Petaluma Ransomware Protection and Cleanup Expertise

Ransomware has been widely adopted by cybercriminals and bad-actor states, representing a possibly lethal risk to businesses that fall victim. Modern variations of crypto-ransomware target everything, including online backup, making even partial recovery a challenging and expensive process. Novel strains of ransomware like Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, Netwalker, Phobos, Conti and Nephilim have emerged, replacing Locky, Cerber, and NotPetya in notoriety, sophistication, and destructive impact.

Most ransomware breaches are caused by innocent-looking emails with dangerous hyperlinks or attachments, and a high percentage are "zero-day" variants that elude the defenses of legacy signature-based antivirus (AV) tools. Although user education and up-front identification are important to protect your network against ransomware, leading practices dictate that you assume some attacks will inevitably succeed and that you prepare a strong backup solution that enables you to restore files and services quickly with minimal damage.

Progent's ProSight Ransomware Preparedness Report is a low-cost service built around an online interview with a Progent security consultant experienced in ransomware protection and recovery. In the course of this assessment Progent will cooperate with your Petaluma network management staff to collect critical data about your security setup and backup environment. Progent will use this information to produce a Basic Security and Best Practices Assessment documenting how to adhere to leading practices for implementing and administering your cybersecurity and backup systems to prevent or recover from a ransomware attack.

Progent's Basic Security and Best Practices Report focuses on vital issues associated with crypto-ransomware prevention and restoration recovery. The review addresses:

Security

• Correct use of admin accounts
• Correct NTFS (New Technology File System) and SMB (Server Message Block) permissions
• Proper firewall settings
• Safe RDP access
• Advice about AntiVirus (AV) filtering identification and deployment

• Split permission model for backup protection
• Backing up required servers including Active Directory
• Geographically dispersed backups with cloud backup to Azure

About Ransomware
Ransomware is a type of malware that encrypts or deletes a victim's files so they cannot be used or are made publicly available. Crypto-ransomware often locks the target's computer. To prevent the damage, the victim is asked to send a certain amount of money (the ransom), usually via a crypto currency such as Bitcoin, within a brief period of time. There is no guarantee that paying the ransom will restore the damaged data or prevent its publication. Files can be altered or erased throughout a network based on the target's write permissions, and you cannot break the strong encryption algorithms used on the compromised files. A typical ransomware delivery package is spoofed email, in which the victim is tricked into interacting with by means of a social engineering technique known as spear phishing. This makes the email to appear to come from a trusted source. Another popular vulnerability is an improperly secured Remote Desktop Protocol port.

The ransomware variant CryptoLocker opened the new age of ransomware in 2013, and the damage attributed to by different strains of ransomware is estimated at billions of dollars annually, roughly doubling every other year. Notorious examples include WannaCry, and NotPetya. Recent headline threats like Ryuk, Sodinokibi and CryptoWall are more sophisticated and have caused more havoc than older versions. Even if your backup/recovery procedures permit you to restore your ransomed files, you can still be threatened by exfiltration, where ransomed documents are made public (known as "doxxing"). Because additional variants of ransomware are launched daily, there is no certainty that traditional signature-based anti-virus tools will detect a new malware. If an attack does show up in an email, it is critical that your end users have learned to identify social engineering techniques. Your ultimate defense is a sound scheme for scheduling and retaining offsite backups plus the use of dependable recovery tools.

Contact Progent About the ProSight Crypto-Ransomware Susceptibility Review in Petaluma
For pricing details and to find out more about how Progent's ProSight Ransomware Susceptibility Assessment can enhance your defense against ransomware in Petaluma, call Progent at 800-462-8800 or visit Contact Progent.