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Virus Detection and Repair Services

Crypto-Ransomware : Your Worst Information Technology Catastrophe
Ransomware has become a too-frequent cyberplague that represents an existential danger for businesses poorly prepared for an assault. Different iterations of ransomware like the Reveton, Fusob, Locky, NotPetya and MongoLock cryptoworms have been out in the wild for a long time and continue to inflict harm. More recent variants of crypto-ransomware like Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, Netwalker, Snatch or Egregor, along with daily as yet unnamed viruses, not only do encryption of on-line data but also infect any accessible system backups. Files synched to the cloud can also be corrupted. In a poorly architected system, this can make any recovery impossible and basically sets the entire system back to zero.

Getting back on-line programs and data after a ransomware intrusion becomes a sprint against time as the targeted organization tries its best to stop the spread, clear the ransomware, and resume enterprise-critical activity. Due to the fact that ransomware requires time to spread, attacks are usually sprung during weekends and nights, when attacks may take longer to uncover. This multiplies the difficulty of quickly mobilizing and coordinating an experienced response team.

Progent has a range of help services for securing organizations from crypto-ransomware attacks. Among these are team member training 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 machine learning technology from SentinelOne to identify and suppress day-zero cyber threats intelligently. Progent also provides the assistance of experienced ransomware recovery consultants with the track record and commitment to reconstruct a breached environment as quickly as possible.

Progent's Crypto-Ransomware Restoration Services
Soon after a ransomware penetration, sending the ransom demands in cryptocurrency does not ensure that cyber criminals will return the needed codes to decrypt all your files. Kaspersky Labs determined that 17% of crypto-ransomware victims never restored their information even after having sent off the ransom, resulting in increased losses. The gamble is also very costly. Ryuk ransoms are often a few hundred thousand dollars. For larger enterprises, the ransom can reach millions. The fallback is to setup from scratch the vital components of your IT environment. Absent the availability of complete data backups, this requires a broad range of skill sets, top notch project management, and the ability to work 24x7 until the job is completed.

For twenty years, Progent has offered professional IT services for companies across the US and has earned Microsoft's Partnership certification in the Datacenter and Cloud Productivity competencies. Progent's pool of subject matter experts includes professionals who have been awarded high-level certifications in leading technologies including Microsoft, Cisco, VMware, and popular distributions of Linux. Progent's cybersecurity experts have garnered internationally-recognized industry certifications including CISA, CISSP, CRISC, GIAC, and CMMC 2.0. (Visit Progent's certifications). Progent in addition has expertise with financial management and ERP software solutions. This breadth of experience gives Progent the ability to knowledgably identify important systems and re-organize the surviving components of your network environment following a ransomware penetration and rebuild them into an operational network.

Progent's security team has state-of-the-art project management systems to orchestrate the complicated restoration process. Progent knows the urgency of working rapidly and together with a client's management and Information Technology resources to assign priority to tasks and to get critical services back on line as fast as possible.

Client Case Study: A Successful Crypto-Ransomware Virus Response
A business escalated to Progent after their network was attacked by Ryuk ransomware virus. Ryuk is thought to have been created by North Korean state criminal gangs, suspected of adopting strategies leaked from the U.S. National Security Agency. Ryuk attacks specific companies with little or no ability to sustain operational disruption and is one of the most lucrative incarnations of ransomware malware. Headline organizations include Data Resolution, a California-based information warehousing and cloud computing firm, and the Chicago Tribune. Progent's customer is a regional manufacturing company headquartered in Chicago and has around 500 workers. The Ryuk intrusion had brought down all company operations and manufacturing capabilities. The majority of the client's system backups had been on-line at the time of the attack and were eventually encrypted. The client considered paying the ransom demand (in excess of $200K) and wishfully thinking for the best, but ultimately reached out to Progent.

Progent worked hand in hand the customer to quickly understand and prioritize the mission critical areas that had to be addressed in order to resume departmental operations:

• Microsoft Active Directory
• Electronic Messaging
• MRP System

In less than 48 hours, Progent was able to rebuild Windows Active Directory to its pre-intrusion state. Progent then initiated setup and storage recovery of needed applications. All Exchange ties and configuration information were intact, which facilitated the restore of Exchange. Progent was also able to collect non-encrypted OST data files (Outlook Offline Folder Files) on staff workstations and laptops in order to recover email data. A recent off-line backup of the client's financials/ERP systems made them able to recover these required programs back on-line. Although major work remained to recover completely from the Ryuk attack, core services were returned to operations rapidly:

Throughout the next few weeks key milestones in the recovery process were completed in close collaboration between Progent engineers and the customer:

• Self-hosted web applications were restored with no loss of data.
• The MailStore Microsoft Exchange Server with over four million archived emails was restored to operations and available for users.
• CRM/Customer Orders/Invoices/Accounts Payable/Accounts Receivables (AR)/Inventory Control capabilities were fully restored.
• A new Palo Alto Networks 850 security appliance was deployed.
• 90% of the desktops and laptops were fully operational.

Conclusion
A probable business extinction catastrophe was dodged through the efforts of top-tier experts, a wide array of knowledge, and close teamwork. Although in analyzing the event afterwards the ransomware virus attack detailed here should have been prevented with current security solutions and best practices, staff training, and well thought out security procedures for backup and applying software patches, the reality remains that government-sponsored cyber criminals from China, Russia, North Korea and elsewhere are relentless and represent an ongoing threat. If you do fall victim to a ransomware incident, feel confident that Progent's roster of professionals has proven experience in ransomware virus defense, removal, and information systems recovery.

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

Additional Ransomware Protection Services Available from Progent
Progent can provide businesses in Mobile a variety of online monitoring and security assessment services to help you to minimize your vulnerability to crypto-ransomware. These services incorporate modern artificial intelligence technology to uncover zero-day variants of ransomware that are able to escape detection by legacy signature-based security solutions.

• ProSight Managed Service Plans: for Small to Mid-size Businesses
  Progent's ProSight Managed IT Service Plans make it realistic for small and mid-size businesses to deploy Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) technology to achieve advanced IT resilience. Progent takes care of the daily monitoring and maintenance for you, so your system expands easily without becoming an obstacle. For an affordable and predictable monthly price, Progent's experienced IT group can be your dependable technology safety net. Entry-level packages include RMM, cybersecurity, automatic monthly patching, and reporting. As your needs grow, you can add low-cost subscriptions to best-in-class options like as SaaS M365/Google Workspace backup, Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), pen testing, or WiFi management.

• ProSight LAN Watch: Server and Desktop Monitoring and Management
  ProSight LAN Watch is Progent's server and desktop monitoring service that uses advanced remote monitoring and management technology to help keep your network running efficiently by tracking the state of vital assets that drive your information system. When ProSight LAN Watch uncovers an issue, an alert is sent immediately to your designated IT management staff and your Progent consultant so all looming issues can be resolved before they have a chance to disrupt productivity. Find out more details about ProSight LAN Watch server and desktop monitoring services.

• ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM: Centralized RMM Solution for Networks, Servers, and Desktops
  ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM software offers a unified, cloud-driven solution for managing your client-server infrastructure by providing tools for streamlining common time-consuming tasks. These can include health checking, update management, automated repairs, endpoint deployment, backup and recovery, A/V protection, secure remote access, built-in and custom scripts, asset inventory, endpoint profile reporting, and debugging assistance. If ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM spots a serious problem, it sends an alert to your specified IT personnel and your assigned Progent consultant so potential problems can be taken care of before they impact your network. Find out more about ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM server and desktop monitoring services.

• ProSight WAN Watch: Infrastructure Management
  ProSight WAN Watch is an infrastructure management service that makes it easy and affordable for small and mid-sized businesses to map out, monitor, optimize and troubleshoot their networking appliances such as routers and switches, firewalls, and wireless controllers plus servers, client computers and other networked devices. Incorporating state-of-the-art RMM technology, ProSight WAN Watch ensures that network maps are kept current, copies and displays the configuration information of almost all devices connected to your network, tracks performance, and generates alerts when potential issues are discovered. By automating time-consuming management activities, WAN Watch can knock hours off ordinary tasks like network mapping, expanding your network, locating devices that need important software patches, or isolating performance issues. Find out more details about ProSight WAN Watch network infrastructure monitoring and management services.

• ProSight Reporting: In-depth Reporting for Ticketing and Network Monitoring Applications
  ProSight Reporting is a growing line of in-depth reporting tools created to integrate with the leading ticketing and remote network monitoring programs including ConnectWise Manage, ConnectWise Automate, Customer Thermometer, Auvik, and SentinelOne. ProSight Reporting incorporates Microsoft Graph and utilizes color coding to surface and contextualize key issues like spotty support follow-through or endpoints with missing patches. By identifying ticketing or network health problems clearly and in near-real time, ProSight Reporting improves network value, reduces management overhead, and saves money. For details, visit ProSight Reporting for ticketing and network monitoring platforms.

• ProSight Data Protection Services: Managed Backup and Recovery Services
  Progent has worked with leading backup software providers to produce ProSight Data Protection Services, a selection of management offerings that deliver backup-as-a-service. ProSight DPS services manage and track your data backup processes and enable transparent backup and fast recovery of vital files/folders, apps, system images, and VMs. ProSight DPS lets you recover from data loss caused by equipment failures, natural calamities, fire, cyber attacks such as ransomware, human mistakes, ill-intentioned insiders, or software glitches. Managed backup services in the ProSight Data Protection Services product line 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 expert can help you to identify which of these managed backup 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 and email encryption service that incorporates the technology of leading data security vendors to deliver web-based management and comprehensive protection for your email traffic. The hybrid architecture of Email Guard integrates a Cloud Protection Layer with a local security gateway appliance to provide advanced defense against spam, viruses, Dos Attacks, Directory Harvest Attacks (DHAs), and other email-borne threats. Email Guard's cloud filter serves as a preliminary barricade and blocks most threats from making it to your network firewall. This decreases your exposure to inbound attacks and saves network bandwidth and storage space. Email Guard's on-premises gateway device adds a further level of inspection for incoming email. For outbound email, the on-premises gateway provides anti-virus and anti-spam protection, protection against data leaks, and email encryption. The on-premises security gateway can also assist Microsoft Exchange Server to track and safeguard internal email that originates and ends inside your security perimeter. For more information, visit Email Guard spam filtering and data leakage protection.

• ProSight Duo Multi-Factor Authentication: ID Confirmation, Endpoint Remediation, and Secure Single Sign-on (SSO)
  Progent's Duo MFA managed services utilize Cisco's Duo cloud technology to protect against password theft by using two-factor authentication. Duo supports one-tap identity confirmation with iOS, Google Android, and other personal devices. With Duo 2FA, whenever you log into a protected application and enter your password you are asked to verify your identity via a device that only you possess and that is accessed using a different network channel. A broad selection of out-of-band devices can be used for this second form of authentication including an iPhone or Android or wearable, a hardware/software token, a landline phone, etc. You may register multiple verification devices. To find out more about Duo two-factor identity authentication services, visit Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for access security.

• Outsourced/Co-managed Service Desk: Call Center Managed Services
  Progent's Help Center managed services enable your IT staff to offload Support Desk services to Progent or divide activity for Help Desk services transparently between your in-house support group and Progent's extensive pool of IT support engineers and subject matter experts. Progent's Shared Service Desk provides a smooth extension of your core IT support team. Client interaction with the Help Desk, delivery of technical assistance, escalation, ticket generation and tracking, performance measurement, and management of the service database are consistent whether issues are taken care of by your core network support staff, by Progent, or by a combination. Learn more about Progent's outsourced/shared Call Center services.

• Progent Active Protection Against Ransomware: Machine Learning-based Ransomware Identification and Cleanup
  Progent's Active Protection Against Ransomware is an endpoint protection (EPP) managed service that incorporates cutting edge behavior machine learning tools to defend endpoint devices as well as physical and virtual servers against new malware assaults such as ransomware and file-less exploits, which routinely escape legacy signature-based AV products. Progent ASM services safeguard on-premises and cloud-based resources and offers a single platform to automate the complete malware attack lifecycle including protection, infiltration detection, mitigation, remediation, and post-attack forensics. Top features include single-click rollback with Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service and real-time network-wide immunization against newly discovered attacks. Find out more about Progent's ransomware defense 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, update, retrieve and safeguard data related to your network infrastructure, processes, applications, and services. You can instantly locate passwords or serial numbers and be alerted about upcoming expirations of SSLs or domains. By cleaning up and organizing your IT documentation, you can eliminate as much as half of time spent looking for vital information about your IT network. ProSight IT Asset Management features a centralized location for holding and sharing all documents related to managing your network infrastructure like standard operating procedures (SOPs) and self-service instructions. ProSight IT Asset Management also offers a high level of automation for collecting and associating IT data. Whether you're planning improvements, performing regular maintenance, or reacting to an emergency, ProSight IT Asset Management delivers the data you require when you need it. Learn more about ProSight IT Asset Management service.

• Progent's Patch Management: Patch Management Services
  Progent's support services for patch management provide businesses of any size a versatile and affordable solution for assessing, testing, scheduling, applying, and documenting updates to your ever-evolving information network. Besides optimizing the security and reliability of your IT network, Progent's software/firmware update management services allow your IT staff to concentrate on more strategic projects and tasks that deliver maximum business value from your information network. Read more about Progent's software/firmware update management services.

• ProSight Virtual Hosting: Hosted Virtual Machines at Progent's Tier III Data Center
  With ProSight Virtual Hosting service, a small business can have its critical servers and applications hosted in a secure fault tolerant data center on a fast virtual machine host set up and managed by Progent's network support experts. Under Progent's ProSight Virtual Hosting model, the customer retains ownership of the data, the OS software, and the apps. Because the system is virtualized, it can be moved immediately to an alternate hosting solution without requiring a time-consuming and difficult reinstallation procedure. With ProSight Virtual Hosting, your business is not tied one 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 solution that incorporates SentinelOne's next generation behavior-based analysis tools to guard physical and virtual endpoint devices against new malware assaults like ransomware and file-less exploits, which easily get by traditional signature-based anti-virus products. ProSight ASM safeguards local and cloud-based resources and provides a single platform to automate the complete malware attack progression including blocking, identification, containment, cleanup, and forensics. Key capabilities include single-click rollback with Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) and automatic network-wide immunization against newly discovered attacks. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. Read more about Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring endpoint protection and ransomware recovery.

• ProSight Enhanced Security Protection: Endpoint Security and Microsoft Exchange Email Filtering
  ProSight Enhanced Security Protection managed services deliver economical in-depth security for physical servers and virtual machines, workstations, mobile devices, and Exchange Server. ProSight ESP utilizes contextual security and advanced heuristics for continuously monitoring and reacting to security assaults from all attack vectors. ProSight ESP delivers two-way firewall protection, penetration alarms, endpoint control, and web filtering via cutting-edge technologies packaged within one agent accessible from a single control. Progent's data protection and virtualization experts can help your business to plan and implement a ProSight ESP environment that meets your company's unique needs and that helps you prove compliance with legal and industry information protection standards. Progent will assist you specify and implement policies that ProSight ESP will manage, and Progent will monitor your IT environment and react to alarms that require urgent attention. Progent can also help you to set up and test a backup and disaster recovery system like ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS) so you can get back in business rapidly from a potentially disastrous security attack such as ransomware. Learn more about Progent's ProSight Enhanced Security Protection (ESP) unified physical and virtual endpoint protection and Exchange filtering.