24-Hour Brighton Emergency Ransomware
Virus Assessment and Repair Experts

Crypto-Ransomware : Your Feared Information Technology Catastrophe
Ransomware has become a modern cyber pandemic that represents an enterprise-level danger for businesses of all sizes poorly prepared for an assault. Multiple generations of ransomware such as Reveton, CryptoWall, Bad Rabbit, NotPetya and MongoLock cryptoworms have been out in the wild for years and still inflict havoc. Modern variants of crypto-ransomware such as Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, DopplePaymer, Conti or Egregor, along with frequent unnamed malware, not only encrypt on-line files but also infiltrate most available system restores and backups. Files replicated to the cloud can also be corrupted. In a poorly designed system, it can render automatic restore operations hopeless and basically knocks the entire system back to zero.

Getting back online applications and information after a ransomware outage becomes a sprint against time as the targeted business tries its best to stop lateral movement, eradicate the ransomware, and restore mission-critical activity. Due to the fact that ransomware takes time to spread, penetrations are frequently launched on weekends, when penetrations typically take longer to uncover. This compounds the difficulty of rapidly marshalling and organizing a capable mitigation team.

Progent offers an assortment of support services for protecting businesses from ransomware penetrations. Among these are user training to become familiar with and avoid phishing scams, ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) for remote monitoring and management, along with setup and configuration of modern security solutions with AI technology from SentinelOne to identify and quarantine zero-day cyber attacks quickly. Progent in addition can provide the services of expert ransomware recovery professionals with the skills and perseverance to restore a compromised system as urgently as possible.

Progent's Ransomware Restoration Services
Subsequent to a crypto-ransomware event, paying the ransom in cryptocurrency does not ensure that cyber hackers will return the codes to decrypt any of your data. Kaspersky Labs determined that 17% of crypto-ransomware victims never restored their information after having sent off the ransom, resulting in more losses. The risk is also costly. Ryuk ransoms are commonly a few hundred thousand dollars. For larger enterprises, the ransom demand can be in the millions of dollars. The fallback is to re-install the key elements of your Information Technology environment. Absent access to full data backups, this calls for a wide range of skills, professional team management, and the ability to work non-stop until the recovery project is complete.

For two decades, Progent has made available expert IT services for businesses throughout the United States and has earned Microsoft's Partnership certification in the Datacenter and Cloud Productivity competencies. Progent's group of subject matter experts (SMEs) includes engineers who have attained advanced certifications in important technologies including Microsoft, Cisco, VMware, and popular distributions of Linux. Progent's cyber security experts have earned internationally-renowned industry certifications including CISM, CISSP, ISACA CRISC, GIAC, and CMMC 2.0. (See Progent's certifications). Progent in addition has experience in financial systems and ERP applications. This breadth of expertise provides Progent the capability to efficiently determine important systems and re-organize the surviving pieces of your network environment following a ransomware attack and assemble them into an operational system.

Progent's recovery group utilizes top notch project management tools to orchestrate the complex restoration process. Progent appreciates the urgency of acting rapidly and in concert with a customer's management and IT resources to prioritize tasks and to get critical systems back online as fast as humanly possible.

Business Case Study: A Successful Crypto-Ransomware Virus Recovery
A business escalated to Progent after their network was crashed by the Ryuk ransomware. Ryuk is generally considered to have been deployed by Northern Korean government sponsored cybercriminals, suspected of using strategies leaked from America's National Security Agency. Ryuk targets specific companies with limited tolerance for operational disruption and is among the most profitable instances of ransomware malware. High publicized targets include Data Resolution, a California-based information warehousing and cloud computing company, and the Chicago Tribune. Progent's customer is a single-location manufacturer based in Chicago with about 500 employees. The Ryuk intrusion had brought down all company operations and manufacturing capabilities. The majority of the client's data protection had been online at the time of the intrusion and were eventually encrypted. The client was evaluating paying the ransom demand (more than two hundred thousand dollars) and wishfully thinking for good luck, but ultimately made the decision to use Progent.

Progent worked together with the customer to rapidly get our arms around and assign priority to the critical areas that had to be recovered in order to restart departmental functions:

• Active Directory
• Exchange Server
• Financials/MRP

In less than 2 days, Progent was able to recover Windows Active Directory to its pre-attack state. Progent then assisted with setup and storage recovery on the most important systems. All Exchange Server schema and configuration information were intact, which accelerated the restore of Exchange. Progent was able to locate local OST data files (Microsoft Outlook Off-Line Data Files) on staff PCs and laptops in order to recover email messages. A recent offline backup of the client's manufacturing systems made them able to restore these vital programs back on-line. Although a large amount of work was left to recover totally from the Ryuk damage, core systems were returned to operations rapidly:

Over the following month key milestones in the restoration process were accomplished in tight collaboration between Progent consultants and the customer:

• Internal web sites were restored without losing any information.
• The MailStore Exchange Server containing more than four million archived emails was spun up and accessible to users.
• CRM/Product Ordering/Invoices/AP/Accounts Receivables/Inventory modules were 100% recovered.
• A new Palo Alto 850 firewall was installed and configured.
• Most of the user workstations were back into operation.

Conclusion
A potential company-ending disaster was dodged through the efforts of hard-working experts, a wide array of IT skills, and tight collaboration. Although in analyzing the event afterwards the ransomware penetration described here would have been stopped with up-to-date security technology solutions and NIST Cybersecurity Framework best practices, staff education, and appropriate security procedures for data backup and keeping systems up to date with security patches, the reality is that government-sponsored hackers from Russia, China and elsewhere are tireless and are an ongoing threat. If you do fall victim to a crypto-ransomware incident, remember that Progent's roster of professionals has a proven track record in ransomware virus defense, removal, and information systems disaster recovery.

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

Additional Ransomware Protection Services Available from Progent
Progent can provide companies in Brighton a range of online monitoring and security assessment services to assist you to reduce your vulnerability to ransomware. These services include next-generation artificial intelligence technology to detect zero-day strains of ransomware that are able to get past legacy signature-based anti-virus products.

• ProSight Managed Service Plans: for Small to Mid-size Businesses
  Progent's ProSight Managed IT Service Packages make it feasible for small and mid-size businesses to deploy Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) technology to achieve advanced network resilience. Progent takes care of the necessary monitoring and maintenance for you, so your network scales readily without becoming an obstacle. For a low and predictable monthly subscription, Progent's experienced IT group can be your complete technology safety net. Basic plans include remote monitoring and management (RMM), cybersecurity, automatic monthly patching, and documentation. As your needs grow, you can add low-cost subscriptions to advanced solutions like as SaaS M365/Google Workspace backup and restore, Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), penetration testing, or WiFi management.

• ProSight LAN Watch: Server and Desktop Remote Monitoring and Management
  ProSight LAN Watch is Progent's server and desktop remote monitoring service that uses state-of-the-art remote monitoring and management technology to keep your IT system operating at peak levels by checking the state of vital assets that power your business network. When ProSight LAN Watch detects an issue, an alert is sent immediately to your designated IT management personnel and your Progent engineering consultant so that any potential problems can be resolved before they have a chance to impact productivity. Learn more about ProSight LAN Watch server and desktop monitoring services.

• ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM: Centralized RMM Solution for Networks, Servers, and Workstations
  ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM software offers a unified, cloud-based solution for managing your client-server infrastructure by offering an environment for performing common tedious jobs. These include health checking, patch management, automated repairs, endpoint deployment, backup and recovery, A/V response, secure remote access, standard and custom scripts, asset inventory, endpoint profile reporting, and troubleshooting support. If ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM spots a serious problem, it sends an alert to your specified IT management personnel and your assigned Progent technical consultant so potential issues can be taken care of before they impact productivity. Find out more 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 simple and inexpensive for small and mid-sized businesses to diagram, monitor, reconfigure and debug their networking appliances like routers and switches, firewalls, and wireless controllers as well as servers, client computers and other networked devices. Using state-of-the-art Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) technology, ProSight WAN Watch makes sure that network diagrams are always current, copies and displays the configuration information of virtually all devices on your network, monitors performance, and generates alerts when issues are discovered. By automating time-consuming management and troubleshooting processes, ProSight WAN Watch can knock hours off ordinary tasks like making network diagrams, expanding your network, locating devices that require critical updates, or resolving performance issues. Learn more details about ProSight WAN Watch infrastructure monitoring and management consulting.

• ProSight Reporting: Real-time and In-depth Reporting for Ticketing and Network Monitoring Applications
  ProSight Reporting is an expanding suite of real-time and in-depth reporting plug-ins designed to integrate with the top ticketing and network monitoring applications including ConnectWise Manage, ConnectWise Automate, Customer Thermometer, Auvik, and SentinelOne. ProSight Reporting uses Microsoft Graph and features color coding to highlight and contextualize key issues like spotty support follow-through or machines with missing patches. By exposing ticketing or network health concerns concisely and in near-real time, ProSight Reporting enhances productivity, reduces management overhead, and saves money. For more information, visit ProSight Reporting for ticketing and network monitoring applications.

• ProSight Data Protection Services: Backup and Disaster Recovery Services
  Progent has partnered with leading backup software companies to create ProSight Data Protection Services, a selection of management offerings that provide backup-as-a-service (BaaS). ProSight DPS products manage and track your backup operations and allow non-disruptive backup and fast recovery of important files, apps, system images, plus Hyper-V and VMware virtual machines. ProSight DPS helps you protect against data loss resulting from hardware failures, natural calamities, fire, cyber attacks such as ransomware, human mistakes, malicious employees, or application glitches. Managed services available in the ProSight Data Protection Services portfolio include ProSight Altaro VM Backup, ProSight 365 Total Backup (formerly Altaro 365 Backup), ProSight DPS ECHO Backup based on Barracuda dedicated hardware, and ProSight DPS MSP360 Hybrid Backup. Your Progent expert can help you to determine which of these 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 filtering and email encryption service that uses the technology of leading data security vendors to deliver web-based management and comprehensive protection for your email traffic. The hybrid architecture of Email Guard managed service combines a Cloud Protection Layer with an on-premises security gateway appliance to provide advanced protection against spam, viruses, Dos Attacks, Directory Harvest Attacks, and other email-based threats. The cloud filter serves as a first line of defense and blocks the vast majority of unwanted email from making it to your security perimeter. This reduces your vulnerability to external attacks and conserves system bandwidth and storage space. Email Guard's on-premises security gateway device adds a further layer of analysis for incoming email. For outbound email, the on-premises security gateway provides anti-virus and anti-spam filtering, protection against data leaks, and email encryption. The onsite security gateway can also help Microsoft Exchange Server to monitor and protect internal email that stays inside your corporate firewall. For more information, see Email Guard spam and content filtering.

• ProSight Duo Multi-Factor Authentication: ID Confirmation, Endpoint Remediation, and Protected Single Sign-on
  Progent's Duo authentication managed services incorporate Cisco's Duo cloud technology to defend against password theft through the use of two-factor authentication. Duo enables one-tap identity confirmation with iOS, Google Android, and other out-of-band devices. With 2FA, when you log into a secured application and give your password you are asked to verify who you are via a device that only you possess and that uses a separate network channel. A wide range of out-of-band devices can be utilized as this added means of authentication such as an iPhone or Android or wearable, a hardware/software token, a landline telephone, etc. You can designate several validation devices. For more information about Duo identity validation services, go to Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services.

• Outsourced/Co-managed Help Center: Call Center Managed Services
  Progent's Call Center services permit your information technology team to outsource Call Center services to Progent or split activity for Help Desk services seamlessly between your internal support team and Progent's extensive roster of IT service technicians, engineers and subject matter experts. Progent's Co-managed Help Desk Service provides a transparent extension of your core IT support resources. User interaction with the Service Desk, delivery of support services, problem escalation, trouble ticket generation and updates, efficiency metrics, and management of the support database are cohesive whether issues are taken care of by your internal support organization, by Progent, or by a combination. Learn more about Progent's outsourced/co-managed Service Center services.

• Progent Active Protection Against Ransomware: Machine Learning-based Ransomware Identification and Cleanup
  Progent's Active Defense Against Ransomware is an endpoint protection (EPP) solution that utilizes next generation behavior-based machine learning tools to defend endpoints and physical and virtual servers against modern malware attacks like ransomware and email phishing, which easily escape legacy signature-matching AV products. Progent Active Security Monitoring services safeguard on-premises and cloud-based resources and provides a single platform to address the complete threat lifecycle including filtering, infiltration detection, mitigation, remediation, and post-attack forensics. Key capabilities include one-click rollback with Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) and automatic network-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 create, maintain, find and protect information about your network infrastructure, procedures, applications, and services. You can instantly locate passwords or IP addresses and be warned about impending expirations of SSL certificates ,domains or warranties. By updating and managing your IT infrastructure documentation, you can save up to half of time spent searching for vital information about your IT network. ProSight IT Asset Management features a common location for storing and sharing all documents required for managing your business network such as recommended procedures and self-service instructions. ProSight IT Asset Management also offers advanced automation for gathering and associating IT information. Whether you're planning enhancements, doing regular maintenance, or reacting to a crisis, ProSight IT Asset Management delivers the information you require when you need it. Find out more about ProSight IT Asset Management service.

• Patch Management: Patch Management Services
  Progent's managed services for patch management offer businesses of any size a flexible and affordable alternative for assessing, testing, scheduling, applying, and documenting software and firmware updates to your ever-evolving IT system. Besides maximizing the security and functionality of your computer network, Progent's patch management services free up time for your IT team to concentrate on more strategic projects and activities that deliver maximum business value from your network. Read more about Progent's patch management support services.

• ProSight Virtual Hosting: Hosted Virtual Machines at Progent's World-class 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 fault tolerant data center on a high-performance virtual machine host configured and maintained by Progent's network support professionals. With Progent's ProSight Virtual Hosting model, the customer owns the data, the operating system platforms, and the applications. Because the system is virtualized, it can be ported easily to a different hardware environment without a time-consuming and technically risky reinstallation procedure. With ProSight Virtual Hosting, your business is not locked into one hosting provider. Find out more details about ProSight Virtual Hosting services.

• ProSight Active Security Monitoring: Endpoint Protection and Ransomware Defense
  ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) is an endpoint protection (EPP) solution that utilizes SentinelOne's cutting edge behavior-based analysis technology to defend physical and virtual endpoint devices against modern malware assaults such as ransomware and file-less exploits, which routinely get by legacy signature-based anti-virus products. ProSight Active Security Monitoring protects on-premises and cloud resources and provides a unified platform to manage the complete malware attack lifecycle including protection, infiltration detection, containment, remediation, and post-attack forensics. Top capabilities include single-click rollback with Windows VSS and automatic system-wide immunization against newly discovered threats. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. Learn more about Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring endpoint protection and ransomware defense.

• ProSight Enhanced Security Protection: Endpoint Security and Microsoft Exchange Filtering
  Progent's ProSight Enhanced Security Protection (ESP) services deliver affordable multi-layer security for physical servers and virtual machines, desktops, smartphones, and Exchange Server. ProSight ESP utilizes adaptive security and advanced heuristics for continuously monitoring and responding to cyber assaults from all attack vectors. ProSight ESP delivers two-way firewall protection, penetration alerts, device control, and web filtering via cutting-edge tools packaged within one agent accessible from a unified console. Progent's data protection and virtualization consultants can assist your business to plan and configure a ProSight ESP environment that addresses your company's unique requirements and that allows you demonstrate compliance with government and industry data security standards. Progent will assist you define and configure security policies that ProSight ESP will manage, and Progent will monitor your network and respond to alarms that require immediate action. Progent can also assist you to set up and verify a backup and restore system such as ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS) so you can get back in business quickly from a potentially disastrous cyber attack like ransomware. Learn more about Progent's ProSight Enhanced Security Protection (ESP) unified endpoint protection and Microsoft Exchange email filtering.