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Computer Virus Damage Assessment and Repair Services

Crypto-Ransomware : Your Crippling IT Nightmare
Ransomware has become a modern cyber pandemic that poses an existential threat for businesses unprepared for an assault. Different versions of ransomware such as CrySIS, WannaCry, Bad Rabbit, SamSam and MongoLock cryptoworms have been out in the wild for many years and still cause havoc. Recent strains of ransomware like Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, Netwalker, Snatch or Egregor, as well as additional as yet unnamed newcomers, not only encrypt online information but also infiltrate most configured system restores and backups. Files replicated to off-site disaster recovery sites can also be ransomed. In a vulnerable data protection solution, this can make automatic restore operations useless and basically sets the datacenter back to square one.

Retrieving services and information following a ransomware intrusion becomes a race against time as the targeted organization tries its best to stop the spread, eradicate the ransomware, and resume mission-critical activity. Due to the fact that ransomware needs time to spread, penetrations are usually sprung during weekends and nights, when penetrations are likely to take more time to discover. This compounds the difficulty of rapidly assembling and organizing a qualified response team.

Progent provides an assortment of support services for securing enterprises from ransomware events. Among these are team education to help recognize and not fall victim to phishing exploits, ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) for remote monitoring and management, plus installation of the latest generation security solutions with machine learning capabilities from SentinelOne to discover and disable new cyber attacks intelligently. Progent in addition offers the services of experienced ransomware recovery engineers with the track record and perseverance to restore a breached system as rapidly as possible.

Progent's Crypto-Ransomware Restoration Support Services
Subsequent to a crypto-ransomware penetration, sending the ransom demands in cryptocurrency does not provide any assurance that cyber criminals will provide the needed keys to unencrypt any or all of your data. Kaspersky Labs ascertained that seventeen percent of crypto-ransomware victims never recovered their files even after having paid the ransom, resulting in more losses. The gamble is also expensive. Ryuk ransoms are typically several hundred thousand dollars. For larger organizations, the ransom can reach millions. The other path is to piece back together the essential components of your Information Technology environment. Without the availability of full data backups, this calls for a broad complement of IT skills, top notch project management, and the willingness to work continuously until the recovery project is complete.

For decades, Progent has offered professional Information Technology services for companies across the U.S. and has earned Microsoft's Partnership certification status in the Datacenter and Cloud Productivity competencies. Progent's team of subject matter experts includes engineers who have been awarded top industry certifications in leading technologies including Microsoft, Cisco, VMware, and major distributions of Linux. Progent's cybersecurity engineers have earned internationally-recognized industry certifications including CISA, CISSP, ISACA CRISC, SANS GIAC, and CMMC 2.0. (Refer to Progent's certifications). Progent also has experience with accounting and ERP applications. This breadth of expertise affords Progent the capability to quickly identify necessary systems and organize the remaining pieces of your IT system following a ransomware penetration and assemble them into an operational network.

Progent's security group deploys best of breed project management systems to coordinate the complicated recovery process. Progent knows the urgency of acting rapidly and in unison with a client's management and IT team members to assign priority to tasks and to put critical applications back on-line as soon as possible.

Customer Story: A Successful Crypto-Ransomware Penetration Recovery
A small business sought out Progent after their organization was taken over by the Ryuk ransomware. Ryuk is believed to have been deployed by Northern Korean state sponsored hackers, suspected of adopting techniques exposed from the U.S. National Security Agency. Ryuk seeks specific businesses with little or no ability to sustain disruption and is one of the most profitable examples of ransomware viruses. Headline organizations include Data Resolution, a California-based info warehousing and cloud computing firm, and the Chicago Tribune. Progent's customer is a single-location manufacturing business headquartered in the Chicago metro area and has about 500 staff members. The Ryuk attack had disabled all essential operations and manufacturing processes. Most of the client's backups had been online at the beginning of the attack and were damaged. The client was evaluating paying the ransom (in excess of $200,000) and hoping for the best, but in the end called Progent.

Progent worked hand in hand the client to quickly identify and prioritize the critical services that needed to be restored to make it possible to continue departmental functions:

• Active Directory (AD)
• Email
• Accounting/MRP

Within two days, Progent was able to recover Active Directory services to its pre-attack state. Progent then completed reinstallations and storage recovery of the most important servers. All Exchange schema and attributes were intact, which greatly helped the rebuild of Exchange. Progent was able to locate intact OST files (Microsoft Outlook Off-Line Data Files) on user workstations and laptops in order to recover mail data. A not too old off-line backup of the customer's financials/ERP systems made it possible to restore these required programs back online. Although a lot of work needed to be completed to recover totally from the Ryuk attack, core systems were recovered rapidly:

During the following couple of weeks important milestones in the restoration process were accomplished in tight collaboration between Progent team members and the customer:

• Internal web sites were returned to operation with no loss of information.
• The MailStore Microsoft Exchange Server with over 4 million historical emails was brought online and accessible to users.
• CRM/Product Ordering/Invoices/Accounts Payable (AP)/Accounts Receivables/Inventory Control modules were completely restored.
• A new Palo Alto 850 firewall was brought online.
• Nearly all of the user PCs were back into operation.

Conclusion
A possible business extinction catastrophe was avoided by dedicated experts, a wide range of technical expertise, and close teamwork. Although upon completion of forensics the ransomware virus penetration detailed here should have been disabled with modern security technology solutions and best practices, user and IT administrator education, and well thought out security procedures for information protection and keeping systems up to date with security patches, the reality is that government-sponsored cybercriminals from Russia, North Korea and elsewhere are tireless and are not going away. If you do get hit by a crypto-ransomware penetration, remember that Progent's roster of professionals has proven experience in ransomware virus blocking, mitigation, and information systems recovery.

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

Additional Crypto-Ransomware Protection Services Available from Progent
Progent offers businesses in Buffalo a variety of remote monitoring and security evaluation services designed to assist you to minimize your vulnerability to ransomware. These services utilize next-generation AI capability to detect new variants of ransomware that are able to evade legacy signature-based anti-virus solutions.

• ProSight Managed Service Plans: for Small to Mid-size Businesses
  Progent's ProSight Managed IT Service Packages make it possible for small and mid-size companies to deploy Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) technology to achieve advanced IT resilience. Progent takes care of the daily monitoring and maintenance for you, so your system expands smoothly without holding you back. For an affordable and predictable monthly price, Progent's experienced IT group can be your complete technology safety net. Basic packages include remote monitoring and management, security, 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 (MFA), pen testing, or WiFi management.

• ProSight LAN Watch: Server and Desktop Monitoring and Management
  ProSight LAN Watch is Progent's server and desktop remote monitoring managed service that uses state-of-the-art remote monitoring and management (RMM) technology to help keep your network operating efficiently by tracking the health of vital assets that power your business network. When ProSight LAN Watch uncovers a problem, an alarm is sent immediately to your designated IT management staff and your Progent consultant so that any potential problems can be resolved before they can disrupt productivity. Find out more about ProSight LAN Watch server and desktop monitoring consulting.

• ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM: Centralized RMM for Networks, Servers, and Desktops
  ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM software delivers a unified, cloud-driven platform for monitoring and managing your client-server infrastructure by offering an environment for streamlining common time-consuming jobs. These include health monitoring, patch management, automated remediation, endpoint deployment, backup and recovery, anti-virus response, secure remote access, standard and custom scripts, asset inventory, endpoint profile reports, and debugging support. If ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM uncovers a serious incident, it transmits an alarm to your designated 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 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 out, monitor, reconfigure and troubleshoot their networking appliances like routers and switches, firewalls, and access points plus servers, client computers and other devices. Using state-of-the-art Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) technology, ProSight WAN Watch makes sure that infrastructure topology maps are always current, copies and manages the configuration of almost all devices connected to your network, tracks performance, and generates notices when potential issues are detected. By automating time-consuming management processes, WAN Watch can knock hours off common chores such as making network diagrams, expanding your network, locating appliances that need critical software patches, or isolating performance issues. Find out more about ProSight WAN Watch network infrastructure monitoring and management consulting.

• ProSight Reporting: Real-time Reporting for Ticketing and Network Monitoring Platforms
  ProSight Reporting is an expanding family of real-time management reporting utilities designed to work with the leading ticketing and network monitoring programs such as ConnectWise Manage, ConnectWise Automate, Customer Thermometer, Auvik, and SentinelOne. ProSight Reporting uses Microsoft Graph and features color coding to surface and contextualize key issues such as inconsistent support follow-through or machines with missing patches. By exposing ticketing or network health concerns clearly and in near-real time, ProSight Reporting enhances network value, reduces management hassle, and saves money. For more information, visit ProSight Reporting for ticketing and network monitoring platforms.

• ProSight Data Protection Services: Backup and Recovery Services
  Progent has partnered with leading backup/restore software companies to create ProSight Data Protection Services, a family of management offerings that deliver backup-as-a-service. ProSight DPS services automate and monitor your data backup operations and enable non-disruptive backup and rapid recovery of important files, apps, system images, plus virtual machines. ProSight DPS lets you avoid data loss resulting from equipment breakdown, natural disasters, fire, malware like ransomware, user error, ill-intentioned insiders, or application bugs. Managed services available in the ProSight Data Protection Services product line include ProSight DPS Altaro VM Backup, ProSight 365 Total Backup (formerly Altaro 365 Backup), ProSight ECHO Backup based on Barracuda dedicated hardware, and ProSight DPS MSP360 Cloud and On-prem Backup. Your Progent service representative can help 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 filtering service that uses the technology of top data security vendors to deliver web-based control and world-class protection for your inbound and outbound email. The powerful architecture of Email Guard managed service combines a Cloud Protection Layer with an on-premises gateway device to offer advanced defense against spam, viruses, Denial of Service Attacks, Directory Harvest Attacks (DHAs), and other email-borne malware. The Cloud Protection Layer acts as a first line of defense and keeps most threats from making it to your network firewall. This decreases your vulnerability to external threats and saves network bandwidth and storage space. Email Guard's on-premises security gateway device provides a further layer of inspection for inbound email. For outbound email, the on-premises gateway provides AV and anti-spam protection, policy-based Data Loss Prevention, 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, visit Email Guard spam and content filtering.

• ProSight Duo Multi-Factor Authentication: Access Security, Endpoint Policy Enforcement, and Protected Single Sign-on
  Progent's Duo authentication service plans incorporate Cisco's Duo cloud technology to protect against password theft by using two-factor authentication. Duo enables single-tap identity confirmation with iOS, Android, and other personal devices. With Duo 2FA, when you sign into a protected online account and enter your password you are requested to verify who you are on a unit that only you have and that uses a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A wide range of devices can be utilized as this added means of authentication such as a smartphone or wearable, a hardware token, a landline telephone, etc. You may designate multiple verification devices. To find out more about Duo two-factor identity validation services, refer to Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services.

• Outsourced/Co-managed Help Center: Help Desk Managed Services
  Progent's Call Desk managed services enable your information technology team to outsource Call Center services to Progent or split responsibilities for Service Desk support transparently between your in-house support team and Progent's extensive pool of IT support engineers and subject matter experts. Progent's Co-managed Help Desk Service provides a transparent supplement to your in-house network support organization. Client interaction with the Help Desk, provision of support services, issue escalation, ticket generation and updates, efficiency measurement, and management of the support database are consistent regardless of whether issues are taken care of by your in-house support organization, by Progent, or a mix of the two. Find out more about Progent's outsourced/co-managed Service Desk services.

• Progent Active Defense Against Ransomware: AI-based Ransomware Detection and Cleanup
  Progent's Active Defense Against Ransomware is an endpoint protection managed service that incorporates next generation behavior analysis tools to guard endpoints and servers and VMs against new malware assaults such as ransomware and file-less exploits, which routinely evade legacy signature-matching anti-virus tools. Progent ASM services safeguard local and cloud-based resources and provides a unified platform to address the complete malware attack progression including filtering, identification, containment, remediation, and forensics. Top capabilities include single-click rollback using Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) and real-time network-wide immunization against newly discovered threats. Find out 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 create, update, retrieve and safeguard information related to your IT infrastructure, procedures, business apps, and services. You can instantly locate passwords or serial numbers and be warned about upcoming expirations of SSL certificates or domains. By updating and organizing your IT documentation, you can eliminate as much as half of time wasted looking for critical information about your network. ProSight IT Asset Management features a common repository for holding and sharing all documents required for managing your network infrastructure like standard operating procedures (SOPs) and self-service instructions. ProSight IT Asset Management also supports advanced automation for collecting and associating IT information. Whether you're planning enhancements, doing regular maintenance, or responding to an emergency, ProSight IT Asset Management gets you the knowledge you need when you need it. Read more about ProSight IT Asset Management service.

• Patch Management: Patch Management Services
  Progent's support services for patch management provide businesses of any size a flexible and cost-effective alternative for evaluating, testing, scheduling, applying, and documenting software and firmware updates to your dynamic IT system. Besides optimizing the security and functionality of your computer environment, Progent's patch management services free up time for your in-house IT staff to concentrate on more strategic initiatives and activities that derive maximum business value from your network. Find out more about Progent's software/firmware update management support services.

• ProSight Virtual Hosting: Hosted VMs at Progent's Tier III Data Center
  With ProSight Virtual Hosting service, a small or mid-size organization can have its critical servers and apps hosted in a protected Tier III data center on a high-performance virtual machine host configured and maintained by Progent's network support experts. Under Progent's ProSight Virtual Hosting service model, the client owns the data, the operating system platforms, and the apps. Because the system is virtualized, it can be ported immediately to an alternate hardware solution without requiring a time-consuming and difficult reinstallation procedure. With ProSight Virtual Hosting, your business is not locked into a single hosting provider. Find out more about ProSight Virtual Hosting services.

• ProSight Active Security Monitoring: Endpoint Protection and Ransomware Defense
  Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) is an endpoint protection (EPP) service that incorporates SentinelOne's next generation behavior-based analysis technology to defend physical and virtual endpoints against new malware attacks like ransomware and email phishing, which easily escape traditional signature-matching anti-virus products. ProSight ASM safeguards on-premises and cloud-based resources and provides a unified platform to manage the entire threat lifecycle including filtering, identification, containment, cleanup, and post-attack forensics. Key capabilities include one-click rollback using Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) and real-time network-wide immunization against new threats. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. Read more about Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) endpoint protection and ransomware recovery.

• ProSight Enhanced Security Protection (ESP): Endpoint Security and Exchange Email Filtering
  Progent's ProSight Enhanced Security Protection managed services offer affordable in-depth security for physical servers and VMs, workstations, smartphones, and Microsoft Exchange. ProSight ESP utilizes contextual security and advanced heuristics for round-the-clock monitoring and reacting to security assaults from all attack vectors. ProSight ESP offers firewall protection, intrusion alarms, device management, and web filtering through leading-edge tools incorporated within one agent accessible from a unified console. Progent's data protection and virtualization experts can help your business to design and implement a ProSight ESP deployment that meets your company's specific requirements and that allows you demonstrate compliance with legal and industry information protection regulations. Progent will assist you define and configure security policies that ProSight ESP will enforce, and Progent will monitor your IT environment and respond to alerts that require urgent attention. Progent's consultants can also help you to set up and verify a backup and restore solution like ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS) so you can get back in business quickly from a destructive cyber attack like ransomware. Read more about Progent's ProSight Enhanced Security Protection (ESP) unified physical and virtual endpoint protection and Exchange filtering.