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Ransomware : Your Crippling Information Technology Catastrophe
Ransomware has become a too-frequent cyber pandemic that poses an existential threat for businesses of all sizes vulnerable to an assault. Versions of ransomware like the CrySIS, Fusob, Bad Rabbit, SamSam and MongoLock cryptoworms have been running rampant for years and still cause havoc. More recent strains of ransomware like Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, Netwalker, LockBit or Egregor, as well as frequent as yet unnamed viruses, not only encrypt online critical data but also infiltrate many configured system restores and backups. Data replicated to the cloud can also be held hostage. In a vulnerable data protection solution, this can make automated restoration impossible and basically sets the datacenter back to square one.

Restoring services and information following a ransomware event becomes a race against the clock as the targeted business fights to stop the spread, remove the virus, and restore business-critical operations. Since ransomware takes time to replicate, attacks are usually sprung on weekends and holidays, when attacks typically take more time to discover. This multiplies the difficulty of rapidly marshalling and organizing an experienced response team.

Progent offers an assortment of services for protecting enterprises from ransomware penetrations. Among these are team training to help recognize and avoid phishing attempts, ProSight Active Security Monitoring for remote monitoring and management, plus deployment of modern security gateways with artificial intelligence capabilities from SentinelOne to identify and extinguish new threats automatically. Progent in addition offers the assistance of veteran crypto-ransomware recovery consultants with the talent and commitment to re-deploy a breached environment as urgently as possible.

Progent's Crypto-Ransomware Restoration Help
Subsequent to a ransomware penetration, paying the ransom demands in cryptocurrency does not guarantee that cyber criminals will provide the needed codes to unencrypt all your data. Kaspersky Labs estimated that 17% of crypto-ransomware victims never recovered their information even after having paid the ransom, resulting in additional losses. The risk is also very costly. Ryuk ransoms are often several hundred thousand dollars. For larger organizations, the ransom can reach millions of dollars. The other path is to setup from scratch the essential parts of your Information Technology environment. Without access to full system backups, this requires a broad range of IT skills, well-coordinated project management, and the willingness to work non-stop until the task is over.

For decades, Progent has offered professional IT services for businesses across the US and has achieved Microsoft's Partnership certification in the Datacenter and Cloud Productivity competencies. Progent's group of subject matter experts includes professionals who have attained top certifications in key technologies including Microsoft, Cisco, VMware, and major distributions of Linux. Progent's cyber security consultants have garnered internationally-renowned industry certifications including CISM, CISSP, ISACA CRISC, GIAC, and CMMC 2.0. (Visit Progent's certifications). Progent also has experience in financial systems and ERP application software. This breadth of experience provides Progent the skills to rapidly understand important systems and organize the surviving pieces of your network system following a ransomware penetration and configure them into an operational system.

Progent's security team utilizes best of breed project management systems to coordinate the complex restoration process. Progent appreciates the importance of working quickly and in unison with a client's management and Information Technology staff to prioritize tasks and to put critical systems back online as fast as possible.

Client Story: A Successful Ransomware Penetration Response
A customer hired Progent after their network was crashed by Ryuk ransomware. Ryuk is believed to have been developed by North Korean state criminal gangs, suspected of using approaches leaked from the U.S. NSA organization. Ryuk attacks specific businesses with little or no ability to sustain operational disruption and is one of the most lucrative incarnations of ransomware. Well Known organizations include Data Resolution, a California-based information warehousing and cloud computing firm, and the Chicago Tribune. Progent's customer is a regional manufacturing business based in Chicago with about 500 workers. The Ryuk attack had shut down all essential operations and manufacturing processes. Most of the client's data backups had been on-line at the beginning of the attack and were eventually encrypted. The client was taking steps for paying the ransom (exceeding $200K) and praying for the best, but ultimately made the decision to use Progent.

Progent worked hand in hand the customer to quickly determine and assign priority to the essential areas that had to be recovered in order to continue company operations:

• Windows Active Directory
• Electronic Mail
• Financials/MRP

In less than 2 days, Progent was able to re-build Active Directory services to its pre-penetration state. Progent then accomplished reinstallations and storage recovery on mission critical systems. All Exchange schema and attributes were intact, which facilitated the restore of Exchange. Progent was able to locate non-encrypted OST data files (Microsoft Outlook Offline Data Files) on team PCs in order to recover mail information. A not too old off-line backup of the customer's accounting software made them able to recover these vital programs back on-line. Although major work remained to recover fully from the Ryuk virus, essential systems were restored rapidly:

Over the following month important milestones in the recovery process were made through close cooperation between Progent team members and the customer:

• Self-hosted web sites were restored with no loss of information.
• The MailStore Exchange Server containing more than four million historical messages was brought on-line and accessible to users.
• CRM/Product Ordering/Invoices/Accounts Payable/AR/Inventory capabilities were 100% restored.
• A new Palo Alto Networks 850 security appliance was brought on-line.
• Most of the desktops and laptops were functioning as before the incident.

Conclusion
A potential company-ending disaster was dodged through the efforts of results-oriented experts, a broad range of technical expertise, and close teamwork. Although in retrospect the crypto-ransomware virus attack detailed here would have been identified and disabled with up-to-date cyber security solutions and best practices, staff education, and well thought out incident response procedures for data backup and applying software patches, the reality remains that government-sponsored cyber criminals from Russia, North Korea and elsewhere are relentless and will continue. If you do get hit by a crypto-ransomware incursion, remember that Progent's team of professionals has proven experience in ransomware virus defense, remediation, and file disaster recovery.

To review or download a PDF version of this ransomware incident report, please click:
Progent's Ryuk Recovery Case Study Datasheet. (PDF - 282 KB)

Additional Ransomware Protection Services Available from Progent
Progent offers companies in Walnut Creek a portfolio of online monitoring and security evaluation services to assist you to reduce the threat from ransomware. These services incorporate modern machine learning technology to uncover zero-day strains of crypto-ransomware that can evade legacy signature-based anti-virus solutions.

• ProSight Managed Service Packages: for Small to Mid-size Businesses
  Progent's ProSight Managed IT Service Packages make it practical for small and mid-size companies to utilize Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) technology to achieve advanced network resilience. Progent takes care of the necessary monitoring and maintenance for you, so your network expands easily without becoming an obstacle. For a low and predictable monthly subscription, Progent's full-service IT team can be your complete technology safety net. Basic plans include RMM, security, automatic monthly patching, and documentation. As your requirements grow, you can add low-cost subscriptions to best-in-class solutions like as SaaS M365/Google Workspace backup, Multi-Factor Authentication, pen testing, or WiFi management.

• ProSight LAN Watch: Server and Desktop Remote Monitoring and Management
  ProSight LAN Watch is Progent's server and desktop monitoring managed service that uses advanced remote monitoring and management (RMM) technology to keep your network operating at peak levels by checking the health of vital computers that power your business network. When ProSight LAN Watch uncovers an issue, an alert is transmitted automatically to your specified IT staff and your assigned Progent consultant so that all potential 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 for Networks, Servers, and Desktops
  ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM software delivers a centralized, cloud-driven solution for monitoring and managing your network, server, and desktop devices by offering an environment for streamlining common tedious tasks. These can include health monitoring, update management, automated repairs, endpoint configuration, backup and recovery, anti-virus protection, secure remote access, standard and custom scripts, asset inventory, endpoint status reports, and troubleshooting assistance. When ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM identifies a serious problem, it transmits an alert to your designated IT management personnel and your assigned Progent consultant so that emerging problems can be taken care of before they impact your network. Learn more about ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM server and desktop monitoring services.

• ProSight WAN Watch: Network Infrastructure Remote Monitoring and Management
  ProSight WAN Watch is an infrastructure monitoring and management service that makes it simple and inexpensive for small and mid-sized businesses to map out, monitor, optimize and debug their networking hardware like switches, firewalls, and load balancers plus servers, printers, client computers and other networked devices. Incorporating cutting-edge RMM technology, WAN Watch ensures that infrastructure topology diagrams are kept updated, copies and displays the configuration of virtually all devices on your network, tracks performance, and generates notices when potential issues are discovered. By automating complex management and troubleshooting activities, WAN Watch can cut hours off ordinary chores such as network mapping, expanding your network, locating devices that require critical software patches, or identifying the cause of performance problems. Find out more details about ProSight WAN Watch infrastructure monitoring and management services.

• ProSight Reporting: Real-time Reporting for Ticketing and Network Monitoring Platforms
  ProSight Reporting is a growing line of in-depth management reporting plug-ins created to work with the industry's leading ticketing and network monitoring platforms including ConnectWise Manage, ConnectWise Automate, Customer Thermometer, Auvik, and SentinelOne. ProSight Reporting uses Microsoft Graph and features color coding to surface and contextualize key issues like inconsistent support follow-up or machines with missing patches. By exposing ticketing or network health problems clearly and in near-real time, ProSight Reporting improves network value, reduces management overhead, and saves money. For details, see ProSight Reporting for ticketing and network monitoring platforms.

• ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS): Managed Backup and Disaster Recovery Services
  Progent has partnered with advanced backup/restore software providers to produce ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a family of management offerings that deliver backup-as-a-service. ProSight DPS products automate and track your data backup operations and allow transparent backup and rapid recovery of critical files, applications, system images, plus virtual machines. ProSight DPS lets your business avoid data loss caused by equipment breakdown, natural disasters, fire, malware like ransomware, user mistakes, malicious employees, or application bugs. Managed services available in the ProSight Data Protection Services product family include ProSight DPS Altaro VM Backup, ProSight 365 Total Backup (formerly Altaro 365 Backup), ProSight DPS ECHO Backup using Barracuda dedicated storage, and ProSight DPS MSP360 Hybrid Backup. Your Progent expert can help you to determine which of these managed backup 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 filtering and email encryption service that incorporates the infrastructure of leading information security companies to provide web-based control and comprehensive protection for all your email traffic. The powerful structure of Email Guard integrates cloud-based filtering with an on-premises gateway appliance to provide advanced protection against spam, viruses, Dos Attacks, Directory Harvest Attacks (DHAs), and other email-borne malware. Email Guard's Cloud Protection Layer serves as a first line of defense and blocks most unwanted email from making it to your security perimeter. This reduces your vulnerability to external attacks and conserves network bandwidth and storage. Email Guard's onsite security gateway appliance adds a further level of analysis for incoming email. For outbound email, the onsite gateway provides anti-virus and anti-spam protection, DLP, and email encryption. The local gateway can also help Exchange Server to track and safeguard internal email traffic that stays within your security perimeter. For more information, visit Email Guard spam filtering and data leakage protection.

• ProSight Duo Two-Factor Authentication: Access Security, Endpoint Policy Enforcement, and Secure Single Sign-on (SSO)
  Progent's Duo authentication services utilize Cisco's Duo cloud technology to protect against compromised passwords by using two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo enables one-tap identity confirmation with Apple iOS, Google Android, and other out-of-band devices. With 2FA, whenever you sign into a secured online account and enter your password you are requested to confirm your identity via a unit that only you possess and that is accessed using a different ("out-of-band") network channel. A broad selection of devices can be used for this second form of authentication including a smartphone or wearable, a hardware token, a landline phone, etc. You may register several verification devices. To find out more about Duo identity authentication services, see Duo MFA two-factor authentication services.

• Outsourced/Co-managed Service Center: Support Desk Managed Services
  Progent's Call Desk managed services allow your IT group to offload Support Desk services to Progent or divide activity for Help Desk services seamlessly between your in-house support staff and Progent's extensive roster of certified IT service engineers and subject matter experts (SMEs). Progent's Co-managed Help Desk Service provides a smooth supplement to your in-house IT support group. Client access to the Help Desk, provision of support services, issue escalation, trouble ticket creation and updates, performance metrics, and maintenance of the service database are cohesive whether incidents are taken care of by your corporate IT support group, by Progent's team, or a mix of the two. Find out more about Progent's outsourced/shared Service Desk services.

• Active Protection Against Ransomware: Machine Learning-based Ransomware Identification and Cleanup
  Progent's Active Protection Against Ransomware is an endpoint protection solution that utilizes cutting edge behavior-based machine learning technology to guard endpoints and servers and VMs against new malware assaults like ransomware and file-less exploits, which easily get by traditional signature-matching AV products. Progent Active Security Monitoring services protect on-premises and cloud-based resources and offers a single platform to manage the entire malware attack progression including blocking, detection, mitigation, remediation, and post-attack forensics. Key capabilities include single-click rollback using Windows VSS and automatic network-wide immunization against new attacks. Read more about Progent's ransomware defense and recovery services.

• ProSight IT Asset Management: Network Documentation Management
  Progent's ProSight IT Asset Management service is a cloud-based IT documentation management service that makes it easy to capture, maintain, retrieve and protect data about your IT infrastructure, procedures, applications, and services. You can instantly locate passwords or IP addresses and be alerted about upcoming expirations of SSLs or warranties. By cleaning up and organizing your network documentation, you can eliminate as much as half of time spent searching for critical information about your IT network. ProSight IT Asset Management features a centralized repository 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 advanced automation for gathering and associating IT information. Whether you're making improvements, doing regular maintenance, or reacting to a crisis, ProSight IT Asset Management delivers the knowledge 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 provide organizations of any size a flexible and affordable solution for evaluating, testing, scheduling, implementing, and tracking updates to your dynamic information system. Besides maximizing the protection and reliability of your computer environment, Progent's patch management services permit your in-house IT staff to concentrate on line-of-business initiatives and activities that derive maximum business value from your information network. Find out more about Progent's software/firmware update management support services.

• ProSight Virtual Hosting: Hosted Virtual Machines at Progent's Tier III Data Center
  With Progent's ProSight Virtual Hosting service, a small organization can have its critical servers and apps hosted in a protected Tier III data center on a high-performance virtual machine host configured and maintained by Progent's IT support experts. With Progent's ProSight Virtual Hosting model, the customer owns the data, the operating system software, and the apps. Because the system is virtualized, it can be ported immediately to an alternate hosting environment without a time-consuming and technically risky reinstallation process. With ProSight Virtual Hosting, you are not locked into one hosting provider. Find out more about ProSight Virtual Hosting services.

• ProSight Active Security Monitoring: Endpoint Protection and Ransomware Defense
  Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring is an endpoint protection (EPP) solution that incorporates SentinelOne's cutting edge behavior-based analysis technology to defend physical and virtual endpoint devices against modern malware attacks like ransomware and email phishing, which easily evade traditional signature-matching AV products. ProSight ASM protects on-premises and cloud-based resources and provides a unified platform to manage the entire threat progression including protection, infiltration detection, mitigation, remediation, and forensics. Key capabilities include single-click rollback using Windows VSS and real-time network-wide immunization against newly discovered threats. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. Find out more about Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring next-generation endpoint protection and ransomware recovery.

• ProSight Enhanced Security Protection: Endpoint Protection and Exchange Email Filtering
  Progent's ProSight Enhanced Security Protection services deliver ultra-affordable multi-layer security for physical servers and VMs, workstations, smartphones, and Exchange Server. ProSight ESP uses adaptive security and advanced heuristics for continuously monitoring and responding to security threats from all attack vectors. ProSight ESP offers firewall protection, intrusion alerts, endpoint management, and web filtering through cutting-edge tools incorporated within a single agent managed from a single console. Progent's security and virtualization consultants can assist you to design and implement a ProSight ESP deployment that meets your organization's unique needs and that allows you demonstrate compliance with government and industry data protection standards. Progent will help you specify and configure policies that ProSight ESP will manage, and Progent will monitor your network and react to alerts that call for urgent action. Progent can also help you to set up and verify a backup and restore system such as ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS) so you can recover quickly from a destructive security attack such as ransomware. Read more about Progent's ProSight Enhanced Security Protection unified endpoint security and Exchange filtering.