24-Hour Modesto Immediate Crypto
Computer Malware Identification and Restoration Experts

Crypto-Ransomware : Your Worst IT Nightmare
Ransomware has become an escalating cyber pandemic that poses an existential threat for businesses unprepared for an attack. Different versions of crypto-ransomware such as Reveton, WannaCry, Bad Rabbit, NotPetya and MongoLock cryptoworms have been out in the wild for many years and still cause havoc. Modern strains of ransomware such as Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, Netwalker, Conti or Nephilim, along with additional unnamed newcomers, not only encrypt online data files but also infect most available system restores and backups. Data synchronized to off-site disaster recovery sites can also be held hostage. In a vulnerable data protection solution, this can make any recovery useless and basically sets the network back to square one.

Getting back programs and data following a ransomware outage becomes a race against time as the victim fights to contain the damage, clear the crypto-ransomware, and resume business-critical activity. Because ransomware takes time to spread, penetrations are frequently sprung on weekends and holidays, when successful penetrations tend to take more time to identify. This multiplies the difficulty of promptly marshalling and organizing a qualified response team.

Progent has a range of support services for protecting organizations from ransomware attacks. These include staff education to help identify and not fall victim to phishing scams, ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) for remote monitoring and management, along with deployment of the latest generation security appliances with artificial intelligence technology from SentinelOne to discover and suppress new threats quickly. Progent also provides the assistance of seasoned crypto-ransomware recovery engineers with the talent and perseverance to rebuild a breached system as quickly as possible.

Progent's Ransomware Restoration Services
Following a crypto-ransomware penetration, paying the ransom demands in cryptocurrency does not ensure that cyber hackers will respond with the codes to decrypt all your information. Kaspersky Labs determined that 17% of ransomware victims never recovered their data even after having sent off the ransom, resulting in increased losses. The risk is also expensive. Ryuk ransoms are commonly a few hundred thousand dollars. For larger organizations, the ransom can be in the millions. The alternative is to setup from scratch the mission-critical components of your IT environment. Without the availability of essential information backups, this requires a wide range of IT skills, well-coordinated team management, and the willingness to work continuously until the job is done.

For two decades, Progent has offered professional IT services for companies throughout the US and has earned Microsoft's Partnership certification status in the Datacenter and Cloud Productivity competencies. Progent's pool of subject matter experts (SMEs) includes consultants who have attained advanced certifications in important technologies including Microsoft, Cisco, VMware, and major distributions of Linux. Progent's cybersecurity consultants have garnered internationally-recognized certifications including CISA, CISSP, CRISC, GIAC, and CMMC 2.0. (Visit Progent's certifications). Progent in addition has expertise in financial systems and ERP application software. This breadth of experience affords Progent the ability to quickly determine necessary systems and re-organize the surviving components of your network system following a ransomware attack and rebuild them into a functioning system.

Progent's recovery team of experts uses state-of-the-art project management applications to coordinate the complicated restoration process. Progent knows the urgency of working rapidly and in unison with a client's management and Information Technology staff to assign priority to tasks and to get key systems back on line as fast as possible.

Business Case Study: A Successful Ransomware Intrusion Restoration
A customer sought out Progent after their company was attacked by the Ryuk ransomware. Ryuk is generally considered to have been launched by Northern Korean government sponsored cybercriminals, suspected of using strategies exposed from the U.S. NSA organization. Ryuk goes after specific organizations with limited ability to sustain operational disruption and is one of the most lucrative instances of ransomware malware. High publicized targets include Data Resolution, a California-based information warehousing and cloud computing firm, and the Chicago Tribune. Progent's customer is a regional manufacturing company located in the Chicago metro area with around 500 workers. The Ryuk event had frozen all business operations and manufacturing processes. The majority of the client's data backups had been on-line at the start of the intrusion and were destroyed. The client was actively seeking loans for paying the ransom (in excess of two hundred thousand dollars) and hoping for the best, but ultimately made the decision to use Progent.

Progent worked together with the customer to rapidly identify and prioritize the key applications that had to be addressed to make it possible to restart departmental operations:

• Windows Active Directory
• Exchange Server
• Accounting/MRP

In less than 2 days, Progent was able to recover Active Directory to its pre-attack state. Progent then accomplished setup and hard drive recovery of critical servers. All Exchange Server ties and attributes were usable, which accelerated the rebuild of Exchange. Progent was able to collect intact OST files (Microsoft Outlook Offline Folder Files) on user desktop computers and laptops in order to recover mail information. A not too old offline backup of the customer's accounting/MRP systems made them able to recover these required services back available to users. Although a lot of work remained to recover fully from the Ryuk damage, critical services were recovered rapidly:

Throughout the next few weeks critical milestones in the restoration process were accomplished through tight cooperation between Progent engineers and the client:

• Internal web applications were returned to operation without losing any data.
• The MailStore Server containing more than 4 million archived emails was brought online and accessible to users.
• CRM/Customer Orders/Invoicing/Accounts Payable (AP)/Accounts Receivables/Inventory functions were fully operational.
• A new Palo Alto Networks 850 firewall was set up and programmed.
• 90% of the user workstations were being used by staff.

Conclusion
A possible business-killing catastrophe was evaded by top-tier experts, a wide range of subject matter expertise, and close teamwork. Although upon completion of forensics the ransomware virus attack described here would have been shut down with up-to-date security systems and recognized best practices, user and IT administrator training, and appropriate incident response procedures for data backup and proper patching controls, the fact remains that government-sponsored cybercriminals from China, Russia, North Korea and elsewhere are relentless and are not going away. If you do get hit by a ransomware penetration, remember that Progent's team of experts has extensive experience in crypto-ransomware virus blocking, remediation, and file restoration.

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

Additional Ransomware Protection Services Available from Progent
Progent can provide businesses in Modesto a range of online monitoring and security assessment services designed to assist you to minimize your vulnerability to ransomware. These services include next-generation AI technology to detect zero-day variants of ransomware that are able to escape detection by legacy signature-based anti-virus solutions.

• ProSight Managed Service Plans: for Small to Mid-size Businesses
  Progent's ProSight Managed IT Service Packages make it possible for small and mid-size companies to utilize Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) technology to achieve leading-edge network resilience. Progent handles the daily monitoring and management for you, so your system scales easily without holding you back. For an affordable and predictable monthly subscription, Progent's full-service IT group can be your complete technology safety net. Entry-level plans include remote monitoring and management, cybersecurity, automatic monthly patching, and reporting. As your requirements grow, you can add low-cost subscriptions to advanced solutions such as SaaS M365/Google Workspace backup and restore, Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), penetration testing, or WiFi management.

• ProSight LAN Watch: Server and Desktop Remote Monitoring
  ProSight LAN Watch is Progent's server and desktop remote monitoring service that uses state-of-the-art remote monitoring and management techniques to keep your network operating efficiently by checking the state of critical computers that power your information system. When ProSight LAN Watch detects a problem, an alert is transmitted automatically to your specified IT personnel and your Progent engineering consultant so any looming problems can be addressed before they can impact your network. Find out more details about ProSight LAN Watch server and desktop monitoring consulting.

• ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM: Centralized RMM for Networks, Servers, and Desktops
  ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM software delivers a unified, cloud-driven solution for monitoring and managing your network, server, and desktop devices by providing an environment for streamlining common tedious jobs. These include health checking, patch management, automated remediation, endpoint deployment, backup and restore, A/V response, secure remote access, standard and custom scripts, asset inventory, endpoint profile reporting, and troubleshooting assistance. When ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM identifies a serious issue, it sends an alert to your specified IT management staff and your assigned Progent technical consultant so emerging problems can be taken care of before they interfere with your network. Find out more about ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM server and desktop remote monitoring consulting.

• ProSight WAN Watch: Infrastructure Management
  ProSight WAN Watch is an infrastructure monitoring and management service that makes it simple and affordable for smaller organizations to diagram, monitor, optimize and debug their networking appliances such as routers and switches, firewalls, and access points as well as servers, printers, endpoints and other devices. Incorporating cutting-edge RMM technology, WAN Watch makes sure that network maps are kept current, captures and manages the configuration information of virtually all devices on your network, tracks performance, and generates notices when problems are detected. By automating complex management and troubleshooting activities, WAN Watch can cut hours off common tasks like making network diagrams, reconfiguring your network, locating appliances that require important updates, or resolving performance problems. Learn more details about ProSight WAN Watch network infrastructure monitoring and management services.

• ProSight Reporting: Real-time and In-depth Reporting for Ticketing and Network Monitoring Platforms
  ProSight Reporting is an expanding line of real-time reporting utilities designed to work with the industry's top ticketing and remote network monitoring platforms including ConnectWise Manage, ConnectWise Automate, Customer Thermometer, Auvik, and SentinelOne. ProSight Reporting uses Microsoft Graph and utilizes color coding to surface and contextualize critical issues like spotty support follow-through or machines with missing patches. By exposing ticketing or network health problems clearly and in near-real time, ProSight Reporting improves productivity, reduces management overhead, and saves money. For more information, see ProSight Reporting for ticketing and network monitoring platforms.

• ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS): Managed Backup and Recovery Services
  Progent has partnered with leading backup technology providers to create ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a portfolio of subscription-based management offerings that provide backup-as-a-service. ProSight DPS services automate and track your data backup operations and enable transparent backup and rapid restoration of important files/folders, apps, system images, plus VMs. ProSight DPS helps your business recover from data loss caused by hardware breakdown, natural disasters, fire, cyber attacks such as ransomware, user error, ill-intentioned insiders, or software glitches. Managed backup services in the ProSight Data Protection Services product family include ProSight DPS Altaro VM Backup, ProSight 365 Total Backup (formerly Altaro 365 Backup), ProSight ECHO Backup based on Barracuda dedicated storage, and ProSight MSP360 Hybrid Backup. Your Progent service representative can help you to identify which of these 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 incorporates the infrastructure of leading information security companies to deliver centralized control and world-class protection for your email traffic. The powerful architecture of Email Guard managed service combines a Cloud Protection Layer with an on-premises gateway appliance to provide advanced protection against spam, viruses, Denial of Service (DoS) Attacks, Directory Harvest Attacks, and other email-based threats. Email Guard's Cloud Protection Layer acts as a first line of defense and keeps the vast majority of unwanted email from reaching your network firewall. This reduces your vulnerability to inbound threats and saves system bandwidth and storage. Email Guard's on-premises gateway appliance provides a further level of inspection for inbound email. For outgoing email, the local security gateway provides AV and anti-spam protection, protection against data leaks, and email encryption. The onsite gateway can also help Microsoft Exchange Server to track and safeguard internal email traffic that stays within your security perimeter. For more details, visit ProSight Email Guard spam and content filtering.

• ProSight Duo Two-Factor Authentication: ID Confirmation, Endpoint Remediation, and Secure Single Sign-on (SSO)
  Progent's Duo MFA service plans incorporate Cisco's Duo technology to protect against compromised passwords by using two-factor authentication. Duo enables one-tap identity verification on iOS, Android, and other out-of-band devices. With Duo 2FA, whenever you log into a protected online account and enter your password you are asked to verify your identity via a device that only you have and that uses a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A broad range of devices can be used for this second form of ID validation including an iPhone or Android or watch, a hardware/software token, a landline telephone, etc. You may designate several validation devices. For more information about ProSight Duo two-factor identity validation services, go to Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services.

• Outsourced/Co-managed Call Desk: Support Desk Managed Services
  Progent's Call Desk services permit your information technology staff to offload Help Desk services to Progent or divide activity for Help Desk services seamlessly between your internal network support group and Progent's extensive pool of certified IT support technicians, engineers and subject matter experts. Progent's Co-managed Service Desk offers a seamless supplement to your core network support staff. Client access to the Help Desk, delivery of support, issue escalation, ticket generation and tracking, performance measurement, and management of the service database are consistent regardless of whether issues are resolved by your core support resources, by Progent, or a mix of the two. Find out more about Progent's outsourced/co-managed Call Center services.

• Active Protection Against Ransomware: Machine Learning-based Ransomware Detection and Remediation
  Progent's Active Defense Against Ransomware is an endpoint protection (EPP) managed service that utilizes cutting edge behavior-based machine learning tools to guard endpoints and physical and virtual servers against modern malware attacks like ransomware and file-less exploits, which routinely evade traditional signature-based anti-virus tools. Progent Active Security Monitoring services safeguard local and cloud-based resources and offers a single platform to automate the entire threat progression including filtering, detection, containment, cleanup, and post-attack forensics. Key features include one-click rollback using Windows VSS and automatic network-wide immunization against new threats. Read more about Progent's ransomware protection and recovery services.

• ProSight IT Asset Management: Network Documentation Management
  ProSight IT Asset Management service is an IT infrastructure documentation management service that allows you to capture, maintain, retrieve and safeguard data related to your network infrastructure, procedures, applications, and services. You can instantly find passwords or serial numbers and be warned about upcoming expirations of SSLs or warranties. By updating and managing your network documentation, you can save up to 50% of time spent looking for vital information about your network. ProSight IT Asset Management features a common location for holding and collaborating on all documents related to managing your network infrastructure like standard operating procedures and self-service instructions. ProSight IT Asset Management also supports a high level of automation for gathering and associating IT data. Whether you're making enhancements, performing maintenance, or responding to a crisis, ProSight IT Asset Management gets you the data you require as soon as you need it. Read more about ProSight IT Asset Management service.

• Progent's Patch Management: Patch Management Services
  Progent's managed services for software and firmware patch management offer businesses of all sizes a flexible and affordable alternative for evaluating, testing, scheduling, implementing, and tracking software and firmware updates to your ever-evolving IT system. Besides maximizing the protection and functionality of your computer environment, Progent's patch management services allow your in-house IT team to focus on more strategic initiatives and tasks that derive the highest business value from your network. Read more about Progent's software/firmware update 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 key servers and apps hosted in a protected Tier III data center on a high-performance virtual machine host set up and maintained by Progent's network support professionals. Under Progent's ProSight Virtual Hosting service model, the client owns the data, the operating system software, and the applications. Because the system is virtualized, it can be ported easily to a different hosting solution without requiring a time-consuming and difficult configuration procedure. With ProSight Virtual Hosting, your business is not tied one 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 (ASM) is an endpoint protection (EPP) service that utilizes SentinelOne's cutting edge behavior analysis tools to guard physical and virtual endpoints against modern malware assaults such as ransomware and file-less exploits, which routinely evade legacy signature-matching anti-virus products. ProSight Active Security Monitoring safeguards on-premises and cloud resources and offers a single platform to address the entire malware attack lifecycle including protection, detection, mitigation, remediation, and forensics. Top features include one-click rollback using Windows VSS and real-time network-wide immunization against newly discovered threats. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. Learn more about Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) next-generation endpoint protection and ransomware defense.

• ProSight Enhanced Security Protection: Endpoint Security and Exchange Filtering
  ProSight Enhanced Security Protection (ESP) managed services deliver economical multi-layer security for physical servers and virtual machines, desktops, smartphones, and Microsoft Exchange. ProSight ESP uses contextual security and advanced heuristics for round-the-clock monitoring and reacting to security assaults from all attack vectors. ProSight ESP offers two-way firewall protection, intrusion alerts, endpoint control, and web filtering via cutting-edge tools incorporated within one agent accessible from a single control. Progent's data protection and virtualization experts can assist your business to design and implement a ProSight ESP environment that addresses your company's specific requirements and that helps you achieve and demonstrate compliance with government and industry data security standards. Progent will assist you specify and configure security policies that ProSight ESP will enforce, and Progent will monitor your network and react to alarms that call for urgent attention. Progent's consultants can also help your company to install and verify a backup and restore system like ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS) so you can get back in business quickly from a potentially disastrous cyber attack such as ransomware. Find out more about Progent's ProSight Enhanced Security Protection (ESP) unified endpoint security and Exchange email filtering.