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Ransomware : Your Worst IT Catastrophe
Crypto-Ransomware has become a modern cyber pandemic that presents an extinction-level danger for organizations poorly prepared for an assault. Multiple generations of crypto-ransomware like the CryptoLocker, Fusob, Bad Rabbit, SamSam and MongoLock cryptoworms have been replicating for a long time and still inflict havoc. More recent strains of ransomware like Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, DopplePaymer, LockBit or Nephilim, as well as frequent unnamed viruses, not only do encryption of on-line critical data but also infect any configured system protection. Information replicated to off-site disaster recovery sites can also be held hostage. In a vulnerable environment, it can make automatic restoration useless and effectively knocks the datacenter back to zero.

Recovering services and information following a ransomware event becomes a race against the clock as the targeted business fights to stop the spread, clear the ransomware, and restore mission-critical activity. Because ransomware takes time to spread, attacks are often launched on weekends and holidays, when penetrations tend to take more time to recognize. This compounds the difficulty of rapidly marshalling and organizing a qualified mitigation team.

Progent provides a range of support services for securing businesses from ransomware attacks. Among these are team training to become familiar with and avoid phishing scams, ProSight Active Security Monitoring for remote monitoring and management, along with installation of the latest generation security appliances with machine learning technology from SentinelOne to discover and extinguish new threats intelligently. Progent also provides the assistance of expert ransomware recovery professionals with the talent and perseverance to rebuild a compromised system as quickly as possible.

Progent's Crypto-Ransomware Recovery Support Services
Following a crypto-ransomware penetration, even paying the ransom in cryptocurrency does not guarantee that cyber criminals will return the needed keys to decrypt any of your data. Kaspersky determined that seventeen percent of ransomware victims never restored their information even after having sent off the ransom, resulting in more losses. The gamble is also very costly. Ryuk ransoms are commonly several hundred thousand dollars. For larger organizations, the ransom can reach millions of dollars. The alternative is to re-install the essential elements of your Information Technology environment. Without access to complete system backups, this calls for a broad range of skills, well-coordinated project management, and the capability to work non-stop until the job is over.

For decades, Progent has made available professional Information Technology services for businesses across the US and has earned Microsoft's Partnership certification status in the Datacenter and Cloud Productivity competencies. Progent's group of subject matter experts includes consultants who have earned high-level certifications in key technologies like Microsoft, Cisco, VMware, and popular distributions of Linux. Progent's security specialists have earned internationally-recognized certifications including CISA, CISSP-ISSAP, CRISC, GIAC, and CMMC 2.0. (Visit Progent's certifications). Progent also has experience with financial management and ERP application software. This breadth of expertise gives Progent the skills to quickly identify important systems and organize the surviving parts of your IT environment following a ransomware attack and configure them into a functioning system.

Progent's ransomware group has powerful project management applications to orchestrate the sophisticated recovery process. Progent understands the urgency of acting rapidly and in concert with a customer's management and Information Technology staff to prioritize tasks and to get key applications back on line as soon as possible.

Client Case Study: A Successful Ransomware Incident Recovery
A customer escalated to Progent after their company was brought down by Ryuk ransomware. Ryuk is generally considered to have been launched by North Korean state hackers, possibly adopting algorithms leaked from the United States NSA organization. Ryuk attacks specific organizations with little or no ability to sustain operational disruption and is among the most profitable iterations of ransomware. Well Known organizations include Data Resolution, a California-based data warehousing and cloud computing business, and the Chicago Tribune. Progent's customer is a small manufacturing company based in Chicago and has about 500 workers. The Ryuk penetration had disabled all essential operations and manufacturing processes. Most of the client's system backups had been online at the time of the attack and were eventually encrypted. The client was actively seeking loans for paying the ransom (more than two hundred thousand dollars) and hoping for the best, but in the end made the decision to use Progent.

Progent worked with the customer to quickly understand and prioritize the most important systems that needed to be restored in order to continue business operations:

• Active Directory
• Microsoft Exchange Email
• MRP System

Within two days, Progent was able to restore Active Directory services to its pre-virus state. Progent then completed reinstallations and storage recovery on the most important servers. All Exchange Server data and attributes were intact, which accelerated the rebuild of Exchange. Progent was able to collect intact OST files (Outlook Offline Folder Files) on staff workstations in order to recover email messages. A recent offline backup of the businesses financials/ERP systems made it possible to return these vital programs back online for users. Although a large amount of work needed to be completed to recover fully from the Ryuk attack, the most important systems were recovered rapidly:

During the following few weeks critical milestones in the restoration process were completed through close cooperation between Progent engineers and the customer:

• Self-hosted web sites were brought back up without losing any information.
• The MailStore Server exceeding four million archived emails was spun up and accessible to users.
• CRM/Orders/Invoices/Accounts Payable (AP)/Accounts Receivables (AR)/Inventory Control modules were 100 percent operational.
• A new Palo Alto 850 firewall was brought on-line.
• Nearly all of the user PCs were functioning as before the incident.

Conclusion
A possible enterprise-killing disaster was dodged through the efforts of dedicated professionals, a broad range of subject matter expertise, and close teamwork. Although in post mortem the ransomware attack detailed here should have been stopped with modern security technology solutions and security best practices, user training, and appropriate security procedures for information backup and applying software patches, the reality remains that government-sponsored cyber criminals from Russia, China and elsewhere are tireless and are not going away. If you do get hit by a ransomware incident, feel confident that Progent's team of experts has a proven track record in crypto-ransomware virus defense, mitigation, and data recovery.

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

Additional Ransomware Protection Services Offered by Progent
Progent can provide businesses in Miami Beach a variety of remote monitoring and security assessment services designed to help you to reduce the threat from ransomware. These services include next-generation AI capability to detect new variants of ransomware that can get past traditional signature-based anti-virus solutions.

• ProSight Managed Service Packages: for Small to Mid-size Businesses
  Progent's ProSight Managed IT Service Plans make it feasible for small and mid-size companies to deploy Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) solutions to achieve advanced IT resilience. Progent takes care of the necessary monitoring and management for you, so your network scales readily without holding you back. For an affordable and predictable monthly price, Progent's full-service IT team can be your dependable technology safety net. Basic packages include remote monitoring and management, cybersecurity, 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, 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 service that uses advanced remote monitoring and management technology to help keep your IT system operating at peak levels by checking the health of critical assets that drive your business network. When ProSight LAN Watch detects a problem, an alarm is transmitted immediately to your specified IT personnel and your Progent engineering consultant so that all looming issues 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: Centralized RMM for Networks, Servers, and Desktops
  ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM software offers a unified, cloud-driven platform for monitoring and managing your client-server infrastructure by providing an environment for performing common time-consuming jobs. These can include health checking, update management, automated repairs, endpoint setup, backup and recovery, anti-virus protection, remote access, built-in and custom scripts, asset inventory, endpoint status reports, and debugging support. If ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM spots a serious incident, it sends an alert to your specified IT personnel and your assigned Progent technical consultant so that emerging issues can be taken care of before they impact your network. Learn more details 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 simple and inexpensive for smaller businesses to map out, track, optimize and troubleshoot their connectivity hardware like switches, firewalls, and access points plus servers, printers, endpoints and other networked devices. Using state-of-the-art Remote Monitoring and Management technology, ProSight WAN Watch makes sure that network maps are always updated, copies and manages the configuration of virtually all devices on your network, monitors performance, and sends notices when issues are detected. By automating complex management and troubleshooting activities, ProSight WAN Watch can cut hours off ordinary tasks such as network mapping, reconfiguring your network, finding devices that require important software patches, or resolving performance problems. Learn more details about ProSight WAN Watch infrastructure management services.

• ProSight Reporting: Real-time Reporting for Ticketing and Network Monitoring Applications
  ProSight Reporting is an expanding family of in-depth reporting tools created to integrate with the leading 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 key issues like inconsistent support follow-through or endpoints with missing patches. By identifying ticketing or network health concerns clearly and in near-real time, ProSight Reporting enhances network value, lowers management overhead, and saves money. For details, visit ProSight Reporting for ticketing and network monitoring platforms.

• ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS): Managed Backup and Disaster Recovery Services
  Progent has worked with leading backup/restore technology companies to produce ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a portfolio of subscription-based management outsourcing plans that deliver backup-as-a-service (BaaS). ProSight DPS products manage and track your backup processes and enable transparent backup and fast recovery of vital files, applications, images, and Hyper-V and VMware virtual machines. ProSight DPS helps your business protect against data loss caused by hardware failures, natural disasters, fire, cyber attacks like ransomware, user mistakes, malicious insiders, or application bugs. Managed services available in the ProSight DPS product family include ProSight Altaro VM Backup, ProSight 365 Total Backup (formerly Altaro 365 Backup), ProSight DPS ECHO Backup using Barracuda purpose-built storage, and ProSight MSP360 Hybrid Backup. Your Progent service representative can help you to identify which of these managed services are best suited for your network.

• ProSight Email Guard: Inbound and Outbound Spam Filtering and Data Leakage Protection
  ProSight Email Guard is Progent's spam and virus filtering and email encryption service that uses the infrastructure of leading data security companies to provide web-based management and world-class protection for all your email traffic. The powerful structure of Progent's Email Guard managed service combines cloud-based filtering with an on-premises gateway appliance to offer complete protection against spam, viruses, Denial of Service (DoS) Attacks, Directory Harvest Attacks (DHAs), and other email-based threats. Email Guard's Cloud Protection Layer acts as a preliminary barricade and keeps most unwanted email from reaching your network firewall. This decreases your vulnerability to external attacks and conserves network bandwidth and storage space. Email Guard's on-premises security gateway device adds a deeper level of analysis for inbound email. For outgoing email, the local gateway offers anti-virus and anti-spam filtering, policy-based Data Loss Prevention, and email encryption. The on-premises security gateway can also assist Exchange Server to monitor and safeguard internal email that stays inside your security perimeter. For more details, see ProSight Email Guard spam filtering and data leakage protection.

• ProSight Duo Two-Factor Authentication: Identity Validation, Endpoint Remediation, and Secure Single Sign-on
  Progent's Duo authentication service plans incorporate Cisco's Duo cloud technology to protect against compromised passwords by using two-factor authentication. Duo enables one-tap identity verification with Apple iOS, Android, and other personal devices. With Duo 2FA, whenever you sign into a secured online account and give your password you are asked to confirm who you are via a device that only you possess and that is accessed using a different network channel. A wide selection of devices can be used as this second means of ID validation such as a smartphone or watch, a hardware/software token, a landline telephone, etc. You may register several validation devices. To learn more about Duo two-factor identity validation services, go to Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication services.

• Outsourced/Co-managed Help Center: Support Desk Managed Services
  Progent's Support Desk services allow your IT staff to outsource Support Desk services to Progent or divide activity for Service Desk support seamlessly between your in-house support resources and Progent's nationwide roster of IT support technicians, engineers and subject matter experts (SMEs). Progent's Shared Service Desk offers a seamless extension of your core support resources. User interaction with the Help Desk, delivery of support services, problem escalation, ticket creation and updates, efficiency measurement, and management of the support database are cohesive regardless of whether incidents are taken care of by your core network support resources, by Progent, or by a combination. Read more about Progent's outsourced/co-managed Call Desk services.

• Progent Active Defense Against Ransomware: Machine Learning-based Ransomware Detection and Cleanup
  Progent's Active Protection Against Ransomware is an endpoint protection service that incorporates next generation behavior analysis tools to defend endpoint devices and servers and VMs against modern malware assaults such as ransomware and email phishing, which easily get by traditional signature-matching AV tools. Progent Active Security Monitoring services protect local and cloud-based resources and provides a single platform to automate the entire threat progression including filtering, infiltration detection, mitigation, remediation, and post-attack forensics. Key features include one-click rollback using 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 an IT infrastructure documentation management service that makes it easy to create, maintain, find and safeguard data about your IT infrastructure, procedures, business apps, and services. You can instantly locate passwords or serial numbers and be warned automatically about impending expirations of SSL certificates or warranties. By cleaning up and organizing your network documentation, you can eliminate as much as half of time thrown away searching for critical information about your network. ProSight IT Asset Management features a centralized location for holding 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 enhancements, doing regular maintenance, or responding to an emergency, ProSight IT Asset Management gets you the information you require when you need it. Find out more about Progent's ProSight IT Asset Management service.

• Progent's Patch Management: Software/Firmware Update Management Services
  Progent's support services for software and firmware patch management provide businesses of any size a versatile and cost-effective alternative for evaluating, testing, scheduling, implementing, and documenting updates to your ever-evolving information network. Besides optimizing the protection and reliability of your IT network, Progent's software/firmware update management services permit your IT team to concentrate on line-of-business initiatives and tasks that deliver the highest business value from your network. Learn more about Progent's patch management support services.

• ProSight Virtual Hosting: Hosted VMs at Progent's World-class Data Center
  With ProSight Virtual Hosting service, a small or mid-size organization can have its critical servers and applications hosted in a protected Tier III data center on a fast virtual host configured and managed by Progent's IT support professionals. With Progent's ProSight Virtual Hosting model, the customer retains ownership of the data, the operating system software, and the applications. Because the environment is virtualized, it can be moved immediately to an alternate hosting environment without requiring a lengthy and difficult reinstallation procedure. With ProSight Virtual Hosting, your business is not tied a single hosting service. 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) solution that incorporates SentinelOne's next generation behavior machine learning tools to guard physical and virtual endpoints against modern malware attacks like ransomware and file-less exploits, which routinely get by traditional signature-matching AV products. ProSight ASM safeguards on-premises and cloud resources and provides a unified platform to address the entire threat lifecycle including blocking, detection, containment, remediation, and forensics. Top features include single-click rollback using Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) and real-time network-wide immunization against new threats. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, 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 Filtering
  ProSight Enhanced Security Protection (ESP) managed services deliver affordable in-depth protection for physical servers and VMs, desktops, smartphones, and Exchange email. ProSight ESP uses adaptive security and modern behavior analysis for round-the-clock monitoring and responding to security assaults from all attack vectors. ProSight ESP delivers firewall protection, penetration alerts, device management, and web filtering through cutting-edge tools packaged within one agent managed from a single control. Progent's security and virtualization consultants can assist your business to plan and implement a ProSight ESP environment that meets your company's unique needs and that allows you demonstrate compliance with legal and industry data protection regulations. Progent will assist you define and configure security policies that ProSight ESP will manage, and Progent will monitor your IT environment and respond to alarms that require urgent attention. Progent's consultants can also assist you to install and test a backup and disaster recovery system such as ProSight Data Protection Services so you can recover quickly from a potentially disastrous cyber attack like ransomware. Learn more about Progent's ProSight Enhanced Security Protection (ESP) unified endpoint security and Exchange email filtering.