Wilmington Ransomware Defense and Cleanup Services

Ransomware has been widely adopted by cyber extortionists and rogue governments, posing a possibly existential threat to companies that fall victim. Modern strains of ransomware target everything, including backup, making even partial recovery a long and costly process. New strains of crypto-ransomware such as Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, Netwalker, Phobos, Snatch and Nephilim have emerged, displacing Locky, TeslaCrypt, and NotPetya in prominence, sophistication, and destructive impact.

90% of crypto-ransomware infections come from innocuous-seeming emails that have malicious hyperlinks or file attachments, and many are "zero-day" variants that can escape detection by legacy signature-matching antivirus tools. Although user training and up-front identification are critical to protect against ransomware, best practices dictate that you take for granted some malware will inevitably get through and that you put in place a strong backup mechanism that enables you to recover rapidly with little if any damage.

Progent's ProSight Ransomware Vulnerability Assessment is an ultra-affordable service centered around an online discussion with a Progent security expert experienced in ransomware defense and recovery. During this interview Progent will cooperate directly with your Wilmington IT management staff to collect pertinent information concerning your security configuration and backup environment. Progent will use this information to generate a Basic Security and Best Practices Assessment detailing how to apply best practices for implementing and managing your cybersecurity and backup solution to block or recover from a ransomware assault.

Progent's Basic Security and Best Practices Assessment highlights vital issues associated with crypto-ransomware defense and restoration recovery. The report addresses:

Security

• Effective use of administration accounts
• Appropriate NTFS and SMB (Server Message Block) permissions
• Optimal firewall setup
• Safe Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) connections
• Recommend AntiVirus (AV) filtering identification and deployment

• Split permission model for backup integrity
• Backing up critical servers including Active Directory
• Offsite backups including cloud backup to Azure

About Ransomware
Ransomware is a form of malicious software that encrypts or deletes files so they are unusable or are made publicly available. Ransomware often locks the target's computer. To avoid the carnage, the target is asked to pay a specified ransom, typically via a crypto currency like Bitcoin, within a short period of time. It is not guaranteed that delivering the extortion price will restore the lost data or prevent its exposure to the public. Files can be altered or deleted across a network depending on the victim's write permissions, and you cannot break the military-grade encryption algorithms used on the hostage files. A typical ransomware delivery package is tainted email, in which the target is tricked into interacting with by a social engineering exploit known as spear phishing. This causes the email to appear to come from a familiar sender. Another popular attack vector is a poorly protected RDP port.

CryptoLocker ushered in the modern era of crypto-ransomware in 2013, and the damage attributed to by the many strains of ransomware is estimated at billions of dollars annually, roughly doubling every other year. Notorious examples include Locky, and NotPetya. Recent headline threats like Ryuk, DoppelPaymer and TeslaCrypt are more sophisticated and have caused more damage than earlier strains. Even if your backup procedures allow your business to recover your encrypted data, you can still be threatened by exfiltration, where stolen documents are exposed to the public (known as "doxxing"). Because new versions of ransomware are launched daily, there is no certainty that traditional signature-based anti-virus filters will detect the latest attack. If threat does show up in an email, it is important that your users have been taught to be aware of social engineering tricks. Your ultimate defense is a solid process for scheduling and retaining offsite backups plus the use of dependable recovery tools.

Contact Progent About the ProSight Ransomware Readiness Audit in Wilmington
For pricing information and to find out more about how Progent's ProSight Ransomware Vulnerability Evaluation can bolster your defense against crypto-ransomware in Wilmington, call Progent at 800-462-8800 or visit Contact Progent.