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Computer Virus Detection and Recovery Services

Crypto-Ransomware : Your Worst IT Catastrophe
Ransomware has become an escalating cyberplague that presents an existential threat for organizations poorly prepared for an assault. Different versions of ransomware such as Reveton, Fusob, Bad Rabbit, Syskey and MongoLock cryptoworms have been replicating for years and continue to cause havoc. Modern versions of crypto-ransomware like Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, DopplePaymer, LockBit or Egregor, as well as daily as yet unnamed viruses, not only do encryption of on-line files but also infiltrate all configured system backup. Information synched to off-site disaster recovery sites can also be corrupted. In a vulnerable environment, this can render automated restore operations hopeless and basically sets the entire system back to zero.

Getting back online programs and data after a ransomware intrusion becomes a sprint against the clock as the targeted business tries its best to stop lateral movement, eradicate the virus, and restore business-critical operations. Because crypto-ransomware requires time to replicate, attacks are frequently launched at night, when attacks typically take longer to notice. This multiplies the difficulty of quickly assembling and orchestrating a qualified mitigation team.

Progent has a range of services for securing organizations from crypto-ransomware penetrations. Among these are staff training to become familiar with and avoid phishing attempts, ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) for remote monitoring and management, along with deployment of modern security solutions with AI capabilities from SentinelOne to discover and extinguish new threats rapidly. Progent also provides the assistance of veteran ransomware recovery engineers with the track record and commitment to restore a breached network as soon as possible.

Progent's Ransomware Restoration Support Services
Following a ransomware invasion, even paying the ransom in cryptocurrency does not ensure that criminal gangs will respond with the keys to unencrypt all your information. Kaspersky estimated that 17% of ransomware victims never recovered their information after having sent off the ransom, resulting in more losses. The risk is also very costly. Ryuk ransoms are typically several hundred thousand dollars. For larger organizations, the ransom demand can reach millions of dollars. The fallback is to piece back together the key components of your IT environment. Absent the availability of full system backups, this calls for a wide range of skills, well-coordinated project management, and the ability to work 24x7 until the task is completed.

For twenty years, Progent has made available certified expert IT services for companies across the U.S. and has achieved Microsoft's Partnership certification in the Datacenter and Cloud Productivity competencies. Progent's pool of subject matter experts includes consultants who have attained top certifications in key technologies such as Microsoft, Cisco, VMware, and major distributions of Linux. Progent's security engineers have earned internationally-recognized industry certifications including CISA, CISSP, CRISC, GIAC, and CMMC 2.0. (Refer to Progent's certifications). Progent in addition has experience with accounting and ERP applications. This breadth of experience affords Progent the capability to quickly identify critical systems and organize the remaining pieces of your network environment after a ransomware event and configure them into a functioning network.

Progent's recovery group has top notch project management tools to coordinate the sophisticated restoration process. Progent understands the urgency of working rapidly and together with a client's management and Information Technology team members to assign priority to tasks and to put critical services back on line as fast as possible.

Customer Story: A Successful Ransomware Attack Recovery
A customer contacted Progent after their organization was penetrated by the Ryuk crypto-ransomware. Ryuk is generally considered to have been deployed by Northern Korean state hackers, possibly using techniques exposed from the U.S. NSA organization. Ryuk targets specific businesses with little or no tolerance for disruption and is one of the most lucrative incarnations of ransomware malware. Major organizations include Data Resolution, a California-based information warehousing and cloud computing business, and the Chicago Tribune. Progent's customer is a regional manufacturing business based in Chicago with around 500 workers. The Ryuk intrusion had frozen all business operations and manufacturing capabilities. Most of the client's data backups had been directly accessible at the time of the attack and were damaged. The client was taking steps for paying the ransom demand (in excess of $200K) and praying for the best, but in the end engaged Progent.

Progent worked hand in hand the client to rapidly understand and prioritize the critical systems that needed to be restored in order to restart business functions:

• Microsoft Active Directory
• Email
• Accounting and Manufacturing Software

Within two days, Progent was able to re-build Active Directory services to its pre-attack state. Progent then charged ahead with reinstallations and hard drive recovery of key applications. All Exchange Server schema and attributes were intact, which facilitated the rebuild of Exchange. Progent was also able to collect non-encrypted OST files (Outlook Offline Folder Files) on team PCs and laptops to recover email messages. A recent off-line backup of the businesses accounting/MRP software made it possible to return these vital programs back available to users. Although major work was left to recover totally from the Ryuk event, essential services were restored quickly:

Throughout the next couple of weeks important milestones in the recovery process were achieved through close collaboration between Progent team members and the customer:

• Internal web sites were brought back up with no loss of data.
• The MailStore Microsoft Exchange Server with over four million archived messages was restored to operations and available for users.
• CRM/Orders/Invoices/AP/Accounts Receivables/Inventory capabilities were completely restored.
• A new Palo Alto 850 firewall was installed and configured.
• 90% of the desktop computers were operational.

Conclusion
A probable business-killing disaster was avoided due to results-oriented professionals, a broad array of subject matter expertise, and tight teamwork. Although in retrospect the crypto-ransomware attack detailed here could have been blocked with current security solutions and ISO/IEC 27001 best practices, staff education, and appropriate incident response procedures for information protection and proper patching controls, the fact is that state-sponsored criminal cyber gangs from China, North Korea and elsewhere are tireless and will continue. If you do fall victim to a crypto-ransomware penetration, remember that Progent's team of experts has extensive experience in ransomware virus defense, cleanup, and file restoration.

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

Additional Crypto-Ransomware Protection Services Available from Progent
Progent offers companies in Niterói a range of online monitoring and security assessment services to assist you to minimize the threat from ransomware. These services incorporate modern AI capability to detect zero-day variants of ransomware that are able to evade traditional signature-based security 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 IT resilience. Progent takes care of the necessary monitoring and management for you, so your network expands readily without becoming an obstacle. For a low and predictable monthly subscription, Progent's full-service IT group can be your complete technology safety net. Entry-level packages include remote monitoring and management, security, monthly patching, and reporting. As your needs 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 monitoring service that incorporates state-of-the-art remote monitoring and management technology to help keep your network running efficiently by checking the health of critical computers that power your information system. When ProSight LAN Watch uncovers a problem, an alert is sent immediately to your specified IT management staff and your assigned Progent engineering consultant so any looming problems can be addressed before they can disrupt productivity. Learn 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 delivers a centralized, cloud-based platform for managing your client-server infrastructure by providing an environment for performing common tedious jobs. These can include health checking, patch management, automated remediation, endpoint setup, backup and restore, anti-virus defense, remote access, standard and custom scripts, resource inventory, endpoint status reports, and troubleshooting help. When ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM spots a serious problem, it transmits an alert to your designated IT personnel and your assigned Progent consultant so that emerging issues can be taken care of before they interfere with productivity. Learn more details about ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM server and desktop monitoring consulting.

• ProSight WAN Watch: Network Infrastructure Remote Monitoring and Management
  Progent's ProSight WAN Watch is an infrastructure monitoring and management service that makes it easy and inexpensive for small and mid-sized organizations to diagram, track, reconfigure and troubleshoot their connectivity appliances like routers and switches, firewalls, and wireless controllers as well as servers, endpoints and other devices. Using cutting-edge Remote Monitoring and Management technology, WAN Watch ensures that infrastructure topology maps are kept updated, captures and manages the configuration information of virtually all devices on your network, monitors performance, and generates notices when problems are discovered. By automating tedious management and troubleshooting processes, WAN Watch can cut hours off common chores such as making network diagrams, expanding your network, finding appliances that need critical software patches, or resolving performance bottlenecks. Learn more details about ProSight WAN Watch network infrastructure management consulting.

• ProSight Reporting: Real-time and In-depth Reporting for Ticketing and Network Monitoring Platforms
  ProSight Reporting is an expanding suite of in-depth reporting plug-ins created to work with the leading ticketing and network monitoring programs including ConnectWise Manage, ConnectWise Automate, Customer Thermometer, Auvik, and SentinelOne. ProSight Reporting uses Microsoft Graph and utilizes color coding to highlight and contextualize critical issues like inconsistent support follow-through or machines with out-of-date AVs. By identifying ticketing or network health problems concisely 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 applications.

• ProSight Data Protection Services: Backup and Disaster Recovery Services
  Progent has partnered with leading backup/restore software companies to create ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a selection of offerings that provide backup-as-a-service (BaaS). ProSight DPS services automate and monitor your data backup processes and allow transparent backup and rapid restoration of vital files/folders, applications, images, and virtual machines. ProSight DPS lets your business recover from data loss caused by equipment breakdown, natural calamities, fire, malware such as ransomware, user mistakes, ill-intentioned insiders, or software bugs. Managed backup services available in the ProSight Data Protection Services portfolio include ProSight DPS Altaro VM Backup, ProSight 365 Total Backup (formerly Altaro 365 Backup), ProSight DPS ECHO Backup using Barracuda purpose-built hardware, and ProSight DPS MSP360 Cloud and On-prem Backup. Your Progent expert can help you to identify which of these fully 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 and email encryption service that uses the infrastructure of top information security vendors to deliver centralized control and comprehensive security for all your inbound and outbound email. The powerful architecture of Progent's Email Guard integrates cloud-based filtering with a local gateway appliance to provide complete defense against spam, viruses, Denial of Service (DoS) Attacks, Directory Harvest Attacks (DHAs), and other email-borne threats. Email Guard's Cloud Protection Layer serves as a preliminary barricade and keeps most threats from making it to your network firewall. This decreases your vulnerability to inbound attacks and saves system bandwidth and storage. Email Guard's on-premises security gateway appliance provides a further layer of analysis for inbound email. For outgoing email, the on-premises gateway provides anti-virus and anti-spam filtering, policy-based Data Loss Prevention, and email encryption. The onsite security gateway can also help Microsoft Exchange Server to track and safeguard internal email that originates and ends inside your corporate firewall. For more details, see Email Guard spam filtering and data leakage protection.

• ProSight Duo Multi-Factor Authentication: Access Security, Endpoint Policy Enforcement, and Secure Single Sign-on
  Progent's Duo MFA service plans incorporate Cisco's Duo cloud technology to protect against password theft through the use of two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo supports single-tap identity confirmation with iOS, Android, and other out-of-band devices. Using 2FA, when you log into a protected application and give your password you are asked to confirm who you are via a device that only you have and that uses a different network channel. A broad range of out-of-band devices can be used as this added means of ID validation such as an iPhone or Android or wearable, a hardware token, a landline phone, etc. You may designate multiple validation devices. For more information about ProSight Duo identity authentication services, refer to Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for access security.

• Outsourced/Co-managed Service Desk: Help Desk Managed Services
  Progent's Support Center services allow your information technology team to offload Support Desk services to Progent or split activity for Help Desk services transparently between your internal network support staff and Progent's nationwide roster of certified IT support technicians, engineers and subject matter experts. Progent's Co-managed Service Desk provides a transparent supplement to your internal support group. User access to the Help Desk, provision of technical assistance, problem escalation, trouble ticket creation and updates, performance measurement, and management of the service database are consistent whether issues are taken care of by your core support group, by Progent, or a mix of the two. Read more about Progent's outsourced/co-managed Help Center services.

• Progent Active Defense Against Ransomware: Machine Learning-based Ransomware Detection and Remediation
  Progent's Active Protection Against Ransomware is an endpoint protection managed service that incorporates next generation behavior analysis tools to defend endpoint devices as well as physical and virtual servers against modern malware assaults like ransomware and email phishing, which routinely escape traditional signature-based AV tools. Progent Active Security Monitoring services safeguard on-premises and cloud-based resources and offers a unified platform to manage the entire malware attack progression including blocking, detection, mitigation, remediation, and forensics. Top capabilities include one-click rollback using Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service and automatic system-wide immunization against newly discovered 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 makes it easy to create, maintain, find and protect information about your network infrastructure, processes, business apps, and services. You can instantly locate passwords or serial numbers and be alerted about upcoming expirations of SSLs ,domains or warranties. By cleaning up and managing your IT infrastructure documentation, you can eliminate up to half of time wasted looking for 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 such as recommended procedures and How-To's. ProSight IT Asset Management also supports a high level of automation for collecting and associating IT data. Whether you're making improvements, performing regular maintenance, or responding to a crisis, ProSight IT Asset Management gets you the knowledge you need when you need it. Find out more about ProSight IT Asset Management service.

• Patch Management: Patch Management Services
  Progent's managed services for software and firmware patch management offer organizations of any size a flexible and cost-effective alternative for assessing, testing, scheduling, implementing, and documenting updates to your ever-evolving IT system. Besides optimizing the protection and functionality of your computer network, Progent's software/firmware update management services allow your in-house IT staff to focus on more strategic initiatives and activities that deliver maximum business value from your network. Find out more about Progent's software/firmware update management services.

• ProSight Virtual Hosting: Hosted VMs at Progent's World-class Data Center
  With Progent's ProSight Virtual Hosting service, a small business can have its key servers and apps hosted in a secure Tier III data center on a fast virtual machine host set up and maintained by Progent's IT support experts. Under the ProSight Virtual Hosting service model, the customer retains ownership of the data, the OS platforms, and the apps. Since the environment is virtualized, it can be ported easily to an alternate hosting environment without a lengthy and difficult reinstallation process. With ProSight Virtual Hosting, you are not locked into one hosting service. Find out more about ProSight Virtual Hosting services.

• ProSight Active Security Monitoring: Endpoint Protection and Ransomware Defense
  ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) is an endpoint protection solution that utilizes SentinelOne's cutting edge behavior-based analysis tools to defend physical and virtual endpoints against modern malware attacks like ransomware and file-less exploits, which routinely evade traditional signature-based anti-virus products. ProSight ASM safeguards local and cloud resources and provides a unified platform to address the complete threat lifecycle including filtering, identification, mitigation, cleanup, and forensics. Top features include single-click rollback with Windows VSS and real-time network-wide immunization against newly discovered attacks. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. Find out 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 Microsoft Exchange Filtering
  Progent's ProSight Enhanced Security Protection (ESP) managed services deliver economical in-depth security for physical and virtual servers, workstations, 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 offers two-way firewall protection, intrusion alarms, device management, and web filtering through leading-edge technologies packaged within a single agent accessible from a single control. Progent's security and virtualization experts can help you to plan and configure a ProSight ESP environment that addresses your organization's unique needs and that helps you prove compliance with legal and industry data security regulations. Progent will assist you specify and implement policies that ProSight ESP will manage, and Progent will monitor your network and react to alarms that require urgent action. Progent's consultants can also assist your company to set up and test a backup and restore solution such as ProSight Data Protection Services so you can recover rapidly from a destructive security attack such as ransomware. Read more about Progent's ProSight Enhanced Security Protection (ESP) unified endpoint security and Microsoft Exchange filtering.