Chicago Ransomware Prevention and Removal Expertise

Ransomware has become the weapon of choice for the major cyber-crime organizations and malicious states, representing a potentially existential threat to businesses that are successfully attacked. Current variations of ransomware go after all vulnerable resources, including backup, making even selective recovery a long and expensive process. Novel strains of crypto-ransomware such as Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, Mailto (aka Netwalker), DopplePaymer, Snatch and Nephilim have emerged, displacing Locky, Cerber, and Petya in prominence, elaborateness, and destructive impact.

Most ransomware breaches are caused by innocuous-looking emails with malicious hyperlinks or attachments, and a high percentage are "zero-day" attacks that can escape detection by legacy signature-based antivirus filters. While user education and up-front identification are critical to protect your network against ransomware, best practices dictate that you expect that some attacks will inevitably get through and that you deploy a solid backup solution that enables you to restore files and services quickly with little if any damage.

Progent's ProSight Ransomware Vulnerability Assessment is a low-cost service centered around an online discussion with a Progent cybersecurity expert experienced in ransomware protection and repair. In the course of this assessment Progent will work with your Chicago network management staff to collect pertinent information about your cybersecurity configuration and backup processes. Progent will use this information to create a Basic Security and Best Practices Report documenting how to adhere to leading practices for implementing and managing your security and backup solution to prevent or recover from a ransomware attack.

Progent's Basic Security and Best Practices Assessment focuses on vital areas related to crypto-ransomware prevention and restoration recovery. The review covers:

Security

• Proper use of administration accounts
• Appropriate NTFS (New Technology File System) and SMB authorizations
• Optimal firewall configuration
• Safe RDP access
• Advice about AntiVirus tools selection and deployment

• Split permission model for backup protection
• Protecting key servers such as Active Directory
• Offsite backups with cloud backup to Microsoft Azure

About Ransomware
Ransomware is a variety of malicious software that encrypts or steals files so they cannot be used or are made publicly available. Crypto-ransomware often locks the victim's computer. To prevent the damage, the victim is required to pay a specified amount of money (the ransom), typically in the form of a crypto currency like Bitcoin, within a brief time window. It is never certain that paying the ransom will restore the damaged files or avoid its publication. Files can be altered or erased throughout a network based on the victim's write permissions, and you cannot break the strong encryption technologies used on the compromised files. A typical ransomware attack vector is spoofed email, whereby the target is lured into responding to by a social engineering technique called spear phishing. This makes the email message to appear to come from a familiar source. Another popular attack vector is an improperly secured RDP port.

CryptoLocker ushered in the new age of crypto-ransomware in 2013, and the damage caused by different strains of ransomware is said to be billions of dollars annually, more than doubling every two years. Famous examples include Locky, and Petya. Current headline variants like Ryuk, DoppelPaymer and Spora are more sophisticated and have caused more damage than earlier strains. Even if your backup/recovery procedures enable your business to recover your encrypted data, you can still be threatened by so-called exfiltration, where stolen documents are made public (known as "doxxing"). Because additional variants of ransomware are launched daily, there is no certainty that conventional signature-matching anti-virus filters will detect the latest malware. If threat does show up in an email, it is important that your users have learned to identify phishing techniques. Your ultimate defense is a solid scheme for performing and keeping offsite backups and the use of reliable restoration platforms.

Contact Progent About the ProSight Ransomware Susceptibility Audit in Chicago
For pricing information and to find out more about how Progent's ProSight Crypto-Ransomware Susceptibility Report can enhance your defense against crypto-ransomware in Chicago, call Progent at 800-462-8800 or visit Contact Progent.