Des Moines Ransomware Filtering and Remediation Consulting

Ransomware has become the weapon of choice for cybercriminals and malicious governments, representing a potentially lethal risk to businesses that fall victim. Current strains of crypto-ransomware target everything, including online backup, making even partial restoration a challenging and costly exercise. Novel strains of ransomware like Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, Netwalker, DopplePaymer, Snatch and Egregor have made the headlines, displacing WannaCry, TeslaCrypt, and Petya in prominence, elaborateness, and destructiveness.

90% of crypto-ransomware infections are caused by innocuous-seeming emails that have dangerous hyperlinks or file attachments, and a high percentage are so-called "zero-day" attacks that can escape the defenses of traditional signature-matching antivirus (AV) tools. While user training and up-front identification are important to defend against ransomware attacks, best practices dictate that you assume some malware will eventually succeed and that you implement a solid backup mechanism that permits you to repair the damage rapidly with little if any losses.

Progent's ProSight Ransomware Preparedness Checkup is a low-cost service centered around an online discussion with a Progent security consultant skilled in ransomware defense and recovery. In the course of this assessment Progent will collaborate directly with your Des Moines IT managers to gather critical information concerning your cybersecurity profile and backup environment. Progent will utilize this data to generate a Basic Security and Best Practices Report detailing how to adhere to best practices for implementing and administering your security and backup systems to block or clean up after a crypto-ransomware attack.

Progent's Basic Security and Best Practices Report highlights key areas related to ransomware defense and restoration recovery. The review covers:

Cybersecurity

• Effective allocation and use of administration accounts
• Correct NTFS (New Technology File System) and SMB (Server Message Block) authorizations
• Optimal firewall setup
• Secure Remote Desktop Protocol access
• Recommend AntiVirus filtering identification and configuration

• Split permission model for backup integrity
• Protecting required servers such as AD
• Offsite backups with cloud backup to Azure

About Ransomware
Ransomware is a variety of malicious software that encrypts or steals files so they cannot be used or are publicized. Crypto-ransomware often locks the victim's computer. To avoid the carnage, the target is required to send a specified ransom, usually via a crypto currency such as Bitcoin, within a short period of time. It is never certain that delivering the extortion price will recover the lost files or prevent its publication. Files can be encrypted or erased across a network based on the target's write permissions, and you cannot break the strong encryption technologies used on the compromised files. A typical ransomware attack vector is spoofed email, in which the user is lured into responding to by means of a social engineering technique known as spear phishing. This makes the email to appear to come from a trusted source. Another common vulnerability is a poorly secured RDP port.

The ransomware variant CryptoLocker ushered in the modern era of crypto-ransomware in 2013, and the monetary losses attributed to by different versions of ransomware is said to be billions of dollars annually, roughly doubling every two years. Famous examples are Locky, and NotPetya. Recent headline variants like Ryuk, DoppelPaymer and TeslaCrypt are more elaborate and have wreaked more damage than earlier strains. Even if your backup/recovery procedures permit your business to recover your encrypted files, you can still be hurt by exfiltration, where stolen data are made public. Because new variants of ransomware are launched every day, there is no guarantee that traditional signature-based anti-virus filters will detect a new attack. If threat does appear in an email, it is important that your end users have been taught to identify social engineering techniques. Your last line of protection is a sound process for performing and retaining remote backups and the use of dependable restoration platforms.

Ask Progent About the ProSight Crypto-Ransomware Readiness Testing in Des Moines
For pricing details and to learn more about how Progent's ProSight Ransomware Readiness Checkup can bolster your protection against ransomware in Des Moines, call Progent at 800-462-8800 or visit Contact Progent.