Lubbock 24/7 Urgent Crypto-Ransomware
Computer Malware Detection and Recovery Consultants

Crypto-Ransomware : Your Worst Information Technology Disaster
Ransomware has become a modern cyberplague that presents an existential danger for businesses of all sizes vulnerable to an attack. Different iterations of crypto-ransomware like the CrySIS, WannaCry, Bad Rabbit, NotPetya and MongoLock cryptoworms have been running rampant for a long time and still cause destruction. Modern versions of ransomware like Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, DopplePaymer, Conti or Egregor, as well as more as yet unnamed malware, not only encrypt online data files but also infiltrate many configured system protection mechanisms. Data replicated to off-site disaster recovery sites can also be held hostage. In a vulnerable environment, it can make any recovery hopeless and basically knocks the entire system back to zero.

Getting back online programs and data after a ransomware intrusion becomes a race against time as the victim fights to contain the damage, cleanup the ransomware, and resume business-critical operations. Due to the fact that ransomware takes time to move laterally, assaults are usually sprung on weekends, when successful attacks tend to take more time to uncover. This compounds the difficulty of rapidly mobilizing and organizing an experienced response team.

Progent provides a range of help services for securing businesses from ransomware penetrations. These include team training to become familiar with and not fall victim to phishing scams, ProSight Active Security Monitoring for remote monitoring and management, plus setup and configuration of next-generation security gateways with machine learning capabilities from SentinelOne to identify and suppress new cyber attacks automatically. Progent also can provide the assistance of veteran ransomware recovery professionals with the talent and commitment to restore a breached system as rapidly as possible.

Progent's Ransomware Restoration Help
Following a crypto-ransomware attack, even paying the ransom in cryptocurrency does not provide any assurance that merciless criminals will respond with the keys to decipher any or all of your files. Kaspersky ascertained that seventeen percent of crypto-ransomware victims never restored their data after having sent off the ransom, resulting in additional losses. The risk is also very costly. Ryuk ransoms are typically several hundred thousand dollars. For larger organizations, the ransom demand can reach millions. The alternative is to piece back together the mission-critical parts of your Information Technology environment. Without access to complete system backups, this calls for a wide range of IT skills, top notch team management, and the capability to work continuously until the recovery project is finished.

For decades, Progent has offered professional IT services for companies throughout the United States and has earned Microsoft's Partnership certification status in the Datacenter and Cloud Productivity competencies. Progent's pool of subject matter experts includes professionals who have been awarded top certifications in key technologies including Microsoft, Cisco, VMware, and major distributions of Linux. Progent's cyber security experts have earned internationally-recognized certifications including CISM, CISSP, CRISC, GIAC, and CMMC 2.0. (Refer to Progent's certifications). Progent also has expertise with financial systems and ERP software solutions. This breadth of expertise provides Progent the capability to efficiently understand necessary systems and integrate the remaining components of your computer network environment after a ransomware attack and configure them into an operational system.

Progent's security team utilizes best of breed project management applications to coordinate the complex recovery process. Progent appreciates the urgency of acting rapidly and together with a client's management and IT team members to assign priority to tasks and to put the most important services back on line as soon as humanly possible.

Customer Case Study: A Successful Ransomware Penetration Restoration
A customer sought out Progent after their network was crashed by Ryuk crypto-ransomware. Ryuk is generally considered to have been created by Northern Korean state criminal gangs, suspected of using algorithms leaked from America's National Security Agency. Ryuk goes after specific organizations with limited ability to sustain disruption and is among the most profitable examples of ransomware. Major victims include Data Resolution, a California-based info warehousing and cloud computing company, and the Chicago Tribune. Progent's customer is a regional manufacturing business located in Chicago and has around 500 workers. The Ryuk event had disabled all company operations and manufacturing processes. The majority of the client's backups had been on-line at the start of the attack and were damaged. The client was evaluating paying the ransom (in excess of $200,000) and wishfully thinking for good luck, but ultimately engaged Progent.

Progent worked hand in hand the client to rapidly assess and assign priority to the key elements that had to be addressed to make it possible to resume company functions:

• Active Directory
• Microsoft Exchange Email
• Financials/MRP

Within 2 days, Progent was able to restore Active Directory to its pre-intrusion state. Progent then assisted with rebuilding and storage recovery of critical applications. All Microsoft Exchange Server data and configuration information were intact, which greatly helped the rebuild of Exchange. Progent was able to find local OST data files (Outlook Email Offline Data Files) on user workstations and laptops to recover mail information. A not too old off-line backup of the client's accounting systems made it possible to restore these essential services back servicing users. Although major work remained to recover totally from the Ryuk attack, core systems were restored rapidly:

Throughout the next month critical milestones in the restoration process were completed in tight collaboration between Progent consultants and the client:

• In-house web applications were brought back up without losing any information.
• The MailStore Microsoft Exchange Server exceeding 4 million archived messages was brought online and available for users.
• CRM/Customer Orders/Invoices/AP/Accounts Receivables (AR)/Inventory Control functions were 100 percent recovered.
• A new Palo Alto Networks 850 security appliance was installed and configured.
• Nearly all of the user desktops were fully operational.

Conclusion
A likely enterprise-killing catastrophe was evaded by top-tier experts, a broad spectrum of technical expertise, and tight collaboration. Although upon completion of forensics the crypto-ransomware incident described here could have been identified and blocked with up-to-date security technology and ISO/IEC 27001 best practices, user training, and well designed security procedures for data backup and applying software patches, the reality remains that state-sponsored cyber criminals from China, North Korea and elsewhere are relentless and are an ongoing threat. If you do fall victim to a ransomware attack, remember that Progent's team of professionals has proven experience in ransomware virus blocking, removal, and file disaster recovery.

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

Additional Crypto-Ransomware Protection Services Offered by Progent
Progent can provide businesses in Lubbock a range of online monitoring and security assessment services designed to assist you to minimize the threat from ransomware. These services incorporate next-generation machine learning capability to uncover new variants of ransomware that are able to evade legacy signature-based security products.

• ProSight Managed Service Packages: for Small to Mid-size Businesses
  Progent's ProSight Managed IT Service Packages make it possible for small and mid-size businesses to utilize Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) technology to create leading-edge network resilience. Progent handles the daily monitoring and management for you, so your system scales easily without becoming an obstacle. For an affordable and predictable monthly price, Progent's full-service IT group can be your dependable technology safety net. Entry-level plans include remote monitoring and management, security, monthly patching, and documentation. As your needs grow, you can add low-cost subscriptions to best-of-breed options such as SaaS M365/Google Workspace backup and restore, Multi-Factor Authentication, pen testing, or WiFi management.

• ProSight LAN Watch: Server and Desktop Remote Monitoring
  ProSight LAN Watch is Progent's server and desktop monitoring managed service that uses advanced remote monitoring and management technology to keep your IT system running efficiently by checking the health of critical computers that power your business network. When ProSight LAN Watch detects an issue, an alert is sent immediately to your specified IT personnel and your assigned Progent engineering consultant so that any 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 delivers a unified, cloud-driven solution for monitoring and managing your network, server, and desktop devices by offering an environment for streamlining common time-consuming tasks. These can include health monitoring, update management, automated remediation, endpoint configuration, backup and recovery, anti-virus defense, secure remote access, standard and custom scripts, resource inventory, endpoint profile reporting, and debugging assistance. When ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM uncovers a serious issue, it transmits an alarm to your designated IT management staff and your Progent technical consultant so emerging issues can be taken care of before they interfere with your network. Find out more about ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM server and desktop remote monitoring services.

• ProSight WAN Watch: Infrastructure Remote Monitoring and Management
  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, enhance and troubleshoot their networking hardware like routers, firewalls, and load balancers as well as servers, client computers and other networked devices. Incorporating cutting-edge Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) technology, WAN Watch makes sure that infrastructure topology maps are kept current, captures and displays the configuration of virtually all devices connected to your network, monitors performance, and generates notices when problems are detected. By automating tedious network management activities, WAN Watch can knock hours off common chores like making network diagrams, reconfiguring your network, locating devices that need critical updates, or resolving performance bottlenecks. Find out more about ProSight WAN Watch network infrastructure monitoring and management services.

• ProSight Reporting: Real-time and In-depth Reporting for Ticketing and Network Monitoring Applications
  ProSight Reporting is an expanding family of in-depth reporting plug-ins designed to integrate with the industry's leading ticketing and network monitoring applications including 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 spotty support follow-up or machines with out-of-date AVs. By identifying ticketing or network health problems clearly and in near-real time, ProSight Reporting enhances network value, lowers management overhead, and saves money. For more information, visit ProSight Reporting for ticketing and network monitoring platforms.

• ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS): Managed Backup and Recovery Services
  Progent has partnered with advanced backup software providers to create ProSight Data Protection Services, a selection of subscription-based management offerings that deliver backup-as-a-service (BaaS). ProSight DPS services manage and track your backup operations and allow transparent backup and rapid recovery of vital files/folders, apps, images, plus virtual machines. ProSight DPS helps your business protect against data loss caused by equipment failures, natural disasters, fire, cyber attacks like ransomware, user mistakes, malicious insiders, or software bugs. Managed services in the ProSight Data Protection Services product family include ProSight Altaro VM Backup, ProSight 365 Total Backup (formerly Altaro 365 Backup), ProSight ECHO Backup based on Barracuda purpose-built hardware, and ProSight DPS MSP360 Hybrid Backup. Your Progent service representative can assist you to identify which of these managed 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 and email encryption service that uses the infrastructure of leading information security vendors to deliver web-based control and comprehensive security for all your email traffic. The powerful architecture of Email Guard managed service combines a Cloud Protection Layer with a local gateway device to provide complete defense against spam, viruses, Denial of Service (DoS) Attacks, Directory Harvest Attacks, and other email-based malware. The cloud filter acts as a preliminary barricade and blocks most threats from making it to your network firewall. This decreases your exposure to external attacks and saves network bandwidth and storage. Email Guard's on-premises gateway device adds a further layer of inspection for inbound email. For outgoing email, the onsite gateway provides AV and anti-spam protection, DLP, and email encryption. The on-premises security gateway can also assist Microsoft Exchange Server to track and protect internal email traffic that originates and ends inside your corporate firewall. For more information, see ProSight Email Guard spam and content filtering.

• ProSight Duo Two-Factor Authentication: Identity Validation, Endpoint Remediation, and Protected Single Sign-on
  Progent's Duo authentication managed services incorporate Cisco's Duo cloud technology to defend against compromised passwords through the use of two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo supports one-tap identity confirmation on iOS, Android, and other personal devices. With 2FA, when you sign into a secured online account and enter your password you are asked to confirm who you are on a unit that only you have and that uses a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A broad range of out-of-band devices can be utilized as this added form of authentication such as a smartphone or watch, a hardware/software token, a landline telephone, etc. You can register several validation devices. To find out more about Duo identity validation services, see Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for access security.

• Progent's Outsourced/Shared Service Center: Help Desk Managed Services
  Progent's Call Center services enable your information technology team to outsource Support Desk services to Progent or split responsibilities for support services seamlessly between your in-house network support team and Progent's extensive roster of IT service technicians, engineers and subject matter experts. Progent's Shared Help Desk Service provides a transparent extension of your corporate support team. Client interaction with the Service Desk, delivery of support, escalation, ticket creation and updates, performance measurement, and maintenance of the support database are cohesive regardless of whether issues are resolved by your core network support staff, by Progent's team, or a mix of the two. Find out more about Progent's outsourced/shared Call Center services.

• Progent Active Defense Against Ransomware: AI-based Ransomware Identification and Cleanup
  Progent's Active Defense Against Ransomware is an endpoint protection (EPP) solution that utilizes next generation behavior analysis tools to guard endpoints as well as physical and virtual servers against modern malware assaults such as ransomware and email phishing, which routinely evade legacy signature-matching anti-virus tools. Progent ASM services safeguard local and cloud resources and provides a unified platform to manage the complete malware attack lifecycle including blocking, identification, containment, remediation, and post-attack forensics. Top capabilities include single-click rollback using Windows VSS and real-time system-wide immunization against newly discovered threats. 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 an IT infrastructure documentation management service that allows you to create, maintain, find and safeguard data related to your IT infrastructure, processes, business apps, and services. You can quickly locate passwords or IP addresses and be alerted automatically about impending expirations of SSL certificates or domains. By cleaning up and managing your IT infrastructure documentation, you can eliminate as much as half of time spent searching for vital information about your network. ProSight IT Asset Management features a common location for storing and collaborating on all documents required for managing your network infrastructure such as recommended procedures and self-service instructions. ProSight IT Asset Management also supports advanced automation for gathering and relating IT information. Whether you're making improvements, doing regular maintenance, or reacting to a crisis, ProSight IT Asset Management delivers the information you need when you need it. Read more about ProSight IT Asset Management service.

• Patch Management: Patch Management Services
  Progent's support services for software and firmware patch management provide businesses of all sizes a flexible and cost-effective alternative for evaluating, validating, scheduling, implementing, and documenting updates to your ever-evolving IT system. In addition to optimizing the security and functionality of your IT environment, Progent's software/firmware update management services free up time for your IT team to focus on line-of-business projects and tasks that deliver maximum business value from your information network. Find out 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 organization can have its critical servers and applications hosted in a protected fault tolerant data center on a high-performance virtual machine host set up and maintained by Progent's IT support professionals. With Progent's ProSight Virtual Hosting service model, the customer retains ownership of the data, the OS platforms, and the apps. Since the environment is virtualized, it can be moved easily to a different hardware solution without requiring a lengthy and difficult configuration procedure. With ProSight Virtual Hosting, your business is not tied one hosting service. Learn 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 solution that utilizes SentinelOne's next generation behavior analysis tools to defend physical and virtual endpoint devices against modern malware attacks like ransomware and file-less exploits, which easily evade traditional signature-matching anti-virus tools. ProSight Active Security Monitoring safeguards local and cloud resources and offers a unified platform to manage the entire threat lifecycle including blocking, detection, containment, remediation, and forensics. Key features include one-click rollback using Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service and real-time network-wide immunization against newly discovered attacks. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. Read more about Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring next-generation endpoint protection and ransomware recovery.

• ProSight Enhanced Security Protection (ESP): Physical and Virtual Endpoint Security and Exchange Email Filtering
  Progent's ProSight Enhanced Security Protection managed services offer economical in-depth protection for physical and virtual servers, workstations, smartphones, and Exchange email. ProSight ESP utilizes contextual security and advanced machine learning for round-the-clock monitoring and reacting to cyber threats from all attack vectors. ProSight ESP delivers firewall protection, intrusion alerts, device control, and web filtering through leading-edge tools packaged within a single agent managed from a unified control. Progent's data protection and virtualization consultants can assist you to design and implement a ProSight ESP deployment that addresses your organization's specific requirements and that helps you demonstrate compliance with government and industry data security regulations. Progent will assist you define and configure policies that ProSight ESP will enforce, and Progent will monitor your network and respond to alarms that call for urgent action. Progent's consultants can also assist you to install and test a backup and disaster recovery solution like ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS) so you can recover rapidly from a potentially disastrous security attack like ransomware. Read more about Progent's ProSight Enhanced Security Protection (ESP) unified endpoint protection and Exchange filtering.