crypto-ransomware event becomes a race against the clock as the targeted organization fights to contain, remove the ransomware, and resume enterprise-critical activity. Since ransomware takes time to spread, attacks are frequently launched on weekends, when penetrations are likely to take more time to notice. This multiplies the difficulty of promptly mobilizing and organizing a qualified response team.

Progent offers a range of help services for securing businesses from crypto-ransomware attacks. Among these are user training to help recognize and avoid phishing exploits, ProSight Active Security Monitoring for remote monitoring and management, in addition to installation of modern security appliances with machine learning technology from SentinelOne to identify and extinguish new threats automatically. Progent also offers the services of seasoned crypto-ransomware recovery professionals with the track record and commitment to rebuild a breached environment as rapidly as possible.

Progent's Ransomware Recovery Services
Following a ransomware invasion, even paying the ransom in cryptocurrency does not ensure that cyber hackers will provide the needed codes to unencrypt any or all of your data. Kaspersky Labs ascertained that 17% of ransomware victims never restored their files after having sent off the ransom, resulting in additional losses. The risk is also very costly. Ryuk ransoms are typically a few hundred thousand dollars. For larger enterprises, the ransom can reach millions of dollars. The fallback is to setup from scratch the essential components of your IT environment. Absent access to essential data backups, this requires a wide range of IT skills, professional project management, and the willingness to work 24x7 until the task is done.

For decades, Progent has provided professional IT services for businesses across the United States and has earned Microsoft's Partnership certification status in the Datacenter and Cloud Productivity competencies. Progent's pool of subject matter experts includes professionals who have attained high-level industry certifications in leading technologies including Microsoft, Cisco, VMware, and major distributions of Linux. Progent's cybersecurity engineers have garnered internationally-renowned industry certifications including CISA, CISSP-ISSAP, CRISC, GIAC, and CMMC 2.0. (Refer to Progent's certifications). Progent in addition has expertise with financial systems and ERP applications. This breadth of expertise provides Progent the ability to efficiently understand critical systems and integrate the surviving pieces of your IT environment after a ransomware penetration and assemble them into a functioning system.

Progent's recovery team deploys top notch project management systems to orchestrate the complicated recovery process. Progent understands the urgency of acting swiftly and together with a customer's management and IT resources to assign priority to tasks and to put the most important services back on-line as soon as humanly possible.

Business Case Study: A Successful Crypto-Ransomware Intrusion Response
A business hired Progent after their network system was brought down by Ryuk ransomware virus. Ryuk is believed to have been launched by North Korean state sponsored criminal gangs, suspected of adopting technology exposed from the U.S. NSA organization. Ryuk goes after specific businesses with limited ability to sustain disruption and is among the most lucrative versions of ransomware. High publicized victims include Data Resolution, a California-based information warehousing and cloud computing firm, and the Chicago Tribune. Progent's client is a regional manufacturing company headquartered in the Chicago metro area with about 500 staff members. The Ryuk attack had shut down all company operations and manufacturing capabilities. Most of the client's data protection had been on-line at the beginning of the attack and were damaged. The client was evaluating paying the ransom (in excess of $200,000) and wishfully thinking for good luck, but in the end reached out to Progent.

Progent worked together with the client to rapidly understand and prioritize the mission critical applications that had to be addressed to make it possible to resume business operations:

• Active Directory
• Exchange Server
• Accounting and Manufacturing Software

Within 2 days, Progent was able to recover Active Directory services to its pre-penetration state. Progent then performed setup and hard drive recovery on mission critical applications. All Microsoft Exchange Server ties and attributes were usable, which accelerated the restore of Exchange. Progent was able to collect local OST files (Outlook Email Off-Line Folder Files) on staff PCs to recover mail data. A recent offline backup of the customer's accounting/ERP software made it possible to return these required applications back servicing users. Although major work remained to recover totally from the Ryuk event, the most important systems were restored quickly:

Throughout the next month important milestones in the recovery project were made through tight cooperation between Progent engineers and the customer:

• Internal web sites were brought back up without losing any information.
• The MailStore Microsoft Exchange Server exceeding four million historical messages was brought on-line and available for users.
• CRM/Orders/Invoicing/Accounts Payable (AP)/Accounts Receivables (AR)/Inventory capabilities were fully operational.
• A new Palo Alto 850 security appliance was installed.
• 90% of the desktop computers were being used by staff.

Conclusion
A possible business extinction catastrophe was dodged by hard-working experts, a broad array of subject matter expertise, and tight collaboration. Although upon completion of forensics the ransomware incident described here would have been blocked with advanced cyber security systems and best practices, staff education, and well thought out security procedures for information protection and keeping systems up to date with security patches, the fact is that state-sponsored criminal cyber gangs from China, 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 roster of professionals has a proven track record in ransomware virus defense, mitigation, and file disaster recovery.

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

Additional Ransomware Protection Services Offered by Progent
Progent can provide companies in Memphis a variety of online monitoring and security assessment services designed to assist you to minimize your vulnerability to ransomware. These services incorporate modern machine learning technology to detect new variants of crypto-ransomware that are able to get past legacy signature-based anti-virus products.

• ProSight LAN Watch: Server and Desktop Remote Monitoring
  ProSight LAN Watch is Progent's server and desktop monitoring managed service that incorporates state-of-the-art remote monitoring and management technology to help keep your network running efficiently by checking the state of critical assets that drive your business network. When ProSight LAN Watch uncovers an issue, an alarm is transmitted immediately to your specified IT personnel and your assigned Progent engineering consultant so that any looming issues can be resolved before they can impact your network. Find out 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 offers a unified, cloud-driven platform for managing your network, server, and desktop devices by providing an environment for performing common tedious jobs. These can include health monitoring, patch management, automated remediation, endpoint configuration, backup and recovery, A/V defense, remote access, built-in and custom scripts, asset inventory, endpoint status reports, and debugging support. When ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM spots a serious incident, it transmits an alarm to your designated IT personnel and your assigned Progent consultant so that potential issues can be taken care of before they interfere with productivity. Find out more details about ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM server and desktop monitoring services.

• ProSight WAN Watch: Network Infrastructure Remote Monitoring and Management
  Progent's ProSight WAN Watch is an infrastructure monitoring and management service that makes it easy and affordable for small and mid-sized businesses to map, track, optimize and troubleshoot their networking appliances like switches, firewalls, and wireless controllers plus servers, endpoints and other networked devices. Incorporating state-of-the-art Remote Monitoring and Management technology, WAN Watch ensures that infrastructure topology maps are always updated, copies and displays the configuration of virtually all devices on your network, monitors performance, and generates alerts when issues are detected. By automating time-consuming management activities, ProSight WAN Watch can knock hours off common chores like network mapping, reconfiguring your network, locating appliances that need important software patches, or isolating performance issues. Learn more about ProSight WAN Watch network infrastructure management consulting.

• ProSight Reporting: In-depth Reporting for Ticketing and Network Monitoring Platforms
  ProSight Reporting is a growing line of real-time and in-depth management reporting plug-ins created to integrate with the leading ticketing and network monitoring programs including ConnectWise Manage, ConnectWise Automate, Customer Thermometer, Auvik, and SentinelOne. ProSight Reporting uses Microsoft Graph and features color coding to surface and contextualize key issues such as inconsistent support follow-up or endpoints with missing patches. By exposing ticketing or network health concerns clearly and in near-real time, ProSight Reporting improves productivity, lowers management hassle, and saves money. For more information, visit ProSight Reporting for ticketing and network monitoring platforms.

• ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS): Backup and Recovery Services
  Progent has partnered with leading backup technology companies to create ProSight Data Protection Services, a family of subscription-based management offerings that deliver backup-as-a-service (BaaS). ProSight DPS services manage and monitor your data backup processes and enable non-disruptive backup and fast recovery of important files/folders, applications, images, and Hyper-V and VMware virtual machines. ProSight DPS helps your business protect against data loss resulting from hardware failures, natural calamities, fire, malware such as ransomware, human mistakes, ill-intentioned employees, or application bugs. Managed backup services in the ProSight Data Protection Services product line include ProSight Altaro VM Backup, ProSight 365 Total Backup (formerly Altaro 365 Backup), ProSight ECHO Backup based on Barracuda purpose-built storage, and ProSight DPS MSP360 Cloud and On-prem Backup. Your Progent expert can help you to identify which of these managed 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 incorporates the infrastructure of leading data security companies to deliver web-based management and world-class protection for your inbound and outbound email. The hybrid architecture of Progent's Email Guard managed service combines a Cloud Protection Layer with an on-premises security gateway device to offer complete defense against spam, viruses, Dos Attacks, DHAs, and other email-based malware. The cloud filter serves as a preliminary barricade and keeps the vast majority of threats from reaching your security perimeter. This reduces your vulnerability to inbound threats and saves system bandwidth and storage. Email Guard's on-premises security gateway appliance provides a deeper layer of inspection for incoming email. For outgoing email, the onsite gateway offers anti-virus and anti-spam protection, policy-based Data Loss Prevention, and email encryption. The on-premises security gateway can also assist Exchange Server to monitor and protect internal email that originates and ends inside your corporate firewall. For more details, visit ProSight Email Guard spam and content filtering.

• ProSight Duo Multi-Factor Authentication: Access Security, Endpoint Remediation, and Protected Single Sign-on (SSO)
  Progent's Duo MFA service plans utilize Cisco's Duo cloud technology to protect against compromised passwords through the use of two-factor authentication. Duo supports single-tap identity verification on Apple iOS, Google Android, and other personal devices. Using 2FA, whenever you log into a protected application and give your password you are asked to confirm who you are via a device that only you have and that is accessed using a different network channel. A wide range of out-of-band devices can be used for this added form of authentication such as an iPhone or Android or wearable, a hardware token, a landline phone, etc. You can register several verification devices. To find out more about ProSight Duo identity validation services, see Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services.

• Outsourced/Co-managed Service Desk: Help Desk Managed Services
  Progent's Call Desk managed services allow your IT group to outsource Support Desk services to Progent or split activity for support services seamlessly between your in-house network support group and Progent's nationwide roster of IT support engineers and subject matter experts. Progent's Shared Help Desk Service offers a smooth extension of your core network support organization. Client interaction with the Help Desk, delivery of technical assistance, problem escalation, trouble ticket generation and updates, efficiency measurement, and management of the service database are cohesive whether issues are taken care of by your core support organization, by Progent's team, or a mix of the two. Read more about Progent's outsourced/co-managed Service Desk services.

• Active Protection Against Ransomware: AI-based Ransomware Identification and Cleanup
  Progent's Active Protection Against Ransomware is an endpoint protection managed service that incorporates next generation behavior machine learning tools to guard endpoints and physical and virtual servers against modern malware assaults such as ransomware and email phishing, which routinely evade legacy signature-matching AV products. 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, mitigation, remediation, and post-attack forensics. Key capabilities include one-click rollback using Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service and automatic network-wide immunization against new threats. Find out more about Progent's ransomware protection 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 allows you to create, maintain, find and safeguard information about your network infrastructure, processes, applications, and services. You can quickly locate passwords or serial numbers and be alerted about impending expirations of SSL certificates or domains. By cleaning up and organizing your IT documentation, you can save as much as 50% of time thrown away searching for vital information about your network. ProSight IT Asset Management includes a common location for holding and sharing all documents required for managing your business network like standard operating procedures (SOPs) and How-To's. ProSight IT Asset Management also offers advanced automation for collecting and relating IT information. Whether you're making improvements, performing maintenance, or reacting to a crisis, ProSight IT Asset Management gets you the information you require when you need it. Find out more about ProSight IT Asset Management service.

• Progent's Patch Management: Software/Firmware Update Management Services
  Progent's managed services for patch management provide organizations of any size a flexible and affordable alternative for evaluating, validating, scheduling, applying, and tracking updates to your ever-evolving information network. In addition to optimizing the security and functionality of your IT network, Progent's software/firmware update management services allow your in-house IT staff to concentrate on line-of-business initiatives and activities that deliver the highest business value from your network. Read more about Progent's software/firmware update management 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 business can have its critical servers and applications hosted in a protected Tier III data center on a fast virtual host configured and managed by Progent's network support experts. Under Progent's ProSight Virtual Hosting service model, the client owns the data, the operating system platforms, and the apps. Since the environment is virtualized, it can be moved immediately to a different hosting solution without a time-consuming and difficult reinstallation process. With ProSight Virtual Hosting, your business is not tied a single hosting provider. Find out more details about ProSight Virtual Hosting services.

• ProSight Active Security Monitoring: Endpoint Protection and Ransomware Defense
  ProSight Active Security Monitoring is an endpoint protection (EPP) service that utilizes SentinelOne's next generation behavior machine learning tools to guard physical and virtual endpoint devices against new malware attacks such as ransomware and email phishing, which easily escape legacy signature-matching AV tools. ProSight Active Security Monitoring safeguards on-premises and cloud-based resources and provides a unified platform to manage the complete threat lifecycle including protection, infiltration detection, containment, remediation, and forensics. Key features include single-click rollback with Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service and automatic system-wide immunization against newly discovered attacks. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. Learn more about Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring endpoint protection and ransomware defense.

• ProSight Enhanced Security Protection: Endpoint Security and Exchange Email Filtering
  Progent's ProSight Enhanced Security Protection managed services deliver economical in-depth protection for physical servers and virtual machines, desktops, smartphones, and Exchange email. ProSight ESP utilizes contextual security and advanced machine learning for round-the-clock monitoring and responding to security assaults from all vectors. ProSight ESP delivers firewall protection, intrusion alarms, endpoint control, and web filtering through cutting-edge tools incorporated within one agent accessible from a single control. Progent's data protection and virtualization consultants can assist your business to plan and configure a ProSight ESP deployment that addresses your organization's specific requirements and that helps you prove compliance with legal and industry information security standards. Progent will assist you specify and implement policies that ProSight ESP will enforce, and Progent will monitor your IT environment and respond to alarms that require immediate attention. Progent can also help your company to install and verify a backup and restore solution like ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS) 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 security and Microsoft Exchange email filtering.