Chicago 24-7 Immediate Crypto
Malware Damage Assessment and Removal Support

Crypto-Ransomware : Your Crippling IT Disaster
Ransomware has become a modern cyberplague that presents an existential danger for businesses poorly prepared for an assault. Multiple generations of ransomware such as Reveton, Fusob, Locky, Syskey and MongoLock cryptoworms have been out in the wild for many years and still inflict damage. Recent variants of ransomware like Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, DopplePaymer, LockBit or Nephilim, plus daily unnamed malware, not only encrypt on-line data but also infect most accessible system protection mechanisms. Information synched to off-site disaster recovery sites can also be ransomed. In a poorly architected data protection solution, this can make any restore operations hopeless and basically knocks the entire system back to zero.

Retrieving services and data following a crypto-ransomware attack becomes a race against the clock as the targeted organization struggles to stop the spread, remove the ransomware, and resume enterprise-critical operations. Because ransomware takes time to replicate, penetrations are often launched at night, when attacks in many cases take longer to uncover. This compounds the difficulty of promptly mobilizing and coordinating a knowledgeable response team.

Progent makes available a range of support services for protecting organizations from ransomware events. Among these are user education to become familiar with and not fall victim to phishing exploits, ProSight Active Security Monitoring for remote monitoring and management, along with deployment of next-generation security appliances with AI capabilities from SentinelOne to discover and extinguish new cyber threats intelligently. Progent in addition can provide the assistance of experienced ransomware recovery engineers with the talent and commitment to rebuild a breached environment as soon as possible.

Progent's Ransomware Recovery Support Services
After a ransomware event, even paying the ransom demands in cryptocurrency does not guarantee that distant criminals will return the codes to decipher any of your files. Kaspersky Labs estimated that 17% of crypto-ransomware victims never recovered their files after having sent off the ransom, resulting in more losses. The gamble is also expensive. Ryuk ransoms are often several hundred thousand dollars. For larger organizations, the ransom demand can reach millions of dollars. The other path is to piece back together the mission-critical parts of your Information Technology environment. Absent the availability of complete data backups, this calls for a wide range of skill sets, professional project management, and the capability to work non-stop until the job is done.

For decades, Progent has made available certified expert Information Technology services for businesses across the US and has achieved Microsoft's Partnership certification status in the Datacenter and Cloud Productivity competencies. Progent's group of subject matter experts (SMEs) includes consultants who have earned top certifications in important technologies such as Microsoft, Cisco, VMware, and popular distributions of Linux. Progent's cybersecurity consultants have garnered internationally-recognized certifications including CISM, CISSP, CRISC, GIAC, and CMMC 2.0. (Visit Progent's certifications). Progent in addition has expertise in financial systems and ERP software solutions. This breadth of expertise affords Progent the ability to efficiently determine important systems and re-organize the surviving parts of your Information Technology system following a ransomware attack and assemble them into a functioning network.

Progent's recovery team of experts deploys top notch project management systems to coordinate the complex restoration process. Progent knows the urgency of acting quickly and together with a client's management and Information Technology staff to assign priority to tasks and to put essential services back on line as soon as possible.

Customer Case Study: A Successful Ransomware Penetration Recovery
A customer contacted Progent after their company was attacked by the Ryuk crypto-ransomware. Ryuk is thought to have been launched by North Korean government sponsored cybercriminals, suspected of adopting algorithms leaked from the United States National Security Agency. Ryuk seeks specific organizations with little ability to sustain disruption and is among the most lucrative instances of crypto-ransomware. Headline organizations include Data Resolution, a California-based data warehousing and cloud computing business, and the Chicago Tribune. Progent's customer is a small manufacturing business headquartered in the Chicago metro area and has around 500 workers. The Ryuk penetration had brought down all essential operations and manufacturing capabilities. The majority of the client's backups had been directly accessible at the beginning of the intrusion and were destroyed. The client was evaluating paying the ransom demand (exceeding $200,000) and praying for good luck, but in the end engaged Progent.

Progent worked with the client to quickly determine and assign priority to the critical applications that needed to be addressed in order to continue departmental functions:

• Active Directory (AD)
• E-Mail
• Accounting/MRP

Within two days, Progent was able to restore Windows Active Directory to its pre-attack state. Progent then completed reinstallations and hard drive recovery on key servers. All Exchange data and attributes were usable, which accelerated the restore of Exchange. Progent was able to locate non-encrypted OST files (Outlook Off-Line Data Files) on team desktop computers and laptops to recover email data. A recent offline backup of the businesses financials/ERP systems made it possible to recover these vital applications back available to users. Although a lot of work still had to be done to recover completely from the Ryuk event, core systems were returned to operations quickly:

Throughout the next month key milestones in the restoration project were achieved in tight collaboration between Progent team members and the customer:

• Self-hosted web applications were brought back up without losing any information.
• The MailStore Exchange Server with over 4 million historical messages was spun up and available for users.
• CRM/Orders/Invoices/Accounts Payable/Accounts Receivables (AR)/Inventory Control capabilities were 100 percent restored.
• A new Palo Alto 850 security appliance was brought on-line.
• 90% of the user desktops were back into operation.

Conclusion
A probable business-ending catastrophe was evaded due to dedicated professionals, a wide array of technical expertise, and tight teamwork. Although in post mortem the ransomware attack described here would have been prevented with up-to-date security technology solutions and recognized best practices, user and IT administrator education, and well designed security procedures for data backup and keeping systems up to date with security patches, the fact remains that state-sponsored hackers from Russia, China and elsewhere are relentless and are not going away. If you do get hit by a ransomware incursion, remember that Progent's team of professionals has substantial experience in ransomware virus defense, mitigation, and data restoration.

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

Additional Ransomware Protection Services Available from Progent
Progent can provide companies in Chicago a range of remote monitoring and security evaluation services designed to help you to minimize the threat from ransomware. These services incorporate next-generation machine learning capability to uncover zero-day strains of crypto-ransomware that are able to escape detection by legacy signature-based anti-virus solutions.

• ProSight Managed Service Packages: for Small to Mid-size Businesses
  Progent's ProSight Managed IT Service Plans make it possible for small and mid-size businesses to deploy Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) technology to achieve advanced network resilience. Progent takes care of the necessary monitoring and management for you, so your system expands smoothly without holding you back. For a low and predictable monthly price, Progent's experienced IT group can be your dependable technology safety net. Entry-level plans include remote monitoring and management, security, monthly patching, and reporting. As your needs expand, you can add low-cost subscriptions to advanced solutions like as SaaS M365/Google Workspace backup, 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 remote monitoring managed service that incorporates advanced remote monitoring and management (RMM) techniques to keep your network running at peak levels by tracking the state of critical computers that power your business network. When ProSight LAN Watch uncovers a problem, an alert is sent immediately to your designated IT management personnel and your Progent engineering consultant so any looming problems can be addressed before they have a chance to impact productivity. Find out more about ProSight LAN Watch server and desktop remote monitoring consulting.

• ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM: Centralized RMM Solution for Networks, Servers, and Workstations
  ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM software offers a centralized, cloud-based platform for managing your client-server infrastructure by offering an environment for performing common tedious tasks. These include health checking, update management, automated remediation, endpoint deployment, backup and recovery, A/V defense, secure remote access, built-in and custom scripts, resource inventory, endpoint status reports, and debugging support. When ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM identifies a serious incident, it transmits an alert to your designated IT management personnel and your assigned Progent technical consultant so emerging issues can be fixed before they interfere with productivity. Find out more about ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM server and desktop monitoring services.

• ProSight WAN Watch: Infrastructure Remote Monitoring and Management
  Progent's ProSight WAN Watch is an infrastructure monitoring and management service that makes it easy and affordable for smaller businesses to map, monitor, optimize and debug their connectivity appliances like routers, firewalls, and load balancers as well as servers, printers, endpoints and other networked devices. Incorporating state-of-the-art Remote Monitoring and Management technology, ProSight WAN Watch makes sure that network diagrams are always updated, captures and displays the configuration of almost all devices on your network, monitors performance, and generates alerts when problems are discovered. By automating time-consuming network management processes, WAN Watch can cut hours off ordinary tasks such as network mapping, reconfiguring your network, locating devices that need important updates, or identifying the cause of performance problems. Find out more details about ProSight WAN Watch infrastructure management services.

• ProSight Reporting: Real-time Reporting for Ticketing and Network Monitoring Platforms
  ProSight Reporting is a growing suite of real-time and in-depth management reporting tools created to integrate with the industry's top ticketing and network monitoring programs including ConnectWise Manage, ConnectWise Automate, Customer Thermometer, Auvik, and SentinelOne. ProSight Reporting incorporates Microsoft Graph and features color coding to surface and contextualize key issues such as spotty support follow-through or endpoints with missing patches. By exposing ticketing or network health concerns clearly and in near-real time, ProSight Reporting improves network value, reduces management overhead, and saves money. For details, see ProSight Reporting for ticketing and network monitoring applications.

• ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS): Backup and Recovery Services
  Progent has worked with leading backup technology companies to produce ProSight Data Protection Services, a family of management outsourcing plans that provide backup-as-a-service (BaaS). ProSight DPS products manage and track your backup operations and enable transparent backup and fast restoration of important files, apps, system images, plus virtual machines. ProSight DPS lets you protect against data loss caused by hardware breakdown, natural disasters, fire, malware such as ransomware, user error, malicious insiders, or application glitches. Managed backup 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 DPS ECHO Backup based on Barracuda dedicated hardware, and ProSight DPS MSP360 Hybrid Backup. Your Progent expert can help you to identify which of these 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 service that uses the infrastructure of top information security vendors to deliver web-based control and world-class protection for your email traffic. The powerful architecture of Progent's Email Guard managed service integrates cloud-based filtering with an on-premises security gateway appliance to offer advanced defense against spam, viruses, Dos Attacks, Directory Harvest Attacks (DHAs), and other email-based malware. Email Guard's Cloud Protection Layer serves as a first line of defense and blocks the vast majority of threats from making it to your network firewall. This reduces your vulnerability to inbound attacks and conserves network bandwidth and storage. Email Guard's onsite security gateway device adds a deeper level of analysis for inbound email. For outbound email, the on-premises gateway provides anti-virus and anti-spam filtering, policy-based Data Loss Prevention, and email encryption. The local gateway can also help Microsoft Exchange Server to track and safeguard internal email traffic that originates and ends within your corporate firewall. For more details, see Email Guard spam and content filtering.

• ProSight Duo Two-Factor Authentication: Access Security, Endpoint Policy Enforcement, and Protected Single Sign-on (SSO)
  Progent's Duo authentication service plans utilize Cisco's Duo technology to defend against stolen passwords through the use of two-factor authentication. Duo supports one-tap identity verification on Apple iOS, Android, and other personal devices. With Duo 2FA, whenever you log into a secured application and give your password you are requested to verify your identity on a unit that only you possess and that is accessed using a different network channel. A broad selection of out-of-band devices can be used for this second form of ID validation such as an iPhone or Android or watch, a hardware token, a landline phone, etc. You can register multiple validation devices. For more information about Duo identity validation services, go to Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for access security.

• Outsourced/Co-managed Call Center: Help Desk Managed Services
  Progent's Help Desk services allow your IT group to offload Help Desk services to Progent or divide responsibilities for Service Desk support seamlessly between your in-house network support staff and Progent's extensive roster of IT support technicians, engineers and subject matter experts (SMEs). Progent's Shared Help Desk Service offers a smooth supplement to your internal network support organization. User access to the Help Desk, delivery of support services, issue escalation, ticket creation and updates, performance measurement, and maintenance of the support database are cohesive whether incidents are resolved by your in-house IT support organization, by Progent, or by a combination. Learn more about Progent's outsourced/co-managed Help Center services.

• Progent Active Protection Against Ransomware: AI-based Ransomware Identification and Cleanup
  Progent's Active Defense Against Ransomware is an endpoint protection (EPP) solution that utilizes cutting edge behavior analysis tools to guard endpoints and servers and VMs against new malware assaults like ransomware and email phishing, which easily escape traditional signature-matching AV tools. Progent ASM services safeguard local and cloud resources and provides a single platform to automate the complete threat lifecycle including filtering, infiltration detection, containment, remediation, and post-attack forensics. Top capabilities include single-click rollback with Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service and automatic network-wide immunization against newly discovered threats. Find out more about Progent's ransomware defense and cleanup 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 capture, update, retrieve and protect data about your IT infrastructure, processes, business apps, and services. You can quickly find passwords or serial numbers and be alerted about impending expirations of SSLs or domains. By updating and managing your IT infrastructure documentation, you can save as much as 50% of time thrown away searching for vital information about your network. ProSight IT Asset Management features a centralized location for holding and sharing all documents related to managing your business network such as standard operating procedures (SOPs) and How-To's. ProSight IT Asset Management also offers advanced automation for collecting and associating IT data. Whether you're planning enhancements, doing maintenance, or reacting to an emergency, ProSight IT Asset Management delivers the information you require the instant you need it. Learn more about Progent's ProSight IT Asset Management service.

• Progent's Patch Management: Software/Firmware Update Management Services
  Progent's managed services for software and firmware patch management provide organizations of all sizes a versatile and affordable solution for assessing, validating, scheduling, implementing, and documenting software and firmware updates to your dynamic information system. Besides maximizing the protection and reliability of your IT network, Progent's patch management services allow your IT team to concentrate on line-of-business projects and tasks that derive maximum business value from your network. Learn more about Progent's software/firmware update management services.

• ProSight Virtual Hosting: Hosted VMs at Progent's World-class Data Center
  With ProSight Virtual Hosting service, a small business can have its key servers and applications hosted in a secure fault tolerant data center on a high-performance virtual machine host configured and maintained by Progent's IT support experts. With Progent's ProSight Virtual Hosting model, the client owns the data, the OS platforms, and the applications. Because the system is virtualized, it can be ported easily to an alternate hosting environment without a time-consuming and difficult configuration procedure. With ProSight Virtual Hosting, you are not locked into one hosting provider. Learn more 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 analysis technology to defend physical and virtual endpoints against new malware attacks such as ransomware and file-less exploits, which routinely get by traditional signature-based AV tools. ProSight Active Security Monitoring safeguards local and cloud resources and provides a unified platform to manage the complete threat progression including protection, detection, containment, remediation, and forensics. Top capabilities include single-click rollback with Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) and real-time system-wide immunization against newly discovered threats. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. Learn more about Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring endpoint protection and ransomware recovery.

• ProSight Enhanced Security Protection (ESP): Endpoint Protection and Microsoft Exchange Email Filtering
  Progent's ProSight Enhanced Security Protection managed services deliver ultra-affordable multi-layer protection for physical and virtual servers, desktops, smartphones, and Exchange email. ProSight ESP uses contextual security and advanced machine learning for round-the-clock monitoring and responding to security assaults from all vectors. ProSight ESP provides two-way firewall protection, penetration alerts, endpoint control, and web filtering through cutting-edge tools packaged within one agent managed from a single console. Progent's data protection and virtualization experts can help you to design and configure a ProSight ESP environment that meets your company's unique requirements and that helps you achieve and demonstrate compliance with government and industry information protection regulations. Progent will assist you specify and configure security policies that ProSight ESP will manage, and Progent will monitor your network and react to alerts that call for immediate attention. Progent's consultants can also assist your company to set up and test a backup and restore solution like ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS) so you can get back in business rapidly from a destructive cyber attack such as ransomware. Learn more about Progent's ProSight Enhanced Security Protection (ESP) unified endpoint security and Exchange email filtering.