Minneapolis 24/7 Critical Ransomware
Computer Malware Identification and Removal Experts

Ransomware : Your Feared IT Catastrophe
Ransomware has become a modern cyber pandemic that poses an enterprise-level threat for businesses poorly prepared for an attack. Different iterations of crypto-ransomware such as Reveton, CryptoWall, Locky, Syskey and MongoLock cryptoworms have been around for many years and still inflict damage. Modern variants of ransomware such as Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, DopplePaymer, Snatch or Egregor, along with more as yet unnamed malware, not only do encryption of on-line data but also infect most configured system backup. Data synchronized to off-site disaster recovery sites can also be ransomed. In a vulnerable data protection solution, this can make automatic restoration useless and effectively knocks the datacenter back to square one.

Getting back on-line applications and information following a ransomware event becomes a race against the clock as the targeted organization struggles to contain the damage, eradicate the ransomware, and resume mission-critical operations. Due to the fact that ransomware needs time to move laterally, assaults are usually sprung during weekends and nights, when successful attacks may take more time to uncover. This compounds the difficulty of promptly marshalling and coordinating a knowledgeable mitigation team.

Progent offers a variety of support services for protecting businesses from crypto-ransomware penetrations. These include team member education to help recognize and avoid phishing scams, ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) for remote monitoring and management, along with installation of modern security solutions with artificial intelligence capabilities from SentinelOne to discover and suppress zero-day cyber threats rapidly. Progent in addition can provide the services of expert ransomware recovery professionals with the skills and commitment to reconstruct a breached environment as urgently as possible.

Progent's Crypto-Ransomware Recovery Help
Following a crypto-ransomware event, even paying the ransom in cryptocurrency does not provide any assurance that criminal gangs will provide the keys to decrypt any of your data. Kaspersky ascertained that 17% of crypto-ransomware victims never recovered their data after having paid the ransom, resulting in additional losses. The gamble is also costly. Ryuk ransoms are commonly several hundred thousand dollars. For larger enterprises, the ransom demand can reach millions of dollars. The fallback is to setup from scratch the essential components of your Information Technology environment. Absent access to complete system backups, this calls for a wide complement of skills, well-coordinated team management, and the ability to work 24x7 until the job is done.

For two decades, Progent has provided professional IT services for businesses across the U.S. and has earned Microsoft's Partnership certification status in the Datacenter and Cloud Productivity competencies. Progent's group of subject matter experts (SMEs) includes consultants who have been awarded advanced industry certifications in important technologies such as Microsoft, Cisco, VMware, and popular distributions of Linux. Progent's cybersecurity specialists have earned internationally-recognized certifications including CISM, CISSP-ISSAP, ISACA CRISC, GIAC, and CMMC 2.0. (Visit Progent's certifications). Progent also has experience with accounting and ERP application software. This breadth of expertise gives Progent the capability to efficiently identify critical systems and re-organize the surviving components of your computer network environment following a crypto-ransomware event and rebuild them into an operational network.

Progent's security team uses top notch project management systems to orchestrate the complex restoration process. Progent appreciates the importance of acting quickly and together with a customer's management and IT resources to assign priority to tasks and to get the most important systems back on line as soon as humanly possible.

Client Case Study: A Successful Ransomware Attack Recovery
A customer engaged Progent after their network system was attacked by the Ryuk ransomware virus. Ryuk is generally considered to have been created by North Korean state sponsored criminal gangs, suspected of adopting algorithms leaked from America's National Security Agency. Ryuk targets specific companies with limited tolerance for disruption and is one of the most profitable examples of crypto-ransomware. High publicized victims include Data Resolution, a California-based information warehousing and cloud computing firm, and the Chicago Tribune. Progent's client is a single-location manufacturing business headquartered in the Chicago metro area and has about 500 workers. The Ryuk event had disabled all business operations and manufacturing capabilities. Most of the client's system backups had been on-line at the time of the intrusion and were damaged. The client considered paying the ransom (in excess of $200,000) and hoping for the best, but ultimately made the decision to use Progent.

Progent worked together with the customer to rapidly understand and prioritize the essential systems that had to be restored in order to resume company functions:

• Active Directory (AD)
• Microsoft Exchange
• Accounting/MRP

Within 48 hours, Progent was able to rebuild Active Directory services to its pre-intrusion state. Progent then completed rebuilding and storage recovery on mission critical servers. All Exchange schema and configuration information were intact, which accelerated the rebuild of Exchange. Progent was also able to locate intact OST files (Outlook Off-Line Data Files) on team workstations and laptops to recover email information. A not too old offline backup of the businesses financials/ERP systems made them able to return these essential programs back online for users. Although a lot of work needed to be completed to recover completely from the Ryuk virus, the most important services were returned to operations rapidly:

Over the following month critical milestones in the recovery project were achieved in tight collaboration between Progent engineers and the client:

• Internal web sites were brought back up with no loss of data.
• The MailStore Exchange Server with over four million historical messages was restored to operations and available for users.
• CRM/Orders/Invoicing/Accounts Payable (AP)/AR/Inventory Control capabilities were fully operational.
• A new Palo Alto 850 firewall was deployed.
• Most of the desktops and laptops were fully operational.

Conclusion
A probable business-ending catastrophe was averted by hard-working experts, a broad spectrum of subject matter expertise, and tight collaboration. Although upon completion of forensics the crypto-ransomware penetration described here would have been identified and prevented with modern security technology and NIST Cybersecurity Framework best practices, staff training, and properly executed incident response procedures for data protection and applying software patches, the fact remains that government-sponsored cybercriminals from Russia, North Korea and elsewhere are relentless and are not going away. If you do get hit by a crypto-ransomware incursion, remember that Progent's team of professionals has a proven track record in ransomware virus defense, remediation, and file restoration.

To review or download a PDF version of this customer story, please click:
Progent's Ryuk Virus Recovery Case Study Datasheet. (PDF - 282 KB)

Additional Crypto-Ransomware Protection Services Offered by Progent
Progent can provide businesses in Minneapolis a variety of remote monitoring and security evaluation services designed to help you to minimize the threat from ransomware. These services include next-generation artificial intelligence technology to detect zero-day variants of ransomware that are able to get past traditional signature-based anti-virus solutions.

• ProSight Managed Service Plans: for Small to Mid-size Businesses
  Progent's ProSight Managed IT Service Packages make it practical for small and mid-size businesses to deploy Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) solutions to create leading-edge IT resilience. Progent handles the necessary monitoring and maintenance for you, so your network expands smoothly without holding you back. For a low and predictable monthly price, Progent's full-service IT team can be your dependable technology safety net. Entry-level packages include remote monitoring and management, security, automatic monthly patching, and reporting. As your requirements 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 Monitoring
  ProSight LAN Watch is Progent's server and desktop monitoring service that uses advanced remote monitoring and management (RMM) techniques to keep your network running at peak levels by checking the state of vital computers that power your information system. When ProSight LAN Watch detects a problem, an alarm is sent automatically to your designated IT management staff and your assigned Progent engineering consultant so that all potential problems can be resolved before they can impact productivity. Learn more about ProSight LAN Watch server and desktop remote monitoring services.

• ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM: Unified RMM Solution for Networks, Servers, and Workstations
  ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM software offers a unified, cloud-based solution for monitoring and managing your network, server, and desktop devices by offering tools for performing common tedious tasks. These include health checking, update management, automated remediation, endpoint setup, backup and recovery, anti-virus response, remote access, built-in and custom scripts, resource inventory, endpoint profile reports, and debugging help. When ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM uncovers a serious issue, it sends an alert to your designated IT staff and your assigned Progent consultant so emerging issues can be taken care of before they interfere with your network. Learn more about ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM server and desktop monitoring services.

• ProSight WAN Watch: Infrastructure Remote Monitoring and Management
  ProSight WAN Watch is an infrastructure management service that makes it easy and affordable for smaller organizations to map out, monitor, enhance and debug their networking appliances like switches, firewalls, and load balancers as well as servers, printers, client computers and other networked devices. Incorporating cutting-edge RMM technology, ProSight WAN Watch makes sure that infrastructure topology maps are kept updated, captures and manages the configuration of virtually all devices on your network, monitors performance, and sends alerts when potential issues are discovered. By automating time-consuming network management activities, ProSight WAN Watch can knock hours off common tasks such as making network diagrams, expanding your network, locating devices that require important software patches, or resolving performance bottlenecks. Find out more details about ProSight WAN Watch infrastructure management consulting.

• ProSight Reporting: Real-time Reporting for Ticketing and Network Monitoring Platforms
  ProSight Reporting is an expanding line of real-time reporting utilities designed to integrate with the leading ticketing and network monitoring programs such as ConnectWise Manage, ConnectWise Automate, Customer Thermometer, Auvik, and SentinelOne. ProSight Reporting incorporates Microsoft Graph and features color coding to highlight and contextualize key issues like inconsistent support follow-through or machines with missing patches. By identifying ticketing or network health problems clearly and in near-real time, ProSight Reporting enhances productivity, lowers management hassle, and saves money. For details, see ProSight Reporting for ticketing and network monitoring platforms.

• ProSight Data Protection Services: Managed Backup and Recovery Services
  Progent has partnered with advanced backup software providers to produce ProSight Data Protection Services, a family of subscription-based offerings that provide backup-as-a-service. ProSight DPS products automate and track your data backup processes and enable transparent backup and rapid recovery of important files/folders, apps, system images, and Hyper-V and VMware virtual machines. ProSight DPS lets your business recover from data loss resulting from equipment breakdown, natural disasters, fire, cyber attacks such as ransomware, user mistakes, ill-intentioned employees, or application bugs. Managed backup services in the ProSight Data Protection Services portfolio include ProSight Altaro VM Backup, ProSight 365 Total Backup (formerly Altaro 365 Backup), ProSight ECHO Backup using Barracuda dedicated storage, and ProSight MSP360 Hybrid Backup. Your Progent service representative can help you to identify which of these fully managed services are most appropriate for your IT environment.

• ProSight Email Guard: Inbound and Outbound Spam Filtering and Data Leakage Protection
  ProSight Email Guard is Progent's spam and virus filtering service that uses the technology of top information security companies to provide web-based control and comprehensive protection for your email traffic. The powerful architecture of Email Guard combines a Cloud Protection Layer with an on-premises gateway appliance to provide complete protection against spam, viruses, Dos Attacks, Directory Harvest Attacks (DHAs), and other email-borne threats. The Cloud Protection Layer serves as a preliminary barricade and keeps the vast majority of unwanted email from reaching your security perimeter. This reduces your vulnerability to inbound attacks and saves network bandwidth and storage. Email Guard's onsite gateway appliance adds a deeper level of inspection for incoming email. For outbound email, the local security gateway offers AV and anti-spam protection, protection against data leaks, and email encryption. The onsite gateway can also help Exchange Server to track and safeguard internal email that originates and ends inside your corporate firewall. For more information, see ProSight Email Guard spam filtering and data leakage protection.

• ProSight Duo Multi-Factor Authentication: Identity Validation, Endpoint Policy Enforcement, and Secure Single Sign-on
  Progent's Duo MFA managed services utilize Cisco's Duo technology to protect against compromised passwords through the use of two-factor authentication. Duo enables single-tap identity verification with Apple iOS, Android, and other personal devices. With Duo 2FA, whenever you log into a secured online account and enter your password you are asked to confirm who you are via a unit that only you have and that uses a different network channel. A broad selection of devices can be utilized as this added means of authentication including a smartphone or wearable, a hardware token, a landline telephone, etc. You may designate several validation devices. For details about Duo two-factor identity authentication services, visit Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for access security.

• Outsourced/Co-managed Service Desk: Help Desk Managed Services
  Progent's Help Center services permit your information technology group to outsource Support Desk services to Progent or split responsibilities for Service Desk support transparently between your internal network support staff and Progent's extensive roster of IT service technicians, engineers and subject matter experts (SMEs). Progent's Co-managed Service Desk offers a transparent supplement to your core support organization. User interaction with the Service Desk, delivery of technical assistance, escalation, trouble ticket generation and updates, performance metrics, and maintenance of the service database are consistent regardless of whether issues are taken care of by your in-house IT support group, by Progent, or by a combination. Read more about Progent's outsourced/shared Help Center services.

• Active Protection Against Ransomware: AI-based Ransomware Identification and Remediation
  Progent's Active Defense Against Ransomware is an endpoint protection managed service that utilizes cutting edge behavior-based machine learning technology to guard endpoints as well as physical and virtual servers against modern malware assaults like ransomware and file-less exploits, which easily escape legacy signature-based anti-virus products. Progent ASM services protect on-premises and cloud resources and offers a unified platform to address the complete malware attack progression including filtering, infiltration detection, mitigation, remediation, and forensics. Key features include one-click rollback with Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) and real-time network-wide immunization against newly discovered attacks. Read 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 makes it easy to create, update, find and protect information related to your network infrastructure, processes, applications, and services. You can quickly locate passwords or IP addresses and be warned automatically about upcoming expirations of SSL certificates or warranties. By cleaning up and organizing your IT documentation, you can save up to half of time spent trying to find critical information about your network. ProSight IT Asset Management features a centralized location for holding and sharing all documents required for managing your network infrastructure like standard operating procedures 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 a crisis, ProSight IT Asset Management gets you the knowledge you need when you need it. Read more about ProSight IT Asset Management service.

• Progent's Patch Management: Patch Management Services
  Progent's managed services for patch management provide businesses of all sizes a flexible and affordable alternative for assessing, testing, scheduling, implementing, and tracking updates to your ever-evolving information network. Besides optimizing the protection and reliability of your IT environment, Progent's patch management services allow your IT staff to concentrate on line-of-business initiatives and activities that derive the highest business value from your information network. Find out more about Progent's software/firmware update management services.

• ProSight Virtual Hosting: Hosted VMs at Progent's Tier III Data Center
  With ProSight Virtual Hosting service, a small or mid-size business can have its critical servers and applications hosted in a protected Tier III data center on a fast virtual machine host set up and maintained by Progent's network support professionals. With the ProSight Virtual Hosting service model, the client retains ownership of the data, the operating system platforms, and the apps. Because the system is virtualized, it can be ported easily to an alternate hosting environment without requiring a lengthy and technically risky configuration procedure. With ProSight Virtual Hosting, your business is not locked into a single hosting provider. Find out more details about ProSight Virtual Hosting services.

• ProSight Active Security Monitoring: Endpoint Protection and Ransomware Defense
  Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring is an endpoint protection service that utilizes SentinelOne's cutting edge behavior machine learning tools to guard physical and virtual endpoint devices against new malware attacks like ransomware and email phishing, which routinely escape legacy signature-based anti-virus products. ProSight Active Security Monitoring safeguards local and cloud-based resources and provides a single platform to manage the entire threat progression including blocking, detection, mitigation, cleanup, and forensics. Top capabilities include one-click rollback using Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service and real-time system-wide immunization against newly discovered attacks. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. Learn more about Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring next-generation endpoint protection and ransomware recovery.

• ProSight Enhanced Security Protection: Physical and Virtual Endpoint Protection and Exchange Filtering
  Progent's ProSight Enhanced Security Protection (ESP) managed services offer economical in-depth protection for physical servers and virtual machines, workstations, smartphones, and Exchange email. ProSight ESP uses contextual security and modern behavior analysis for continuously monitoring and responding to cyber assaults from all attack vectors. ProSight ESP delivers firewall protection, penetration alerts, device control, and web filtering through leading-edge technologies incorporated within one agent managed from a single control. Progent's security and virtualization consultants can assist your business to plan and configure a ProSight ESP deployment that addresses your organization's unique needs and that helps you demonstrate compliance with government and industry information security regulations. Progent will assist you define and configure security policies that ProSight ESP will manage, and Progent will monitor your network and react to alarms that require urgent action. Progent can also help your company to install and test a backup and disaster recovery solution such as ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS) so you can recover quickly from a potentially disastrous security attack like ransomware. Find out more about Progent's ProSight Enhanced Security Protection (ESP) unified physical and virtual endpoint security and Exchange email filtering.