24-Hour San Jose Emergency Crypto-Ransomware
Computer Virus Detection and Repair Consultants

Ransomware : Your Worst IT Disaster
Crypto-Ransomware has become a modern cyber pandemic that represents an extinction-level danger for organizations vulnerable to an attack. Different versions of ransomware like the Reveton, CryptoWall, Bad Rabbit, SamSam and MongoLock cryptoworms have been out in the wild for a long time and still cause damage. Modern variants of ransomware such as Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, Netwalker, Snatch or Egregor, plus daily unnamed viruses, not only do encryption of on-line critical data but also infiltrate most available system backups. Files replicated to off-site disaster recovery sites can also be encrypted. In a poorly designed system, it can render automated recovery hopeless and basically sets the network back to zero.

Retrieving services and data following a ransomware event becomes a race against time as the targeted organization tries its best to stop the spread, cleanup the crypto-ransomware, and restore mission-critical activity. Since ransomware requires time to spread, attacks are frequently launched at night, when penetrations are likely to take longer to uncover. This multiplies the difficulty of quickly mobilizing and orchestrating a knowledgeable mitigation team.

Progent has a range of services for securing organizations from crypto-ransomware attacks. These include team member education to become familiar with 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 AI technology from SentinelOne to detect and extinguish zero-day cyber attacks intelligently. Progent also can provide the services of seasoned ransomware recovery consultants with the skills and perseverance to re-deploy a breached environment as soon as possible.

Progent's Ransomware Restoration Services
Subsequent to a crypto-ransomware penetration, paying the ransom demands in cryptocurrency does not provide any assurance that cyber criminals will provide the keys to unencrypt any of your data. Kaspersky Labs determined that 17% of ransomware victims never restored their information even after having sent off the ransom, resulting in increased losses. The gamble is also costly. Ryuk ransoms are often a few hundred thousand dollars. For larger enterprises, the ransom can be in the millions of dollars. The other path is to re-install the mission-critical elements of your IT environment. Without the availability of complete information backups, this requires a wide complement of skill sets, top notch team management, and the willingness to work 24x7 until the job is finished.

For decades, Progent has provided certified expert Information Technology services for businesses across the U.S. and has earned Microsoft's Partnership certification in the Datacenter and Cloud Productivity competencies. Progent's team of subject matter experts (SMEs) includes engineers who have earned high-level industry certifications in leading technologies such as Microsoft, Cisco, VMware, and popular distributions of Linux. Progent's cybersecurity specialists have garnered internationally-recognized industry certifications including CISA, CISSP-ISSAP, ISACA CRISC, SANS GIAC, and CMMC 2.0. (Refer to Progent's certifications). Progent in addition has expertise with financial systems and ERP application software. This breadth of experience gives Progent the skills to quickly ascertain necessary systems and organize the surviving components of your Information Technology environment after a ransomware penetration and configure them into a functioning network.

Progent's ransomware group utilizes powerful project management systems to coordinate the complex recovery process. Progent understands the importance of working quickly and together with a client's management and IT team members to assign priority to tasks and to get the most important systems back on line as fast as possible.

Client Case Study: A Successful Ransomware Penetration Response
A small business contacted Progent after their network system was crashed by Ryuk ransomware. Ryuk is generally considered to have been deployed by North Korean government sponsored criminal gangs, possibly adopting algorithms leaked from America's National Security Agency. Ryuk goes after specific businesses with limited tolerance for disruption and is among the most profitable iterations of ransomware viruses. Major organizations include Data Resolution, a California-based info warehousing and cloud computing business, and the Chicago Tribune. Progent's customer is a small manufacturing business based in the Chicago metro area with around 500 staff members. The Ryuk event had shut down all company operations and manufacturing processes. Most of the client's backups had been directly accessible at the beginning of the intrusion and were encrypted. The client was pursuing financing for paying the ransom (more than two hundred thousand dollars) and praying for the best, but ultimately made the decision to use Progent.

Progent worked with the client to rapidly understand and prioritize the mission critical elements that needed to be addressed in order to restart departmental functions:

• Active Directory (AD)
• E-Mail
• MRP System

Within two days, Progent was able to re-build Active Directory to its pre-penetration state. Progent then assisted with rebuilding and hard drive recovery of essential systems. All Exchange data and configuration information were usable, which greatly helped the rebuild of Exchange. Progent was able to find intact OST data files (Outlook Email Off-Line Data Files) on team desktop computers in order to recover email messages. A not too old offline backup of the businesses accounting/ERP systems made them able to recover these required applications back servicing users. Although major work still had to be done to recover completely from the Ryuk attack, essential services were restored quickly:

Over the next couple of weeks important milestones in the recovery process were completed through close cooperation between Progent team members and the client:

• Self-hosted web sites were restored without losing any information.
• The MailStore Microsoft Exchange Server with over 4 million historical messages was brought on-line and accessible to users.
• CRM/Customer Orders/Invoicing/Accounts Payable/AR/Inventory Control capabilities were completely operational.
• A new Palo Alto 850 security appliance was set up.
• Nearly all of the user workstations were being used by staff.

Conclusion
A possible business extinction disaster was avoided due to top-tier professionals, a broad range of technical expertise, and close collaboration. Although in post mortem the ransomware virus incident detailed here could have been blocked with current security systems and ISO/IEC 27001 best practices, user and IT administrator training, and well thought out incident response procedures for information backup and keeping systems up to date with security patches, the reality is that state-sponsored cyber criminals from China, North Korea and elsewhere are tireless and are an ongoing threat. If you do fall victim to a ransomware incursion, remember that Progent's team of professionals has extensive experience in crypto-ransomware virus defense, removal, and file disaster recovery.

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

Additional Crypto-Ransomware Protection Services Available from Progent
Progent can provide companies in San Jose a variety of remote monitoring and security evaluation services to help you to minimize your vulnerability to crypto-ransomware. These services utilize modern machine learning technology to uncover new variants of crypto-ransomware that can escape detection by traditional signature-based security products.

• ProSight Managed Service Plans: for Small to Mid-size Businesses
  Progent's ProSight Managed IT Service Packages make it practical for small and mid-size companies to deploy Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) technology to achieve leading-edge network resilience. Progent takes care of the daily monitoring and management for you, so your network scales readily without holding you back. For an affordable and predictable monthly price, Progent's experienced IT group can be your complete technology safety net. Basic packages include remote monitoring and management (RMM), security, automatic monthly patching, and reporting. As your requirements grow, you can add low-cost subscriptions to best-in-class solutions such as SaaS M365/Google Workspace backup and restore, Multi-Factor Authentication, penetration testing, or WiFi management.

• ProSight LAN Watch: Server and Desktop Monitoring
  ProSight LAN Watch is Progent's server and desktop remote monitoring managed service that uses advanced remote monitoring and management (RMM) technology to help keep your network operating at peak levels by checking the health of vital assets that drive your information system. When ProSight LAN Watch detects an issue, an alarm is sent immediately to your designated IT personnel and your assigned Progent engineering consultant so that any looming problems can be resolved before they have a chance to disrupt productivity. Find out more details about ProSight LAN Watch server and desktop remote monitoring consulting.

• ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM: Centralized RMM Solution for Networks, Servers, and Desktops
  ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM software delivers a unified, cloud-based solution for managing your client-server infrastructure by providing tools for performing common tedious jobs. These can include health monitoring, update management, automated remediation, endpoint setup, backup and restore, anti-virus defense, remote access, built-in and custom scripts, resource inventory, endpoint status reporting, and troubleshooting assistance. When ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM identifies a serious problem, it transmits an alert to your designated IT staff and your Progent technical consultant so potential 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: Infrastructure Management
  Progent's ProSight WAN Watch is an infrastructure monitoring and management service that makes it simple and affordable for small and mid-sized organizations to map out, track, optimize and debug their networking hardware such as switches, firewalls, and access points as well as servers, endpoints and other networked devices. Incorporating state-of-the-art Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) technology, WAN Watch ensures that network maps are always updated, captures and displays the configuration information of almost all devices connected to your network, tracks performance, and generates alerts when problems are detected. By automating time-consuming management and troubleshooting activities, ProSight WAN Watch can cut hours off ordinary tasks like network mapping, expanding your network, locating devices that require critical updates, or isolating performance problems. Learn more details about ProSight WAN Watch infrastructure monitoring and management consulting.

• ProSight Reporting: In-depth Reporting for Ticketing and Network Monitoring Applications
  ProSight Reporting is an expanding family of real-time reporting plug-ins designed 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 features color coding to highlight and contextualize key issues such as inconsistent support follow-through or endpoints with out-of-date AVs. By identifying ticketing or network health concerns concisely and in near-real time, ProSight Reporting improves productivity, reduces management hassle, and saves money. For details, see ProSight Reporting for ticketing and network monitoring applications.

• ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS): Managed Backup and Disaster Recovery Services
  Progent has worked with advanced backup/restore software companies to create ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a family of subscription-based offerings that provide backup-as-a-service (BaaS). ProSight DPS products manage and track your data backup operations and enable non-disruptive backup and rapid recovery of critical files, applications, images, and Hyper-V and VMware virtual machines. ProSight DPS helps you recover from data loss resulting from equipment breakdown, natural disasters, fire, malware like ransomware, user mistakes, malicious employees, or software glitches. Managed services available in the ProSight DPS product line include ProSight DPS Altaro VM Backup, ProSight 365 Total Backup (formerly Altaro 365 Backup), ProSight ECHO Backup using Barracuda purpose-built hardware, and ProSight MSP360 Hybrid Backup. Your Progent expert can help you to identify which of these managed 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 and virus filtering service that uses the infrastructure of top information security companies to provide centralized management and world-class security for all your email traffic. The powerful structure of Progent's Email Guard integrates cloud-based filtering with an on-premises gateway device to offer complete protection against spam, viruses, Denial of Service Attacks, Directory Harvest Attacks (DHAs), and other email-borne malware. The Cloud Protection Layer acts as a first line of defense and keeps the vast majority of unwanted email from reaching your network firewall. This decreases your exposure to external attacks and conserves system bandwidth and storage. Email Guard's on-premises security gateway appliance provides a deeper level of inspection for inbound email. For outgoing email, the local gateway provides anti-virus and anti-spam filtering, policy-based Data Loss Prevention, and email encryption. The local security gateway can also help Exchange Server to track and safeguard internal email traffic 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: ID Confirmation, Endpoint Policy Enforcement, and Protected Single Sign-on (SSO)
  Progent's Duo authentication service plans utilize Cisco's Duo cloud technology to protect against password theft by using two-factor authentication. Duo supports single-tap identity verification on Apple iOS, Google Android, and other personal devices. Using Duo 2FA, whenever you sign into a protected application and enter your password you are requested to confirm your identity via a device that only you have and that uses a different network channel. A broad selection of out-of-band devices can be utilized as this added means of authentication including an iPhone or Android or wearable, a hardware token, a landline phone, etc. You may register multiple validation devices. To learn more about Duo identity validation services, go to Duo MFA two-factor authentication services.

• Outsourced/Co-managed Call Desk: Help Desk Managed Services
  Progent's Support Desk services allow your information technology staff to outsource Call Center services to Progent or split responsibilities for Service Desk support transparently between your in-house network support resources and Progent's nationwide roster of certified IT service technicians, engineers and subject matter experts (SMEs). Progent's Co-managed Service Desk provides a smooth supplement to your in-house IT support team. User interaction with the Service Desk, provision of support services, escalation, trouble ticket generation and tracking, efficiency measurement, and maintenance of the support database are consistent whether issues are resolved by your internal network support organization, by Progent's team, or by a combination. Learn more about Progent's outsourced/shared Call Center services.

• Active Protection Against Ransomware: AI-based Ransomware Detection and Cleanup
  Progent's Active Protection Against Ransomware is an endpoint protection solution that incorporates next generation behavior machine learning tools to defend endpoints as well as servers and VMs against modern malware attacks like ransomware and email phishing, which routinely get by legacy signature-based anti-virus tools. Progent ASM services protect local and cloud-based resources and provides a unified platform to automate the complete malware attack lifecycle including protection, identification, containment, remediation, and forensics. Top features include one-click rollback with Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service and automatic network-wide immunization against new attacks. Find out more about Progent's ransomware protection 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 create, update, retrieve and protect information related to your network infrastructure, procedures, applications, and services. You can instantly find passwords or IP addresses and be alerted about upcoming expirations of SSLs ,domains or warranties. By cleaning up and managing your network documentation, you can save up to 50% of time thrown away trying to find critical information about your network. ProSight IT Asset Management features a common repository for holding and sharing all documents related to managing your business network such as standard operating procedures (SOPs) and self-service instructions. ProSight IT Asset Management also offers a high level of automation for gathering and associating IT data. Whether you're planning enhancements, doing maintenance, or reacting to an emergency, ProSight IT Asset Management gets you the knowledge you need as soon as you need it. Learn more about Progent's ProSight IT Asset Management service.

• Patch Management: Patch Management Services
  Progent's support services for patch management provide organizations of all sizes a flexible and cost-effective alternative for evaluating, testing, scheduling, implementing, and tracking updates to your ever-evolving IT network. Besides maximizing the protection and functionality of your IT network, Progent's patch management services free up time for your in-house IT staff to concentrate on more strategic projects and tasks that derive maximum business value from your information network. Read more about Progent's software/firmware update management support services.

• ProSight Virtual Hosting: Hosted Virtual Machines at Progent's Tier III Data Center
  With ProSight Virtual Hosting service, a small or mid-size business can have its critical servers and applications hosted in a secure Tier III data center on a high-performance virtual host set up and managed by Progent's IT support professionals. Under Progent's ProSight Virtual Hosting model, the customer retains ownership of the data, the operating system software, and the applications. Since the environment is virtualized, it can be moved immediately to a different hardware solution without a time-consuming and difficult configuration procedure. With ProSight Virtual Hosting, your business is not locked into one hosting provider. Find out more about ProSight Virtual Hosting services.

• ProSight Active Security Monitoring: Endpoint Protection and Ransomware Defense
  ProSight Active Security Monitoring is an endpoint protection (EPP) solution that utilizes SentinelOne's cutting edge behavior-based analysis technology to guard physical and virtual endpoints against modern malware assaults like ransomware and file-less exploits, which routinely escape legacy signature-based AV tools. ProSight Active Security Monitoring safeguards on-premises and cloud resources and provides a unified platform to manage the entire malware attack lifecycle including protection, identification, mitigation, remediation, and forensics. Key capabilities include single-click rollback using Windows VSS and real-time network-wide immunization against newly discovered attacks. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. Learn more about Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) endpoint protection and ransomware defense.

• ProSight Enhanced Security Protection: Physical and Virtual Endpoint Protection and Exchange Email Filtering
  Progent's ProSight Enhanced Security Protection services offer ultra-affordable multi-layer security for physical servers and virtual machines, desktops, smartphones, and Exchange Server. ProSight ESP utilizes contextual security and advanced machine learning for round-the-clock monitoring and reacting to security assaults from all attack vectors. ProSight ESP provides two-way firewall protection, intrusion alarms, device management, and web filtering through leading-edge technologies incorporated within a single agent accessible from a unified console. Progent's security and virtualization experts can assist your business to plan and configure a ProSight ESP environment that addresses your organization's specific needs and that allows you demonstrate compliance with legal and industry data security standards. Progent will assist you define and configure security policies that ProSight ESP will manage, and Progent will monitor your IT environment and react to alarms that call for immediate attention. Progent's consultants can also help you to install and test a backup and disaster recovery solution like ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS) so you can get back in business rapidly from a destructive security attack such as ransomware. Learn more about Progent's ProSight Enhanced Security Protection (ESP) unified endpoint protection and Microsoft Exchange email filtering.