Florianópolis 24-7 Immediate Crypto
Malware Damage Assessment and Remediation Support

Crypto-Ransomware : Your Feared IT Nightmare
Crypto-Ransomware has become an escalating cyber pandemic that represents an enterprise-level danger for organizations vulnerable to an attack. Multiple generations of crypto-ransomware such as Reveton, WannaCry, Bad Rabbit, Syskey and MongoLock cryptoworms have been out in the wild for years and continue to inflict harm. Recent versions of crypto-ransomware like Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, DopplePaymer, Conti or Nephilim, as well as frequent as yet unnamed malware, not only do encryption of on-line data files but also infiltrate any available system restores and backups. Files synchronized to the cloud can also be corrupted. In a poorly designed system, this can render any restore operations useless and basically sets the network back to square one.

Getting back on-line applications and data following a ransomware outage becomes a sprint against the clock as the victim tries its best to contain the damage, remove the ransomware, and resume business-critical operations. Since crypto-ransomware requires time to replicate, attacks are frequently launched at night, when penetrations typically take longer to discover. This compounds the difficulty of promptly mobilizing and coordinating an experienced response team.

Progent makes available a variety of support services for securing organizations from crypto-ransomware attacks. These include team education to become familiar with and not fall victim to phishing scams, ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) for remote monitoring and management, plus setup and configuration of modern security appliances with artificial intelligence technology from SentinelOne to discover and disable zero-day threats quickly. Progent in addition offers the services of veteran ransomware recovery consultants with the talent and commitment to restore a compromised system as rapidly as possible.

Progent's Crypto-Ransomware Restoration Services
Soon after a ransomware invasion, paying the ransom in cryptocurrency does not provide any assurance that cyber hackers will respond with the keys to unencrypt any or all of your data. Kaspersky estimated that seventeen percent of crypto-ransomware victims never restored their information after having sent off the ransom, resulting in increased losses. The risk is also very costly. Ryuk ransoms are typically several hundred thousand dollars. For larger organizations, the ransom demand can reach millions of dollars. The fallback is to setup from scratch the critical components of your Information Technology environment. Without access to complete information backups, this calls for a wide range of skills, well-coordinated project management, and the capability to work non-stop until the job is over.

For twenty years, Progent has made available certified expert Information Technology services for businesses throughout the US and has achieved Microsoft's Partnership certification in the Datacenter and Cloud Productivity competencies. Progent's group of subject matter experts (SMEs) includes professionals who have been awarded high-level industry certifications in foundation technologies including Microsoft, Cisco, VMware, and popular distributions of Linux. Progent's security engineers have garnered internationally-renowned industry certifications including CISA, CISSP-ISSAP, ISACA CRISC, SANS GIAC, and CMMC 2.0. (See Progent's certifications). Progent also has experience in accounting and ERP applications. This breadth of expertise provides Progent the ability to quickly determine important systems and integrate the remaining components of your Information Technology system following a ransomware event and configure them into a functioning network.

Progent's ransomware team of experts uses top notch project management systems to coordinate the complex restoration process. Progent appreciates the importance of working quickly and in unison with a client's management and IT team members to prioritize tasks and to put essential applications back online as fast as humanly possible.

Customer Case Study: A Successful Crypto-Ransomware Incident Restoration
A client engaged Progent after their network system was taken over by the Ryuk ransomware virus. Ryuk is believed to have been deployed by North Korean state sponsored hackers, possibly adopting techniques exposed from the U.S. National Security Agency. Ryuk goes after specific businesses with little room for disruption and is among the most lucrative incarnations of ransomware. High publicized targets include Data Resolution, a California-based data warehousing and cloud computing firm, and the Chicago Tribune. Progent's customer is a single-location manufacturing company headquartered in Chicago with around 500 workers. The Ryuk intrusion had shut down all company operations and manufacturing processes. Most of the client's backups had been on-line at the beginning of the intrusion and were destroyed. The client was evaluating paying the ransom demand (more than two hundred thousand dollars) and praying for the best, but ultimately made the decision to use Progent.

Progent worked hand in hand the client to quickly get our arms around and assign priority to the key areas that had to be recovered in order to resume company functions:

• Active Directory (AD)
• Microsoft Exchange Server
• Accounting and Manufacturing Software

In less than 2 days, Progent was able to recover Active Directory services to its pre-virus state. Progent then charged ahead with rebuilding and storage recovery of mission critical applications. All Microsoft Exchange Server data and attributes were intact, which greatly helped the rebuild of Exchange. Progent was able to locate non-encrypted OST files (Microsoft Outlook Off-Line Data Files) on staff desktop computers to recover mail messages. A recent offline backup of the client's accounting/MRP software made them able to return these vital services back on-line. Although significant work needed to be completed to recover totally from the Ryuk event, critical services were restored quickly:

During the following few weeks key milestones in the recovery process were made in tight cooperation between Progent team members and the client:

• Internal web applications were restored with no loss of data.
• The MailStore Exchange Server exceeding 4 million archived emails was restored to operations and available for users.
• CRM/Customer Orders/Invoices/Accounts Payable (AP)/Accounts Receivables (AR)/Inventory modules were completely functional.
• A new Palo Alto Networks 850 security appliance was set up.
• 90% of the desktops and laptops were being used by staff.

Conclusion
A potential company-ending catastrophe was avoided due to hard-working experts, a broad range of subject matter expertise, and close teamwork. Although in retrospect the crypto-ransomware virus attack detailed here could have been prevented with modern cyber security technology and security best practices, user education, and properly executed incident response procedures for data backup and proper patching controls, the fact remains that government-sponsored criminal cyber gangs from China, Russia, North Korea and elsewhere are tireless and are an ongoing threat. If you do fall victim to a crypto-ransomware virus, remember that Progent's roster of experts has proven experience in ransomware virus blocking, mitigation, and data restoration.

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

Additional Crypto-Ransomware Protection Services Available from Progent
Progent offers companies in Florianópolis a range of online monitoring and security evaluation services to help you to reduce your vulnerability to ransomware. These services include next-generation machine learning capability to uncover new strains of crypto-ransomware that can evade legacy signature-based anti-virus solutions.

• ProSight Managed Service Plans: for Small to Mid-size Businesses
  Progent's ProSight Managed IT Service Plans make it feasible for small and mid-size businesses to deploy Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) technology to create advanced IT resilience. Progent takes care of the daily monitoring and management for you, so your system expands easily without becoming an obstacle. For a low and predictable monthly price, Progent's full-service IT group can be your complete technology safety net. Entry-level plans include remote monitoring and management (RMM), security, monthly patching, and reporting. As your requirements grow, you can add low-cost subscriptions to advanced options like as SaaS M365/Google Workspace backup and restore, Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), penetration testing, or WiFi management.

• ProSight LAN Watch: Server and Desktop Monitoring and Management
  ProSight LAN Watch is Progent's server and desktop monitoring managed service that uses state-of-the-art remote monitoring and management (RMM) technology to keep your network running at peak levels by checking the state of critical computers that drive your information system. When ProSight LAN Watch uncovers an issue, an alarm is transmitted immediately to your designated IT personnel and your assigned Progent consultant so all potential problems can be addressed before they can disrupt productivity. Find out more about ProSight LAN Watch server and desktop monitoring services.

• ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM: Unified RMM Solution for Networks, Servers, and Workstations
  ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM software delivers a centralized, cloud-based platform for managing your client-server infrastructure by providing tools for streamlining common time-consuming tasks. These include health checking, update management, automated remediation, endpoint configuration, backup and recovery, anti-virus response, secure remote access, standard and custom scripts, resource inventory, endpoint profile reports, and troubleshooting support. When ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM spots a serious issue, it sends an alert to your designated IT personnel and your Progent technical consultant so that potential issues can be fixed before they interfere with 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 an infrastructure monitoring and management service that makes it simple and affordable for smaller organizations to map, track, optimize and troubleshoot their networking appliances such as switches, firewalls, and load balancers plus servers, endpoints and other devices. Incorporating state-of-the-art Remote Monitoring and Management technology, WAN Watch ensures that network diagrams are always updated, copies and manages the configuration of virtually all devices connected to your network, monitors performance, and sends alerts when issues are discovered. By automating tedious network management processes, ProSight WAN Watch can knock hours off common tasks like network mapping, reconfiguring your network, finding devices that require important software patches, or resolving performance bottlenecks. Learn more about ProSight WAN Watch infrastructure management consulting.

• ProSight Reporting: Real-time Reporting for Ticketing and Network Monitoring Platforms
  ProSight Reporting is a growing family of in-depth reporting plug-ins designed to work with the leading ticketing and remote network monitoring applications such as ConnectWise Manage, ConnectWise Automate, Customer Thermometer, Auvik, and SentinelOne. ProSight Reporting incorporates Microsoft Graph and features color coding to surface and contextualize key issues like inconsistent support follow-up or endpoints with out-of-date AVs. By identifying ticketing or network health problems concisely and in near-real time, ProSight Reporting enhances productivity, lowers management hassle, and saves money. For details, see ProSight Reporting for ticketing and network monitoring platforms.

• ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS): Managed Backup and Disaster Recovery Services
  Progent has partnered with advanced backup technology companies to produce ProSight Data Protection Services, a selection of subscription-based management offerings that deliver backup-as-a-service (BaaS). ProSight DPS products manage and track your data backup processes and allow transparent backup and fast recovery of critical files, applications, images, and virtual machines. ProSight DPS helps your business protect against data loss resulting from equipment failures, natural disasters, fire, malware such as ransomware, human mistakes, malicious insiders, or application bugs. Managed backup services available in the ProSight Data Protection Services portfolio include ProSight DPS Altaro VM Backup, ProSight 365 Total Backup (formerly Altaro 365 Backup), ProSight ECHO Backup using Barracuda purpose-built storage, and ProSight MSP360 Cloud and On-prem Backup. Your Progent consultant can help you to identify which of these fully managed services are most appropriate for your network.

• 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 infrastructure of leading data security vendors to deliver centralized management and world-class protection for all your inbound and outbound email. The powerful structure of Progent's Email Guard managed service combines a Cloud Protection Layer with a local gateway device to provide advanced defense against spam, viruses, Denial of Service (DoS) Attacks, Directory Harvest Attacks (DHAs), and other email-based threats. Email Guard's cloud filter acts as a first line of defense and blocks most unwanted email from reaching your network firewall. This decreases your exposure to external threats and conserves system bandwidth and storage space. Email Guard's on-premises gateway appliance adds a further level of inspection for incoming email. For outgoing email, the on-premises security gateway provides AV and anti-spam filtering, DLP, and email encryption. The local security gateway can also assist Exchange Server to track and protect internal email that stays inside your corporate firewall. For more information, visit ProSight Email Guard spam filtering and data leakage protection.

• ProSight Duo Two-Factor Authentication: Access Security, Endpoint Policy Enforcement, and Secure Single Sign-on
  Progent's Duo authentication service plans incorporate Cisco's Duo technology to protect against compromised passwords through the use of two-factor authentication. Duo enables single-tap identity confirmation with Apple iOS, Android, and other personal devices. With Duo 2FA, whenever you sign into a secured online account and give your password you are asked to confirm your identity on a unit that only you possess and that is accessed using a separate network channel. A broad selection of devices can be used as this second form of ID validation such as a smartphone or watch, a hardware token, a landline phone, etc. You may designate multiple validation devices. To learn more about ProSight Duo two-factor identity validation services, go to Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication services.

• Outsourced/Co-managed Service Desk: Support Desk Managed Services
  Progent's Call Center managed services permit your information technology team to offload Call Center services to Progent or divide responsibilities for support services seamlessly between your internal network support resources and Progent's nationwide pool of IT support technicians, engineers and subject matter experts. Progent's Co-managed Help Desk Service provides a smooth extension of your corporate IT support team. Client interaction with the Service Desk, provision of support, escalation, trouble ticket generation and updates, efficiency metrics, and maintenance of the service database are consistent whether issues are resolved by your internal IT support resources, by Progent, or both. Learn more about Progent's outsourced/co-managed Service Desk services.

• Progent Active Protection Against Ransomware: AI-based Ransomware Identification and Remediation
  Progent's Active Defense Against Ransomware is an endpoint protection managed service that incorporates cutting edge behavior-based machine learning tools to defend endpoints and servers and VMs against new malware assaults such as ransomware and file-less exploits, which easily evade traditional signature-matching anti-virus products. Progent Active Security Monitoring services safeguard on-premises and cloud resources and offers a single platform to automate the entire malware attack lifecycle including protection, detection, mitigation, remediation, and post-attack forensics. Key capabilities include one-click rollback using Windows VSS and real-time system-wide immunization against new attacks. Find out more about Progent's ransomware defense and cleanup services.

• ProSight IT Asset Management: Network Documentation Management
  ProSight IT Asset Management service is a cloud-based IT documentation management service that allows you to capture, maintain, find and safeguard data about your IT infrastructure, processes, applications, and services. You can quickly find passwords or IP addresses and be alerted about impending expirations of SSLs or domains. By updating and organizing your network documentation, you can eliminate as much as half of time thrown away searching for vital information about your IT network. ProSight IT Asset Management includes a centralized location for storing and sharing all documents related to managing your business network such as standard operating procedures and self-service instructions. ProSight IT Asset Management also supports advanced automation for gathering and associating IT information. Whether you're making enhancements, performing maintenance, or responding to an emergency, ProSight IT Asset Management delivers the data you need when you need it. Learn more about Progent's ProSight IT Asset Management service.

• Patch Management: Patch Management Services
  Progent's support services for patch management provide organizations of all sizes a versatile and affordable alternative for evaluating, testing, scheduling, implementing, and tracking software and firmware updates to your dynamic IT system. Besides maximizing the protection and reliability of your IT network, Progent's patch management services permit your IT team to focus on line-of-business projects and tasks that derive the highest business value from your network. Find out more about Progent's software/firmware update management services.

• ProSight Virtual Hosting: Hosted VMs at Progent's Tier III Data Center
  With Progent's ProSight Virtual Hosting service, a small or mid-size organization can have its critical servers and apps hosted in a secure fault tolerant data center on a fast virtual machine host set up and managed by Progent's IT support experts. Under Progent's ProSight Virtual Hosting model, the customer owns the data, the OS platforms, and the applications. Because the system is virtualized, it can be ported easily to a different hosting environment without a lengthy and technically risky reinstallation procedure. With ProSight Virtual Hosting, you are not locked into one hosting service. Find out 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 (EPP) solution that incorporates SentinelOne's cutting edge behavior machine learning technology to guard physical and virtual endpoint devices against new malware attacks such as ransomware and file-less exploits, which easily get by traditional signature-matching anti-virus tools. ProSight ASM protects local and cloud-based resources and offers a unified platform to address the entire threat progression including blocking, infiltration detection, containment, remediation, and forensics. Top features include single-click rollback with Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) and real-time network-wide immunization against new attacks. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. Learn more about Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) endpoint protection and ransomware defense.

• ProSight Enhanced Security Protection: Physical and Virtual Endpoint Protection and Exchange Filtering
  ProSight Enhanced Security Protection (ESP) managed services offer economical in-depth protection for physical and virtual servers, desktops, smartphones, and Exchange email. ProSight ESP uses adaptive security and modern behavior analysis for continuously monitoring and responding to cyber threats from all vectors. ProSight ESP delivers firewall protection, intrusion alerts, endpoint control, and web filtering through cutting-edge technologies incorporated within a single agent accessible from a unified control. Progent's data protection and virtualization consultants can assist you to design and configure a ProSight ESP environment that meets your company's specific requirements and that allows you achieve and demonstrate compliance with government and industry information protection regulations. Progent will help you specify and implement policies that ProSight ESP will manage, and Progent will monitor your network and respond to alerts that require urgent action. Progent can also assist your company to set up and test a backup and disaster recovery solution like ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS) so you can get back in business rapidly from a potentially disastrous cyber attack like ransomware. Find out more about Progent's ProSight Enhanced Security Protection unified physical and virtual endpoint security and Microsoft Exchange email filtering.