Pasadena 24/7 Critical Ransomware
Computer Virus Identification and Remediation Services

Ransomware : Your Crippling Information Technology Disaster
Ransomware has become a modern cyber pandemic that represents an enterprise-level danger for businesses vulnerable to an assault. Different versions of ransomware like the CrySIS, Fusob, Bad Rabbit, NotPetya and MongoLock cryptoworms have been replicating for years and still inflict destruction. Modern versions of ransomware like Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, Netwalker, LockBit or Nephilim, plus frequent as yet unnamed viruses, not only do encryption of on-line information but also infect any accessible system backup. Files replicated to cloud environments can also be held hostage. In a vulnerable data protection solution, this can render automated recovery useless and basically knocks the datacenter back to zero.

Getting back on-line applications and information following a ransomware event becomes a sprint against the clock as the targeted organization tries its best to stop the spread, remove the ransomware, and restore enterprise-critical activity. Due to the fact that crypto-ransomware needs time to move laterally, attacks are often launched on weekends and holidays, when successful penetrations are likely to take more time to detect. This compounds the difficulty of quickly marshalling and coordinating an experienced mitigation team.

Progent has a variety of support services for securing enterprises from crypto-ransomware events. These include team member training to become familiar with and avoid phishing exploits, ProSight Active Security Monitoring for remote monitoring and management, in addition to installation of the latest generation security gateways with artificial intelligence capabilities from SentinelOne to identify and disable day-zero threats rapidly. Progent also provides the services of veteran ransomware recovery professionals with the talent and commitment to reconstruct a compromised environment as soon as possible.

Progent's Ransomware Recovery Help
Subsequent to a ransomware invasion, sending the ransom in cryptocurrency does not ensure that cyber hackers will respond with the codes to unencrypt any of your data. Kaspersky determined that 17% of ransomware victims never restored their information even after having sent off the ransom, resulting in additional losses. The gamble is also expensive. Ryuk ransoms are commonly a few hundred thousand dollars. For larger organizations, the ransom demand can reach millions. The fallback is to piece back together the critical components of your IT environment. Without access to full system backups, this calls for a broad complement of IT skills, well-coordinated team management, and the willingness to work 24x7 until the job is over.

For decades, Progent has provided professional Information Technology services for companies across the U.S. and has earned Microsoft's Partnership certification in the Datacenter and Cloud Productivity competencies. Progent's team of subject matter experts includes consultants who have earned top certifications in leading technologies such as Microsoft, Cisco, VMware, and popular distributions of Linux. Progent's cybersecurity engineers have garnered internationally-renowned certifications including CISM, CISSP-ISSAP, CRISC, GIAC, and CMMC 2.0. (Refer to Progent's certifications). Progent also has experience in financial management and ERP applications. This breadth of experience affords Progent the capability to rapidly determine necessary systems and re-organize the remaining pieces of your Information Technology environment following a ransomware event and assemble them into a functioning system.

Progent's security team utilizes top notch project management tools to coordinate the sophisticated recovery process. Progent appreciates the importance of acting quickly and in concert with a customer's management and Information Technology resources to assign priority to tasks and to get critical systems back on line as soon as humanly possible.

Business Case Study: A Successful Ransomware Attack Restoration
A small business engaged Progent after their organization was brought down by the Ryuk crypto-ransomware. Ryuk is believed to have been created by Northern Korean state sponsored hackers, possibly adopting techniques exposed from the United States National Security Agency. Ryuk attacks specific businesses with limited ability to sustain disruption and is one of the most lucrative iterations of ransomware. Well Known targets include Data Resolution, a California-based information warehousing and cloud computing business, and the Chicago Tribune. Progent's customer is a small manufacturing company headquartered in Chicago and has around 500 staff members. The Ryuk attack had paralyzed all company operations and manufacturing capabilities. The majority of the client's data protection had been on-line at the start of the intrusion and were encrypted. The client considered paying the ransom (exceeding $200K) and hoping for good luck, but in the end utilized Progent.

Progent worked together with the customer to quickly identify and assign priority to the critical elements that needed to be addressed in order to continue business operations:

• Microsoft Active Directory
• Microsoft Exchange Server
• MRP System

In less than 48 hours, Progent was able to recover Windows Active Directory to its pre-penetration state. Progent then accomplished setup and hard drive recovery on essential systems. All Microsoft Exchange Server ties and attributes were usable, which accelerated the rebuild of Exchange. Progent was also able to locate intact OST data files (Outlook Email Off-Line Folder Files) on team desktop computers and laptops in order to recover mail messages. A recent off-line backup of the customer's financials/ERP systems made them able to recover these essential applications back servicing users. Although a lot of work remained to recover fully from the Ryuk event, the most important systems were recovered quickly:

During the next few weeks critical milestones in the restoration process were accomplished in tight cooperation between Progent consultants and the customer:

• In-house web applications were returned to operation with no loss of data.
• The MailStore Server exceeding 4 million archived messages was brought on-line and available for users.
• CRM/Orders/Invoicing/Accounts Payable/Accounts Receivables/Inventory capabilities were fully functional.
• A new Palo Alto 850 security appliance was deployed.
• Most of the user desktops were being used by staff.

Conclusion
A potential business-killing catastrophe was evaded with dedicated professionals, a wide range of IT skills, and tight teamwork. Although in analyzing the event afterwards the crypto-ransomware incident described here should have been identified and disabled with up-to-date security solutions and security best practices, user and IT administrator education, and well designed security procedures for data protection and proper patching controls, the fact is that state-sponsored hackers from China, Russia, North Korea and elsewhere are tireless and are not going away. If you do fall victim to a ransomware incident, remember that Progent's team of experts has proven experience in crypto-ransomware virus defense, mitigation, and data disaster recovery.

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

Additional Ransomware Protection Services Available from Progent
Progent offers companies in Pasadena a variety of remote monitoring and security assessment services designed to help you to reduce the threat from ransomware. These services utilize modern machine learning capability to detect new strains of ransomware that are able to evade traditional signature-based security solutions.

• ProSight Managed Service Plans: for Small to Mid-size Businesses
  Progent's ProSight Managed IT Service Plans make it possible for small and mid-size companies to deploy Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) solutions to achieve leading-edge network resilience. Progent handles the daily monitoring and maintenance for you, so your network scales smoothly without becoming an obstacle. For a low and predictable monthly subscription, Progent's experienced IT team can be your complete technology safety net. Basic packages include RMM, security, monthly patching, and documentation. As your needs grow, you can add low-cost subscriptions to best-in-class solutions such as SaaS M365/Google Workspace backup, Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), penetration testing, or WiFi management.

• ProSight LAN Watch: Server and Desktop Monitoring
  ProSight LAN Watch is Progent's server and desktop remote monitoring managed service that uses advanced remote monitoring and management (RMM) technology to keep your IT system operating efficiently by checking the health of vital assets that drive your business network. When ProSight LAN Watch uncovers an issue, an alert is transmitted immediately to your designated IT personnel and your Progent engineering consultant so any looming problems can be resolved before they can impact your network. Learn more about ProSight LAN Watch server and desktop monitoring services.

• 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-driven solution for monitoring and managing your client-server infrastructure by providing an environment for performing common time-consuming jobs. These can include health monitoring, patch management, automated remediation, endpoint deployment, backup and recovery, anti-virus protection, secure remote access, standard and custom scripts, resource inventory, endpoint profile reporting, and troubleshooting help. If ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM identifies a serious issue, it sends an alarm to your designated IT management staff and your Progent technical consultant so that potential problems can be fixed before they interfere with productivity. Learn more about ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM server and desktop remote monitoring services.

• ProSight WAN Watch: Network Infrastructure Management
  ProSight WAN Watch is a network infrastructure monitoring and management service that makes it easy and inexpensive for smaller organizations to map out, monitor, reconfigure and troubleshoot their networking appliances such as routers, firewalls, and wireless controllers plus servers, printers, client computers and other devices. Using cutting-edge Remote Monitoring and Management technology, WAN Watch ensures that network maps are kept updated, captures and displays the configuration of virtually all devices on your network, tracks performance, and generates alerts when potential issues are discovered. By automating tedious management and troubleshooting processes, ProSight WAN Watch can knock hours off ordinary tasks like network mapping, expanding your network, locating appliances that need important updates, or resolving performance problems. Find out more about ProSight WAN Watch network infrastructure management services.

• ProSight Reporting: In-depth Reporting for Ticketing and Network Monitoring Platforms
  ProSight Reporting is a growing line of real-time and in-depth reporting tools designed to work with the industry's top ticketing and remote network monitoring platforms such as 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 inconsistent support follow-up or endpoints with missing patches. By identifying ticketing or network health problems clearly and in near-real time, ProSight Reporting improves network value, reduces management overhead, and saves money. For more information, see ProSight Reporting for ticketing and network monitoring applications.

• ProSight Data Protection Services: Managed Backup and Disaster Recovery Services
  Progent has partnered with advanced backup software providers to create ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a family of management outsourcing plans that provide backup-as-a-service (BaaS). ProSight DPS products automate and track your backup operations and allow non-disruptive backup and rapid restoration of vital files, applications, system images, plus Hyper-V and VMware virtual machines. ProSight DPS helps you recover from data loss resulting from hardware failures, natural disasters, fire, cyber attacks such as ransomware, human error, ill-intentioned insiders, or application bugs. Managed backup services in the ProSight DPS product family include ProSight Altaro VM Backup, ProSight 365 Total Backup (formerly Altaro 365 Backup), ProSight ECHO Backup using Barracuda dedicated storage, and ProSight MSP360 Cloud and On-prem Backup. Your Progent consultant can assist you to determine which of these fully managed backup 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 filtering service that incorporates the technology of leading information security companies to provide web-based management and world-class protection for your email traffic. The powerful architecture of Email Guard combines cloud-based filtering with an on-premises security gateway appliance to offer advanced defense against spam, viruses, Dos Attacks, DHAs, and other email-borne malware. Email Guard's cloud filter serves as a first line of defense and keeps most unwanted email from reaching your security perimeter. This reduces your vulnerability to inbound attacks and conserves network bandwidth and storage space. Email Guard's on-premises security gateway appliance provides a deeper layer of inspection for incoming email. For outbound email, the local gateway provides AV and anti-spam filtering, protection against data leaks, and email encryption. The onsite gateway can also assist Microsoft Exchange Server to track and protect internal email traffic that stays inside your corporate firewall. For more information, see Email Guard spam filtering and data leakage protection.

• ProSight Duo Multi-Factor Authentication: Access Security, Endpoint Remediation, and Protected Single Sign-on (SSO)
  Progent's Duo authentication services utilize Cisco's Duo technology to protect against password theft by using two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo supports single-tap identity verification on iOS, Google Android, and other personal devices. With 2FA, whenever you sign into a secured application and give your password you are requested to verify who you are via a unit that only you possess and that uses a different network channel. A wide range of out-of-band devices can be used for this added means of ID validation such as an iPhone or Android or wearable, a hardware token, a landline telephone, etc. You can register several validation devices. To find out more about ProSight Duo identity authentication services, visit Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for access security.

• Progent's Outsourced/Shared Call Center: Support Desk Managed Services
  Progent's Call Center services allow your information technology team to outsource Support Desk services to Progent or divide responsibilities for Service Desk support seamlessly between your in-house support team and Progent's extensive roster of IT service technicians, engineers and subject matter experts. Progent's Co-managed Help Desk Service provides a smooth extension of your core IT support organization. End user access to the Service Desk, provision of technical assistance, escalation, trouble ticket generation and updates, efficiency measurement, and maintenance of the service database are consistent regardless of whether incidents are resolved by your core IT support resources, by Progent's team, or both. Read more about Progent's outsourced/co-managed Call Desk services.

• Progent Active Defense Against Ransomware: Machine Learning-based Ransomware Identification and Remediation
  Progent's Active Defense Against Ransomware is an endpoint protection (EPP) managed service that utilizes next generation behavior machine learning technology to defend endpoint devices and physical and virtual servers against new malware attacks like ransomware and email phishing, which routinely get by legacy signature-matching AV products. Progent Active Security Monitoring services protect on-premises and cloud-based resources and provides a unified platform to automate the complete threat lifecycle including filtering, infiltration detection, containment, remediation, and post-attack forensics. Key capabilities include one-click rollback with Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service and automatic system-wide immunization against newly discovered attacks. Read more about Progent's ransomware protection and cleanup services.

• ProSight IT Asset Management: Network Documentation Management
  ProSight IT Asset Management service is an IT infrastructure documentation management service that makes it easy to create, update, retrieve and safeguard data related to your IT infrastructure, processes, business apps, and services. You can quickly locate passwords or IP addresses and be alerted about impending expirations of SSL certificates or domains. By cleaning up and organizing your network documentation, you can save as much as 50% of time thrown away trying to find critical information about your IT network. ProSight IT Asset Management includes a centralized repository for storing and collaborating on all documents related to managing your network infrastructure like recommended procedures and How-To's. ProSight IT Asset Management also offers a high level of automation for collecting and associating IT information. Whether you're making improvements, doing regular maintenance, or responding to a crisis, ProSight IT Asset Management delivers the information you need when 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 software and firmware patch management offer organizations of all sizes a flexible and cost-effective alternative for assessing, validating, scheduling, applying, and documenting software and firmware updates to your dynamic information network. Besides maximizing the protection and reliability of your IT environment, Progent's patch management services free up time for your IT staff to focus on more strategic projects and tasks that deliver the highest business value from your network. Find out more about Progent's software/firmware update management services.

• ProSight Virtual Hosting: Hosted Virtual Machines at Progent's Tier III Data Center
  With Progent's ProSight Virtual Hosting service, a small or mid-size business can have its key servers and apps hosted in a secure fault tolerant data center on a fast virtual machine host set up and maintained by Progent's IT support professionals. Under Progent's ProSight Virtual Hosting service model, the customer owns the data, the operating system platforms, and the apps. Because the environment is virtualized, it can be ported easily to an alternate hosting solution without a time-consuming and technically risky reinstallation procedure. With ProSight Virtual Hosting, your business is 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 (ASM) is an endpoint protection (EPP) service that incorporates SentinelOne's cutting edge behavior analysis technology to guard physical and virtual endpoint devices against new malware assaults like ransomware and email phishing, which easily evade legacy signature-based anti-virus products. ProSight ASM safeguards on-premises and cloud-based resources and provides a unified platform to address the entire malware attack progression including protection, identification, mitigation, remediation, and forensics. Key capabilities include one-click rollback using Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) and automatic network-wide immunization against new threats. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. Learn more about Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) endpoint protection and ransomware recovery.

• ProSight Enhanced Security Protection (ESP): Physical and Virtual Endpoint Protection and Exchange Filtering
  ProSight Enhanced Security Protection (ESP) services deliver ultra-affordable multi-layer protection for physical servers and virtual machines, workstations, smartphones, and Exchange email. ProSight ESP uses contextual security and advanced machine learning for round-the-clock monitoring and responding to cyber threats from all attack vectors. ProSight ESP provides firewall protection, intrusion alerts, device management, and web filtering through cutting-edge technologies incorporated within a single agent managed from a single console. Progent's security and virtualization experts can assist your business to plan and implement a ProSight ESP environment that meets your company's specific requirements and that helps you prove compliance with government and industry information protection standards. Progent will assist you specify and configure security policies that ProSight ESP will enforce, and Progent will monitor your IT environment and respond to alarms that call for immediate attention. Progent's consultants can also help your company to install and verify a backup and restore system such as ProSight Data Protection Services so you can get back in business rapidly from a potentially disastrous security attack like ransomware. Find out more about Progent's ProSight Enhanced Security Protection (ESP) unified physical and virtual endpoint protection and Microsoft Exchange email filtering.