24/7 Arlington Immediate CryptoLocker
Virus Assessment and Removal Help

Ransomware : Your Feared Information Technology Disaster
Ransomware has become an escalating cyberplague that represents an existential threat for businesses poorly prepared for an attack. Versions of crypto-ransomware like the Dharma, Fusob, Bad Rabbit, Syskey and MongoLock cryptoworms have been replicating for a long time and continue to cause havoc. More recent versions of ransomware like Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, DopplePaymer, LockBit or Egregor, as well as daily as yet unnamed malware, not only do encryption of online files but also infect any accessible system protection. Files replicated to off-site disaster recovery sites can also be held hostage. In a poorly architected environment, it can make automated restoration hopeless and basically sets the datacenter back to square one.

Getting back on-line services and data following a ransomware intrusion becomes a sprint against time as the targeted business struggles to stop lateral movement, remove the crypto-ransomware, and resume business-critical activity. Due to the fact that ransomware needs time to replicate, penetrations are usually launched at night, when penetrations typically take longer to identify. This multiplies the difficulty of quickly assembling and coordinating a knowledgeable response team.

Progent has a variety of help services for securing businesses from crypto-ransomware events. These include team member training to help recognize and avoid phishing exploits, ProSight Active Security Monitoring for remote monitoring and management, plus deployment of next-generation security solutions with machine learning technology from SentinelOne to identify and quarantine zero-day threats quickly. Progent in addition can provide the assistance of seasoned ransomware recovery consultants with the talent and commitment to rebuild a breached environment as urgently as possible.

Progent's Ransomware Restoration Services
Subsequent to a crypto-ransomware penetration, sending the ransom in cryptocurrency does not guarantee that criminal gangs will provide the codes to decrypt all your data. Kaspersky estimated that 17% of ransomware victims never restored their files after having sent off the ransom, resulting in increased losses. The risk is also expensive. Ryuk ransoms are commonly several hundred thousand dollars. For larger enterprises, the ransom can reach millions. The fallback is to setup from scratch the key components of your Information Technology environment. Absent access to complete data backups, this requires a broad complement of skills, top notch team management, and the willingness to work 24x7 until the recovery project is done.

For twenty years, Progent has made available certified expert IT services for companies throughout the U.S. and has achieved Microsoft's Partnership certification status in the Datacenter and Cloud Productivity competencies. Progent's group of subject matter experts (SMEs) includes engineers who have been awarded high-level certifications in foundation technologies including Microsoft, Cisco, VMware, and major distributions of Linux. Progent's security specialists have earned internationally-renowned certifications including CISA, CISSP-ISSAP, ISACA CRISC, SANS GIAC, and CMMC 2.0. (Refer to Progent's certifications). Progent in addition has expertise with financial management and ERP applications. This breadth of experience gives Progent the ability to knowledgably identify important systems and consolidate the remaining components of your IT environment following a crypto-ransomware penetration and assemble them into a functioning system.

Progent's ransomware team uses state-of-the-art project management applications to coordinate the complicated recovery process. Progent appreciates the importance of acting quickly and together with a customer's management and IT resources to prioritize tasks and to put essential systems back online as soon as humanly possible.

Case Study: A Successful Ransomware Penetration Recovery
A small business sought out Progent after their organization was crashed by the Ryuk ransomware. Ryuk is thought to have been deployed by North Korean state cybercriminals, possibly using approaches leaked from America's NSA organization. Ryuk targets specific organizations with limited tolerance for operational disruption and is among the most lucrative versions of ransomware. High publicized organizations include Data Resolution, a California-based information warehousing and cloud computing business, and the Chicago Tribune. Progent's customer is a regional manufacturer based in the Chicago metro area and has around 500 employees. The Ryuk penetration had paralyzed all essential operations and manufacturing processes. Most of the client's data backups had been directly accessible at the beginning of the attack and were destroyed. The client was taking steps for paying the ransom demand (exceeding two hundred thousand dollars) and wishfully thinking for the best, but ultimately reached out to Progent.

Progent worked with the client to quickly understand and prioritize the most important elements that had to be recovered in order to restart departmental functions:

• Microsoft Active Directory
• Electronic Messaging
• MRP System

In less than two days, Progent was able to rebuild Active Directory to its pre-attack state. Progent then initiated setup and storage recovery on the most important systems. All Exchange Server ties and configuration information were intact, which accelerated the rebuild of Exchange. Progent was also able to locate intact OST files (Microsoft Outlook Off-Line Data Files) on team workstations in order to recover email data. A recent offline backup of the client's accounting/MRP systems made them able to return these required programs back available to users. Although major work was left to recover completely from the Ryuk event, the most important services were recovered rapidly:

During the next few weeks critical milestones in the recovery project were completed through close collaboration between Progent engineers and the customer:

• In-house web applications were restored without losing any information.
• The MailStore Microsoft Exchange Server containing more than 4 million archived messages was spun up and accessible to users.
• CRM/Orders/Invoices/Accounts Payable (AP)/Accounts Receivables/Inventory Control capabilities were 100% restored.
• A new Palo Alto 850 firewall was set up.
• Most of the desktops and laptops were functioning as before the incident.

Conclusion
A possible business disaster was dodged through the efforts of dedicated experts, a broad spectrum of technical expertise, and tight collaboration. Although in analyzing the event afterwards the ransomware virus attack detailed here would have been prevented with modern security systems and security best practices, user education, and well thought out incident response procedures for information protection and proper patching controls, the fact remains that government-sponsored criminal cyber gangs from China, Russia, North Korea and elsewhere are tireless and will continue. If you do fall victim to a crypto-ransomware incursion, feel confident that Progent's roster of experts has substantial experience in crypto-ransomware virus blocking, cleanup, and information systems disaster recovery.

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

Additional Ransomware Protection Services Offered by Progent
Progent can provide companies in Arlington a range of online monitoring and security assessment services to assist you to minimize your vulnerability to ransomware. These services include next-generation artificial intelligence technology to detect zero-day variants of crypto-ransomware that can evade legacy signature-based anti-virus products.

• ProSight Managed Service Plans: for Small to Mid-size Businesses
  Progent's ProSight Managed IT Service Plans make it possible for small and mid-size companies to utilize Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) solutions to achieve advanced network resilience. Progent takes care of the necessary monitoring and management for you, so your network scales easily without holding you back. For an affordable and predictable monthly subscription, Progent's experienced IT group can be your complete technology safety net. Basic packages include remote monitoring and management, cybersecurity, monthly patching, and documentation. As your requirements expand, you can add low-cost subscriptions to advanced options like as SaaS M365/Google Workspace backup and restore, Multi-Factor Authentication, penetration testing, or WiFi management.

• ProSight LAN Watch: Server and Desktop Monitoring
  ProSight LAN Watch is Progent's server and desktop remote monitoring service that uses state-of-the-art remote monitoring and management (RMM) techniques to keep your network operating at peak levels by tracking the health of critical computers that power your business network. When ProSight LAN Watch detects a problem, an alert is transmitted immediately to your designated IT management staff and your Progent consultant so all looming problems can be resolved before they have a chance to disrupt your network. Learn more about ProSight LAN Watch server and desktop remote monitoring consulting.

• 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 solution for monitoring and managing your client-server infrastructure by offering tools for performing common tedious jobs. These include health checking, update management, automated remediation, endpoint setup, backup and restore, anti-virus defense, remote access, standard and custom scripts, resource inventory, endpoint status reporting, and troubleshooting assistance. If ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM uncovers a serious issue, it sends an alarm to your designated IT staff and your Progent technical consultant so emerging problems can be taken care of before they interfere with your network. Find out more details about ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM server and desktop monitoring consulting.

• ProSight WAN Watch: Infrastructure Management
  ProSight WAN Watch is a network infrastructure management service that makes it easy and affordable for smaller businesses to diagram, track, enhance and troubleshoot their networking hardware such as routers and switches, firewalls, and access points as well as servers, endpoints and other devices. Using cutting-edge Remote Monitoring and Management technology, ProSight WAN Watch makes sure that infrastructure topology diagrams are always updated, copies and displays the configuration of almost all devices on your network, tracks performance, and generates notices when problems are discovered. By automating tedious management processes, ProSight WAN Watch can knock hours off ordinary tasks like network mapping, reconfiguring your network, finding appliances that need important software patches, or identifying the cause of performance problems. Find out more about ProSight WAN Watch infrastructure management consulting.

• ProSight Reporting: Real-time Reporting for Ticketing and Network Monitoring Applications
  ProSight Reporting is an expanding line of real-time and in-depth reporting plug-ins created to work with the top ticketing and network monitoring platforms including ConnectWise Manage, ConnectWise Automate, Customer Thermometer, Auvik, and SentinelOne. ProSight Reporting uses Microsoft Graph and features color coding to highlight and contextualize critical issues like inconsistent support follow-through or machines with missing patches. By identifying 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: Managed Backup and Disaster Recovery Services
  Progent has worked with leading backup software companies to create ProSight Data Protection Services, a selection of management outsourcing plans that deliver backup-as-a-service. ProSight DPS services automate and monitor your backup processes and enable transparent backup and fast restoration of important files, apps, images, plus VMs. ProSight DPS lets your business avoid data loss caused by hardware failures, natural disasters, fire, cyber attacks like ransomware, human mistakes, ill-intentioned insiders, or software glitches. Managed services available in the ProSight Data Protection Services product family include ProSight Altaro VM Backup, ProSight 365 Total Backup (formerly Altaro 365 Backup), ProSight DPS ECHO Backup based on Barracuda dedicated hardware, and ProSight MSP360 Hybrid Backup. Your Progent consultant can help you to determine which of these fully managed backup services are most appropriate for your IT environment.

• ProSight Email Guard: Inbound and Outbound Spam Filtering and Data Leakage Protection
  ProSight Email Guard is Progent's spam and virus filtering service that uses the technology of top information security vendors to provide web-based management and world-class protection for all your email traffic. The powerful architecture of Email Guard integrates cloud-based filtering with an on-premises security gateway appliance to provide complete defense against spam, viruses, Denial of Service Attacks, Directory Harvest Attacks (DHAs), and other email-based malware. The cloud filter serves as a first line of defense and blocks most threats from reaching your network firewall. This reduces your exposure to external threats and conserves system bandwidth and storage space. Email Guard's on-premises security gateway appliance provides a further level of analysis for inbound email. For outbound email, the on-premises gateway provides AV and anti-spam protection, policy-based Data Loss Prevention, and email encryption. The onsite gateway can also assist Microsoft Exchange Server to track and safeguard internal email that stays inside your security perimeter. For more information, visit Email Guard spam filtering and data leakage protection.

• ProSight Duo Two-Factor Authentication: Identity Validation, Endpoint Remediation, and Secure Single Sign-on
  Progent's Duo authentication service plans incorporate Cisco's Duo technology to protect against compromised passwords by using two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo enables single-tap identity verification with Apple iOS, Google Android, and other personal devices. Using Duo 2FA, whenever you sign into a secured application and enter your password you are requested to confirm who you are via a unit that only you possess and that uses a different network channel. A wide selection of devices can be utilized for this added means of ID validation such as a smartphone or wearable, a hardware token, a landline telephone, etc. You can designate multiple validation devices. To learn more about Duo two-factor identity validation services, refer to Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for access security.

• Progent's Outsourced/Shared Call Desk: Call Center Managed Services
  Progent's Call Center services allow your IT staff to offload Call Center services to Progent or divide responsibilities for Help Desk services seamlessly between your internal support group and Progent's extensive roster of certified IT service engineers and subject matter experts. Progent's Co-managed Help Desk Service offers a seamless extension of your in-house support resources. End user access to the Help Desk, delivery of technical assistance, issue escalation, trouble ticket creation and updates, performance metrics, and maintenance of the service database are consistent regardless of whether incidents are taken care of by your core IT support staff, by Progent, or a mix of the two. Learn more about Progent's outsourced/shared Call Desk services.

• Progent Active Defense Against Ransomware: Machine Learning-based Ransomware Identification and Cleanup
  Progent's Active Protection Against Ransomware is an endpoint protection service that utilizes next generation behavior-based machine learning tools to defend endpoint devices as well as servers and VMs against new malware assaults such as ransomware and email phishing, which routinely evade legacy signature-based AV tools. Progent Active Security Monitoring services safeguard on-premises and cloud resources and offers a unified platform to address the complete malware attack progression including filtering, infiltration detection, mitigation, cleanup, and forensics. Key features include one-click rollback with Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) and real-time system-wide immunization against new threats. Learn more about Progent's ransomware defense and cleanup 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, find and safeguard data related to your network infrastructure, processes, applications, and services. You can quickly find passwords or IP addresses and be alerted about upcoming expirations of SSLs ,domains or warranties. By cleaning up and managing your network documentation, you can save up to half of time spent trying to find vital information about your network. ProSight IT Asset Management includes a centralized repository for holding and collaborating on all documents related to managing your network infrastructure like recommended procedures and How-To's. ProSight IT Asset Management also offers a high level of automation for gathering and relating IT information. Whether you're making improvements, performing regular maintenance, or responding to an emergency, ProSight IT Asset Management gets you the data you need when you need it. Find out more about Progent's ProSight IT Asset Management service.

• Patch Management: Patch Management Services
  Progent's support services for patch management provide businesses of any size a flexible and cost-effective alternative for assessing, validating, scheduling, applying, and tracking updates to your dynamic information system. Besides maximizing the protection and reliability of your IT network, Progent's software/firmware update management services free up time for your IT staff to focus on more strategic initiatives and activities that derive the highest business value from your information network. Learn more about Progent's software/firmware update management services.

• ProSight Virtual Hosting: Hosted VMs at Progent's Tier III Data Center
  With ProSight Virtual Hosting service, a small business can have its key servers and apps hosted in a protected Tier III data center on a fast virtual machine host set up and maintained by Progent's network support experts. Under Progent's ProSight Virtual Hosting model, the client owns the data, the OS platforms, and the applications. Since the environment is virtualized, it can be moved immediately to an alternate hosting environment without a lengthy and technically risky reinstallation procedure. With ProSight Virtual Hosting, you are not tied a single hosting provider. Learn more details about ProSight Virtual Hosting services.

• ProSight Active Security Monitoring: Endpoint Protection and Ransomware Defense
  Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring is an endpoint protection solution that utilizes SentinelOne's cutting edge behavior-based machine learning technology to defend physical and virtual endpoint devices against new malware assaults such as ransomware and file-less exploits, which easily evade traditional signature-based AV products. ProSight Active Security Monitoring safeguards on-premises and cloud resources and provides a single platform to manage the entire malware attack progression including blocking, identification, containment, cleanup, and post-attack forensics. Key capabilities include single-click rollback using Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service and real-time system-wide immunization against newly discovered threats. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. Learn more about Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) endpoint protection and ransomware recovery.

• ProSight Enhanced Security Protection: Endpoint Security and Exchange Filtering
  ProSight Enhanced Security Protection services offer ultra-affordable multi-layer security for physical servers and virtual machines, desktops, mobile devices, and Exchange Server. ProSight ESP utilizes adaptive security and advanced heuristics for continuously monitoring and reacting to security assaults from all attack vectors. ProSight ESP provides two-way firewall protection, penetration alarms, device management, and web filtering via leading-edge technologies packaged within a single agent accessible from a unified console. Progent's security and virtualization experts can assist your business to design and configure a ProSight ESP deployment that meets your organization's unique needs and that allows you prove compliance with government and industry information security standards. Progent will assist you define and configure policies that ProSight ESP will manage, and Progent will monitor your IT environment and respond to alarms that require immediate action. Progent's consultants can also help you to install and test a backup and restore system like ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS) so you can get back in business quickly from a potentially disastrous cyber attack such as ransomware. Find out more about Progent's ProSight Enhanced Security Protection (ESP) unified endpoint security and Exchange email filtering.