Allentown 24x7x365 Critical Ransomware
Malware Assessment and Repair Consulting

Ransomware : Your Crippling Information Technology Nightmare
Ransomware has become a modern cyberplague that presents an extinction-level threat for businesses unprepared for an assault. Versions of crypto-ransomware such as Reveton, WannaCry, Locky, SamSam and MongoLock cryptoworms have been running rampant for years and continue to inflict destruction. Newer strains of crypto-ransomware such as Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, DopplePaymer, Snatch or Egregor, along with more as yet unnamed malware, not only encrypt on-line critical data but also infect any accessible system protection mechanisms. Files synched to the cloud can also be encrypted. In a poorly designed data protection solution, this can make automated recovery useless and effectively sets the network back to zero.

Retrieving services and data after a ransomware outage becomes a sprint against the clock as the targeted organization tries its best to stop the spread, cleanup the ransomware, and restore business-critical operations. Due to the fact that ransomware takes time to replicate, attacks are frequently sprung at night, when successful penetrations in many cases take more time to uncover. This multiplies the difficulty of rapidly marshalling and organizing a qualified response team.

Progent offers a variety of help services for protecting businesses from crypto-ransomware penetrations. Among these are team training to become familiar with and avoid phishing exploits, ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) for remote monitoring and management, along with setup and configuration of next-generation security solutions with AI capabilities from SentinelOne to discover and extinguish new cyber threats quickly. Progent also offers the assistance of veteran ransomware recovery professionals with the skills and commitment to rebuild a compromised environment as quickly as possible.

Progent's Ransomware Restoration Help
Following a ransomware attack, even paying the ransom demands in cryptocurrency does not provide any assurance that cyber hackers will respond with the needed keys to unencrypt any of your files. Kaspersky ascertained that seventeen percent of ransomware victims never recovered their files even after having sent off the ransom, resulting in more losses. The gamble is also expensive. Ryuk ransoms are often a few hundred thousand dollars. For larger organizations, the ransom demand can be in the millions. The other path is to setup from scratch the critical elements of your Information Technology environment. Without access to essential system backups, this requires a broad range of IT skills, well-coordinated team management, and the ability to work continuously until the recovery project is finished.

For twenty years, Progent has made available professional IT services for companies across the United States and has earned Microsoft's Partnership certification status in the Datacenter and Cloud Productivity competencies. Progent's group of subject matter experts includes consultants who have been awarded advanced industry certifications in important technologies including Microsoft, Cisco, VMware, and popular distributions of Linux. Progent's cybersecurity engineers have earned internationally-recognized industry certifications including CISA, CISSP-ISSAP, ISACA CRISC, GIAC, and CMMC 2.0. (Visit Progent's certifications). Progent in addition has experience with accounting and ERP applications. This breadth of experience affords Progent the skills to rapidly identify necessary systems and re-organize the remaining components of your IT system after a ransomware penetration and rebuild them into a functioning network.

Progent's ransomware team utilizes powerful project management systems to orchestrate the complex restoration process. Progent understands the importance of acting quickly and in unison with a client's management and Information Technology team members to prioritize tasks and to put the most important systems back on-line as soon as humanly possible.

Business Case Study: A Successful Ransomware Intrusion Response
A small business escalated to Progent after their company was taken over by the Ryuk ransomware. Ryuk is thought to have been deployed by North Korean government sponsored hackers, suspected of adopting algorithms exposed from the U.S. National Security Agency. Ryuk attacks specific companies with little or no ability to sustain operational disruption and is among the most profitable iterations of ransomware. Headline victims include Data Resolution, a California-based data warehousing and cloud computing company, and the Chicago Tribune. Progent's client is a regional manufacturing company headquartered in Chicago and has about 500 workers. The Ryuk penetration had disabled all essential operations and manufacturing capabilities. The majority of the client's system backups had been directly accessible at the beginning of the attack and were encrypted. The client considered paying the ransom (exceeding two hundred thousand dollars) and wishfully thinking for the best, but in the end reached out to Progent.

Progent worked together with the client to quickly understand and assign priority to the mission critical elements that needed to be addressed in order to restart company functions:

• Active Directory
• Microsoft Exchange Email
• Accounting and Manufacturing Software

In less than 2 days, Progent was able to re-build Windows Active Directory to its pre-intrusion state. Progent then initiated rebuilding and hard drive recovery on critical applications. All Microsoft Exchange Server data and configuration information were usable, which accelerated the restore of Exchange. Progent was able to locate non-encrypted OST data files (Outlook Offline Data Files) on user PCs to recover email information. A recent off-line backup of the businesses manufacturing systems made it possible to restore these required services back on-line. Although significant work still had to be done to recover fully from the Ryuk attack, critical services were recovered quickly:

Over the next few weeks critical milestones in the recovery process were completed through tight collaboration between Progent engineers and the customer:

• Internal web applications were restored without losing any information.
• The MailStore Microsoft Exchange Server with over four million historical messages was brought online and accessible to users.
• CRM/Customer Orders/Invoicing/AP/Accounts Receivables (AR)/Inventory Control modules were completely restored.
• A new Palo Alto Networks 850 firewall was deployed.
• Nearly all of the user PCs were back into operation.

Conclusion
A likely business-killing catastrophe was averted due to dedicated experts, a wide range of subject matter expertise, and tight collaboration. Although in hindsight the ransomware virus incident described here should have been blocked with current security systems and NIST Cybersecurity Framework best practices, user education, and well designed incident response procedures for backup and applying software patches, the reality remains that state-sponsored cybercriminals from China, North Korea and elsewhere are relentless and will continue. If you do get hit by a crypto-ransomware virus, remember that Progent's team of professionals has proven experience in ransomware virus defense, removal, and file disaster recovery.

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

Additional Ransomware Protection Services Available from Progent
Progent can provide companies in Allentown a portfolio of online monitoring and security evaluation services to help you to reduce the threat from ransomware. These services include next-generation artificial intelligence capability to uncover new strains of ransomware that can evade legacy signature-based security products.

• ProSight Managed Service Plans: for Small to Mid-size Businesses
  Progent's ProSight Managed IT Service Plans make it realistic for small and mid-size companies to deploy Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) solutions to achieve advanced IT resilience. Progent handles the necessary monitoring and maintenance for you, so your system expands easily without becoming an obstacle. For an affordable and predictable monthly subscription, Progent's full-service IT team can be your complete technology safety net. Basic plans include remote monitoring and management (RMM), cybersecurity, automatic monthly patching, and documentation. As your needs expand, you can add low-cost subscriptions to best-in-class options such as SaaS M365/Google Workspace backup and restore, Multi-Factor Authentication, 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 (RMM) techniques to keep your IT system running efficiently by checking the health of critical computers that drive your business network. When ProSight LAN Watch detects an issue, an alert is transmitted immediately to your specified IT personnel and your Progent consultant so any looming problems can be resolved before they can disrupt your network. Find out more details about ProSight LAN Watch server and desktop monitoring services.

• ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM: Centralized RMM for Networks, Servers, and Desktops
  ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM software offers a centralized, cloud-based 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 checking, update management, automated remediation, endpoint setup, backup and restore, anti-virus response, remote access, standard and custom scripts, asset inventory, endpoint status reporting, and troubleshooting support. When ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM identifies a serious problem, it sends an alert to your specified IT staff and your Progent technical consultant so that emerging issues can be fixed before they impact your network. Find out more about ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM server and desktop remote monitoring services.

• ProSight WAN Watch: Network Infrastructure Remote Monitoring and Management
  Progent's ProSight WAN Watch is an infrastructure management service that makes it easy and affordable for small and mid-sized organizations to diagram, monitor, enhance and troubleshoot their connectivity appliances like routers and switches, firewalls, and access points as well as servers, printers, client computers and other devices. Using state-of-the-art Remote Monitoring and Management technology, ProSight WAN Watch makes sure that network diagrams are kept updated, copies and manages the configuration information of virtually all devices on your network, tracks performance, and sends alerts when issues are detected. By automating complex management processes, WAN Watch can knock hours off common tasks like network mapping, reconfiguring your network, locating appliances that require critical updates, or resolving performance issues. Learn more about ProSight WAN Watch network infrastructure monitoring and management consulting.

• ProSight Reporting: Real-time and In-depth Reporting for Ticketing and Network Monitoring Platforms
  ProSight Reporting is an expanding line of real-time and in-depth reporting tools designed to work with the leading ticketing and network monitoring programs including ConnectWise Manage, ConnectWise Automate, Customer Thermometer, Auvik, and SentinelOne. ProSight Reporting incorporates Microsoft Graph and utilizes color coding to surface and contextualize key issues such as spotty support follow-up or endpoints with missing patches. By identifying ticketing or network health problems clearly 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): Managed Backup and Recovery Services
  Progent has worked with leading backup/restore software providers to produce ProSight Data Protection Services, a selection of offerings that provide backup-as-a-service. ProSight DPS services automate and monitor your backup processes and allow transparent backup and fast recovery of critical files/folders, apps, images, and VMs. ProSight DPS helps your business avoid data loss resulting from equipment breakdown, natural disasters, fire, cyber attacks such as ransomware, user error, malicious employees, or application bugs. Managed services available in the ProSight DPS product family include ProSight DPS Altaro VM Backup, ProSight 365 Total Backup (formerly Altaro 365 Backup), ProSight ECHO Backup using Barracuda purpose-built hardware, and ProSight MSP360 Hybrid Backup. Your Progent expert can assist you to identify which of these fully managed backup 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 and virus filtering and email encryption service that uses the technology of top information security companies to provide web-based control and world-class security for all your email traffic. The hybrid structure of Progent's Email Guard managed service combines a Cloud Protection Layer with an on-premises gateway device to provide complete defense against spam, viruses, Denial of Service (DoS) Attacks, Directory Harvest Attacks, and other email-borne threats. Email Guard's Cloud Protection Layer acts as a preliminary barricade and blocks the vast majority of unwanted email from making it to your security perimeter. This decreases your vulnerability to inbound attacks and saves network bandwidth and storage. Email Guard's on-premises security gateway device adds a further level of analysis for incoming email. For outgoing email, the onsite security gateway offers anti-virus and anti-spam filtering, policy-based Data Loss Prevention, and email encryption. The on-premises gateway can also help Exchange Server to track and protect internal email that originates and ends within your corporate firewall. For more information, see Email Guard spam and content filtering.

• ProSight Duo Two-Factor Authentication: ID Confirmation, Endpoint Policy Enforcement, and Protected Single Sign-on (SSO)
  Progent's Duo MFA services incorporate Cisco's Duo technology to defend against password theft through the use of two-factor authentication. Duo supports single-tap identity verification with iOS, Google Android, and other personal devices. With 2FA, when you sign into a protected application and enter your password you are requested to verify your identity via a unit that only you possess and that is accessed using a separate network channel. A broad range of out-of-band devices can be used for this second means of authentication including a smartphone or wearable, a hardware token, a landline telephone, etc. You can designate several validation devices. To find out more about ProSight Duo two-factor identity validation services, refer to Duo MFA two-factor authentication services.

• Outsourced/Co-managed Service Center: Call Center Managed Services
  Progent's Call Center managed services allow your IT team to outsource Call Center services to Progent or split activity for Help Desk services transparently between your internal network support resources and Progent's nationwide roster of IT support technicians, engineers and subject matter experts. Progent's Co-managed Help Desk Service provides a transparent extension of your core network support resources. End user interaction with the Help Desk, provision of technical assistance, problem escalation, ticket generation and updates, performance measurement, and maintenance of the support database are cohesive whether incidents are taken care of by your core IT support organization, by Progent's team, or by a combination. Find out more about Progent's outsourced/co-managed Service Desk services.

• Active Protection Against Ransomware: AI-based Ransomware Identification and Cleanup
  Progent's Active Defense Against Ransomware is an endpoint protection managed service that incorporates next generation behavior machine learning tools to guard endpoints and servers and VMs against modern malware assaults like ransomware and email phishing, which routinely evade legacy signature-matching AV products. Progent ASM services safeguard on-premises and cloud resources and offers a single platform to automate the complete threat progression including blocking, detection, containment, remediation, and forensics. Key capabilities include one-click rollback with Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service and automatic network-wide immunization against newly discovered threats. Learn 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 create, maintain, find and safeguard data related to your IT infrastructure, procedures, business apps, and services. You can quickly find passwords or serial numbers and be warned about upcoming expirations of SSLs or domains. By cleaning up and organizing your IT infrastructure documentation, you can save as much as 50% of time spent trying to find vital information about your network. ProSight IT Asset Management features a common repository for holding and sharing all documents required for managing your business network such as standard operating procedures (SOPs) and How-To's. ProSight IT Asset Management also supports advanced automation for gathering and associating IT data. Whether you're planning enhancements, doing maintenance, or responding to an emergency, ProSight IT Asset Management gets you the knowledge you need as soon as you need it. Find out more about Progent's ProSight IT Asset Management service.

• Patch Management: Software/Firmware Update Management Services
  Progent's support services for patch management provide organizations of all sizes a versatile and cost-effective solution for evaluating, validating, scheduling, applying, and documenting software and firmware updates to your dynamic information system. Besides optimizing the protection and reliability of your computer environment, Progent's software/firmware update management services free up time for your IT team to concentrate on more strategic projects and activities that deliver the highest business value from your information network. Learn more about Progent's patch management services.

• ProSight Virtual Hosting: Hosted Virtual Machines at Progent's World-class Data Center
  With ProSight Virtual Hosting service, a small business can have its critical servers and apps hosted in a secure fault tolerant data center on a high-performance virtual host set up and managed by Progent's network support professionals. Under Progent's ProSight Virtual Hosting model, the customer owns the data, the OS platforms, and the applications. Because the environment is virtualized, it can be ported immediately to a different hosting solution without requiring a lengthy and difficult configuration process. With ProSight Virtual Hosting, you are not tied one hosting provider. Find out more about ProSight Virtual Hosting services.

• ProSight Active Security Monitoring: Endpoint Protection and Ransomware Defense
  ProSight Active Security Monitoring is an endpoint protection (EPP) solution that incorporates SentinelOne's cutting edge behavior-based analysis tools to defend physical and virtual endpoints against modern malware attacks such as ransomware and file-less exploits, which easily get by legacy signature-based anti-virus products. ProSight ASM protects local and cloud-based resources and provides a single platform to manage the entire threat progression including blocking, identification, mitigation, cleanup, and post-attack forensics. Key features include one-click rollback using Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service and real-time system-wide immunization against new threats. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. Find out more about Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) endpoint protection and ransomware defense.

• ProSight Enhanced Security Protection (ESP): Endpoint Protection and Exchange Email Filtering
  ProSight Enhanced Security Protection (ESP) services deliver ultra-affordable in-depth protection for physical servers and virtual machines, desktops, mobile devices, and Exchange email. ProSight ESP utilizes contextual security and modern behavior analysis for continuously monitoring and reacting to cyber threats from all attack vectors. ProSight ESP provides firewall protection, penetration alarms, device control, and web filtering via cutting-edge technologies packaged within a single agent managed from a single console. Progent's data protection and virtualization experts can assist you to design and implement a ProSight ESP environment that meets your organization's specific needs and that allows you prove compliance with government and industry information protection regulations. Progent will assist you specify and implement policies that ProSight ESP will manage, and Progent will monitor your network and respond to alerts that require urgent attention. Progent's consultants can also assist you to set up and verify a backup and restore solution like ProSight Data Protection Services so you can recover quickly from a potentially disastrous security attack like ransomware. Read more about Progent's ProSight Enhanced Security Protection unified endpoint security and Exchange email filtering.