24x7x365 Cleveland Urgent Crypto-Ransomware
Computer Virus Detection and Removal Experts

Ransomware : Your Crippling IT Catastrophe
Ransomware has become a modern cyberplague that represents an existential danger for businesses of all sizes poorly prepared for an attack. Different versions of crypto-ransomware such as Reveton, Fusob, Locky, NotPetya and MongoLock cryptoworms have been around for years and continue to cause destruction. Newer strains of ransomware such as Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, Netwalker, Conti or Nephilim, as well as daily unnamed viruses, not only do encryption of online data files but also infect many available system protection mechanisms. Information synched to cloud environments can also be ransomed. In a poorly designed environment, it can make automated restore operations hopeless and basically sets the network back to square one.

Getting back services and data following a ransomware attack becomes a race against the clock as the victim struggles to stop the spread, remove the ransomware, and restore business-critical activity. Due to the fact that crypto-ransomware needs time to spread, penetrations are usually launched on weekends and holidays, when successful penetrations in many cases take longer to discover. This compounds the difficulty of promptly mobilizing and organizing an experienced mitigation team.

Progent makes available a range of solutions for protecting organizations from ransomware penetrations. These include team member education to help recognize and not fall victim to phishing exploits, ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) for remote monitoring and management, plus deployment of next-generation security solutions with machine learning capabilities from SentinelOne to identify and disable day-zero cyber threats automatically. Progent in addition can provide the services of veteran ransomware recovery consultants with the track record and perseverance to rebuild a breached environment as quickly as possible.

Progent's Ransomware Recovery Services
Subsequent to a crypto-ransomware event, sending the ransom in cryptocurrency does not guarantee that cyber hackers will respond with the needed keys to decrypt all your files. Kaspersky ascertained that 17% of ransomware victims never restored their data even after having paid the ransom, resulting in increased losses. The gamble is also very costly. Ryuk ransoms are typically a few hundred thousand dollars. For larger enterprises, the ransom demand can reach millions of dollars. The fallback is to re-install the critical elements of your Information Technology environment. Without access to full data backups, this requires a broad range of skills, top notch project management, and the willingness to work continuously until the task is complete.

For twenty years, Progent has offered certified expert Information Technology services for companies 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 includes consultants who have attained high-level industry certifications in leading technologies such as Microsoft, Cisco, VMware, and major distributions of Linux. Progent's cyber security consultants have earned internationally-renowned industry certifications including CISA, CISSP, ISACA CRISC, GIAC, and CMMC 2.0. (See Progent's certifications). Progent in addition has expertise with financial management and ERP software solutions. This breadth of experience affords Progent the skills to quickly understand critical systems and integrate the surviving components of your network environment following a ransomware attack and configure them into an operational network.

Progent's security team of experts uses best of breed project management systems to orchestrate the sophisticated recovery process. Progent appreciates the urgency of acting rapidly and together with a client's management and IT staff to prioritize tasks and to get essential services back on line as fast as possible.

Client Case Study: A Successful Ransomware Penetration Recovery
A small business sought out Progent after their network system was brought down by Ryuk ransomware virus. Ryuk is thought to have been developed by Northern Korean government sponsored cybercriminals, suspected of adopting algorithms leaked from America's National Security Agency. Ryuk attacks specific companies with little tolerance for operational disruption and is among the most lucrative iterations of ransomware. Well Known victims include Data Resolution, a California-based data warehousing and cloud computing company, and the Chicago Tribune. Progent's customer is a single-location manufacturing business based in the Chicago metro area with around 500 employees. The Ryuk attack had frozen all essential operations and manufacturing capabilities. The majority of the client's data protection had been online at the time of the intrusion and were destroyed. The client was evaluating paying the ransom demand (exceeding two hundred thousand dollars) and praying for the best, but ultimately reached out to Progent.

Progent worked with the client to quickly determine and assign priority to the mission critical systems that needed to be recovered to make it possible to restart business operations:

• Active Directory (AD)
• Microsoft Exchange Email
• MRP System

Within 48 hours, Progent was able to recover Active Directory services to its pre-attack state. Progent then accomplished setup and hard drive recovery on critical servers. All Exchange schema and configuration information were usable, which greatly helped the rebuild of Exchange. Progent was able to assemble local OST files (Microsoft Outlook Offline Data Files) on user desktop computers in order to recover email data. A recent off-line backup of the businesses manufacturing systems made them able to restore these essential programs back servicing users. Although significant work needed to be completed to recover fully from the Ryuk virus, critical services were recovered quickly:

Over the next month important milestones in the restoration project were completed in close cooperation between Progent engineers and the customer:

• Internal web applications were brought back up with no loss of information.
• The MailStore Exchange Server exceeding 4 million archived messages was brought on-line and available for users.
• CRM/Orders/Invoices/AP/Accounts Receivables (AR)/Inventory Control capabilities were 100 percent restored.
• A new Palo Alto Networks 850 security appliance was set up and programmed.
• Most of the user PCs were operational.

Conclusion
A likely business catastrophe was avoided by dedicated experts, a broad range of technical expertise, and close teamwork. Although in hindsight the crypto-ransomware penetration described here could have been identified and blocked with current security systems and NIST Cybersecurity Framework best practices, user training, and well designed security procedures for data protection and proper patching controls, the reality is that state-sponsored criminal cyber gangs from Russia, China and elsewhere are tireless and are not going away. If you do fall victim to a crypto-ransomware penetration, remember that Progent's roster of experts has a proven track record in ransomware virus blocking, remediation, and file restoration.

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

Additional Crypto-Ransomware Protection Services Available from Progent
Progent offers companies in Cleveland a range of online monitoring and security assessment services designed to assist you to reduce the threat from crypto-ransomware. These services incorporate next-generation artificial intelligence capability to detect zero-day variants of crypto-ransomware that are able to escape detection by 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 realistic for small and mid-size businesses to utilize Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) technology to create leading-edge network resilience. Progent takes care of the necessary monitoring and maintenance for you, so your network expands smoothly without holding you back. For an affordable and predictable monthly subscription, Progent's experienced IT team can be your complete technology safety net. Basic plans include remote monitoring and management (RMM), security, monthly patching, and reporting. As your requirements expand, you can add low-cost subscriptions to best-of-breed solutions such as SaaS M365/Google Workspace backup and restore, Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), penetration testing, or WiFi management.

• ProSight LAN Watch: Server and Desktop Monitoring
  ProSight LAN Watch is Progent's server and desktop monitoring service that uses state-of-the-art remote monitoring and management technology to help keep your network operating at peak levels by checking the health of critical assets that drive your information system. When ProSight LAN Watch uncovers an issue, an alert is sent immediately to your designated IT personnel and your Progent consultant so that all potential issues can be resolved before they have a chance to disrupt your network. Find out more about ProSight LAN Watch server and desktop monitoring services.

• ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM: Unified RMM for Networks, Servers, and Workstations
  ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM software delivers a unified, cloud-driven platform for managing your network, server, and desktop devices by providing tools for performing common time-consuming jobs. These include health checking, patch management, automated repairs, endpoint configuration, backup and restore, A/V response, remote access, built-in and custom scripts, asset inventory, endpoint status reports, and debugging assistance. If ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM identifies a serious incident, it transmits an alert to your specified IT management staff and your assigned Progent technical consultant so that emerging problems can be taken care of before they interfere with productivity. Find out more about ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM server and desktop monitoring services.

• ProSight WAN Watch: Network Infrastructure Management
  Progent's ProSight WAN Watch is a network infrastructure monitoring and management service that makes it easy and inexpensive for small and mid-sized organizations to map, track, reconfigure and troubleshoot their networking appliances such as switches, firewalls, and load balancers as well as servers, endpoints and other networked devices. Incorporating cutting-edge Remote Monitoring and Management technology, ProSight WAN Watch ensures that network diagrams are always updated, copies and manages the configuration of almost all devices connected to your network, monitors performance, and sends notices when potential issues are discovered. By automating complex management and troubleshooting processes, ProSight WAN Watch can cut hours off ordinary chores such as network mapping, reconfiguring your network, locating appliances that need critical updates, or isolating performance problems. Find out more about ProSight WAN Watch infrastructure monitoring and management consulting.

• ProSight Reporting: In-depth Reporting for Ticketing and Network Monitoring Platforms
  ProSight Reporting is a growing family of real-time management reporting tools created to integrate with the top ticketing and network monitoring platforms such as ConnectWise Manage, ConnectWise Automate, Customer Thermometer, Auvik, and SentinelOne. ProSight Reporting incorporates Microsoft Graph and features color coding to highlight and contextualize critical issues such as inconsistent support follow-through or endpoints with missing patches. By exposing ticketing or network health concerns concisely and in near-real time, ProSight Reporting enhances productivity, lowers management overhead, and saves money. For details, see ProSight Reporting for ticketing and network monitoring applications.

• ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS): Backup and Disaster Recovery Services
  Progent has partnered with advanced backup software providers to create ProSight Data Protection Services, a selection of management offerings that provide backup-as-a-service. ProSight DPS products manage and monitor your data backup operations and allow non-disruptive backup and fast recovery of vital files/folders, apps, images, plus virtual machines. ProSight DPS lets you recover from data loss resulting from equipment breakdown, natural disasters, fire, cyber attacks like ransomware, user error, ill-intentioned insiders, or application bugs. Managed backup services available in the ProSight DPS portfolio include ProSight Altaro VM Backup, ProSight 365 Total Backup (formerly Altaro 365 Backup), ProSight ECHO Backup based on Barracuda dedicated storage, and ProSight MSP360 Cloud and On-prem Backup. Your Progent consultant can help you to determine which of these fully managed backup services are best suited 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 incorporates the infrastructure of top data security companies to deliver web-based management and world-class protection for your inbound and outbound email. The powerful structure of Progent's Email Guard combines cloud-based filtering with a local security gateway device to offer advanced protection against spam, viruses, Denial of Service (DoS) Attacks, DHAs, and other email-borne malware. Email Guard's cloud filter acts as a preliminary barricade and blocks the vast majority of threats from making it to your network firewall. This reduces your vulnerability to inbound attacks and saves network bandwidth and storage space. Email Guard's onsite security gateway device adds a further level of analysis for inbound email. For outbound email, the local security gateway provides AV and anti-spam filtering, policy-based Data Loss Prevention, and email encryption. The local gateway can also help Exchange Server to monitor and protect internal email traffic that originates and ends within your corporate firewall. For more details, 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 MFA service plans incorporate Cisco's Duo cloud technology to protect against stolen passwords by using two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo supports one-tap identity verification with iOS, Google Android, and other out-of-band devices. With 2FA, when you log into a protected application and give your password you are requested to verify your identity via a unit that only you have and that uses a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A broad selection of devices can be utilized as this second means of authentication such as an iPhone or Android or watch, a hardware/software token, a landline phone, etc. You may designate multiple validation devices. For more information about Duo identity authentication services, visit Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for access security.

• Progent's Outsourced/Shared Call Center: Support Desk Managed Services
  Progent's Support Center services enable your IT group to offload Support Desk services to Progent or divide activity for Service Desk support transparently between your in-house network support staff and Progent's nationwide roster of IT support engineers and subject matter experts (SMEs). Progent's Shared Service Desk offers a seamless extension of your in-house network support resources. Client access to the Help Desk, delivery of support, problem escalation, trouble ticket creation and updates, efficiency measurement, and maintenance of the service database are cohesive regardless of whether issues are taken care of by your core IT support resources, by Progent, or by a combination. Read more about Progent's outsourced/shared Help Center services.

• Active Protection Against Ransomware: AI-based Ransomware Identification and Remediation
  Progent's Active Protection Against Ransomware is an endpoint protection managed service that utilizes next generation behavior-based machine learning tools to guard endpoints as well as physical and virtual servers against modern malware attacks such as ransomware and email phishing, which easily escape traditional signature-based anti-virus tools. Progent Active Security Monitoring services safeguard on-premises and cloud-based resources and provides a single platform to manage the complete malware attack progression including protection, detection, mitigation, cleanup, and forensics. Key features include one-click rollback with Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) and automatic network-wide immunization against newly discovered attacks. Learn more about Progent's ransomware protection and recovery 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, retrieve and safeguard information about your network infrastructure, processes, applications, and services. You can instantly locate passwords or serial numbers and be warned about impending expirations of SSL certificates or warranties. By cleaning up and organizing your network documentation, you can save up to half of time wasted looking for vital information about your IT network. ProSight IT Asset Management includes a common location for holding and sharing all documents required for managing your business network such as standard operating procedures (SOPs) and self-service instructions. ProSight IT Asset Management also offers advanced automation for gathering and relating IT information. Whether you're making enhancements, performing regular maintenance, or responding to a crisis, ProSight IT Asset Management delivers the information you require when you need it. Find out more about Progent's ProSight IT Asset Management service.

• Patch Management: Patch Management Services
  Progent's managed services for patch management provide businesses of any size a versatile and affordable solution for evaluating, validating, scheduling, applying, and tracking software and firmware updates to your ever-evolving IT system. Besides maximizing the protection and reliability of your IT network, Progent's patch management services allow your IT team to concentrate on line-of-business initiatives and activities that deliver maximum business value from your information network. Find out more about Progent's software/firmware update management services.

• ProSight Virtual Hosting: Hosted Virtual Machines at Progent's World-class Data Center
  With ProSight Virtual Hosting service, a small or mid-size business can have its critical servers and apps hosted in a secure Tier III data center on a high-performance virtual host configured and managed by Progent's network support professionals. With the ProSight Virtual Hosting service model, the client retains ownership of the data, the operating system software, and the apps. Because the environment is virtualized, it can be moved immediately to an alternate hardware environment without a time-consuming and technically risky reinstallation procedure. With ProSight Virtual Hosting, your business is not locked into one hosting provider. Learn more about ProSight Virtual Hosting services.

• ProSight Active Security Monitoring: Endpoint Protection and Ransomware Defense
  ProSight Active Security Monitoring is an endpoint protection (EPP) service that incorporates SentinelOne's next generation behavior machine learning tools to guard physical and virtual endpoint devices against modern malware assaults like ransomware and file-less exploits, which routinely evade traditional signature-matching anti-virus products. ProSight ASM protects local and cloud resources and offers a single platform to address the complete threat progression including filtering, detection, containment, remediation, and post-attack forensics. Top capabilities include one-click rollback using Windows VSS and real-time network-wide immunization against newly discovered threats. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. Learn more about Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring next-generation endpoint protection and ransomware defense.

• ProSight Enhanced Security Protection: Physical and Virtual Endpoint Security and Microsoft Exchange Filtering
  Progent's ProSight Enhanced Security Protection services offer affordable in-depth security for physical servers and VMs, workstations, smartphones, and Exchange email. ProSight ESP utilizes adaptive security and advanced machine learning for round-the-clock monitoring and responding to security threats from all vectors. ProSight ESP provides two-way firewall protection, penetration alerts, endpoint management, and web filtering through cutting-edge tools packaged within one agent accessible from a single control. Progent's security and virtualization consultants can assist your business to design and implement a ProSight ESP environment that meets your organization's specific requirements and that helps you prove compliance with government and industry information protection regulations. Progent will assist you define and configure policies that ProSight ESP will enforce, and Progent will monitor your network and react to alarms that call for immediate action. Progent can also help you to set up and test a backup and restore system such as ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS) so you can get back in business rapidly from a destructive security attack like ransomware. Learn more about Progent's ProSight Enhanced Security Protection unified physical and virtual endpoint security and Microsoft Exchange email filtering.