New Orleans Ransomware Defense and Remediation Solutions

Ransomware has been weaponized by cyber extortionists and rogue governments, posing a potentially lethal risk to businesses that are successfully attacked. Current versions of ransomware go after all vulnerable resources, including online backup, making even partial recovery a complex and expensive exercise. Novel variations of ransomware such as Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, Mailto (aka Netwalker), Phobos, Snatch and Egregor have emerged, replacing WannaCry, TeslaCrypt, and CryptoWall in notoriety, elaborateness, and destructive impact.

90% of ransomware breaches are the result of innocent-looking emails that include dangerous hyperlinks or attachments, and a high percentage are so-called "zero-day" strains that elude the defenses of legacy signature-matching antivirus (AV) filters. While user education and frontline detection are important to defend against ransomware attacks, leading practices demand that you expect that some attacks will inevitably succeed and that you prepare a solid backup mechanism that allows you to recover quickly with minimal damage.

Progent's ProSight Ransomware Vulnerability Assessment is a low-cost service centered around an online interview with a Progent cybersecurity expert skilled in ransomware defense and repair. During this assessment Progent will cooperate with your New Orleans IT managers to collect pertinent data about your security posture and backup environment. Progent will use this data to generate a Basic Security and Best Practices Report detailing how to adhere to best practices for configuring and administering your security and backup systems to block or clean up after a crypto-ransomware attack.

Progent's Basic Security and Best Practices Report highlights key areas related to ransomware prevention and restoration recovery. The report addresses:

Cybersecurity

• Correct allocation and use of administration accounts
• Correct NTFS and SMB (Server Message Block) authorizations
• Proper firewall setup
• Safe RDP connections
• Recommend AntiVirus (AV) filtering identification and deployment

• Split permission model for backup protection
• Backing up key servers including AD
• Geographically dispersed backups with cloud backup to Azure

About Ransomware
Ransomware is a type of malicious software that encrypts or deletes files so they are unusable or are publicized. Crypto-ransomware often locks the target's computer. To prevent the damage, the victim is asked to send a specified amount of money (the ransom), typically via a crypto currency like Bitcoin, within a short time window. There is no guarantee that paying the extortion price will recover the damaged data or avoid its publication. Files can be altered or erased throughout a network depending on the target's write permissions, and you cannot reverse engineer the military-grade encryption technologies used on the compromised files. A typical ransomware attack vector is booby-trapped email, in which the target is tricked into interacting with by a social engineering exploit known as spear phishing. This causes the email to look as though it came from a trusted source. Another popular attack vector is a poorly protected RDP port.

CryptoLocker opened the new age of crypto-ransomware in 2013, and the monetary losses caused by the many strains of ransomware is estimated at billions of dollars annually, roughly doubling every other year. Notorious attacks are WannaCry, and NotPetya. Recent headline variants like Ryuk, Sodinokibi and Spora are more complex and have wreaked more damage than earlier versions. Even if your backup processes enable your business to restore your ransomed files, you can still be threatened by exfiltration, where stolen documents are exposed to the public. Because additional versions of ransomware crop up every day, there is no guarantee that conventional signature-based anti-virus filters will block the latest malware. If threat does appear in an email, it is important that your users have learned to be aware of social engineering techniques. Your last line of defense is a solid process for scheduling and keeping remote backups and the deployment of reliable restoration tools.

Ask Progent About the ProSight Ransomware Vulnerability Checkup in New Orleans
For pricing information and to find out more about how Progent's ProSight Crypto-Ransomware Preparedness Testing can enhance your defense against ransomware in New Orleans, phone Progent at 800-462-8800 or see Contact Progent.