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Virus Damage Assessment and Remediation Services

Crypto-Ransomware : Your Worst Information Technology Nightmare
Ransomware has become an escalating cyberplague that represents an existential threat for businesses poorly prepared for an attack. Different versions of ransomware such as CryptoLocker, WannaCry, Locky, NotPetya and MongoLock cryptoworms have been circulating for many years and continue to cause havoc. More recent variants of ransomware such as Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, Netwalker, LockBit or Egregor, as well as daily as yet unnamed newcomers, not only do encryption of online data but also infiltrate many configured system backup. Data replicated to the cloud can also be held hostage. In a poorly designed system, this can render automatic recovery impossible and effectively knocks the network back to zero.

Restoring programs and data following a ransomware event becomes a race against time as the targeted organization tries its best to contain the damage, eradicate the ransomware, and restore mission-critical activity. Due to the fact that ransomware takes time to move laterally, penetrations are frequently launched during nights and weekends, when penetrations tend to take longer to notice. This multiplies the difficulty of quickly mobilizing and coordinating a capable mitigation team.

Progent offers a range of help services for securing businesses from ransomware penetrations. Among these are staff training to help identify and not fall victim to phishing attempts, ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) for remote monitoring and management, along with deployment of next-generation security appliances with artificial intelligence capabilities from SentinelOne to identify and extinguish zero-day cyber threats automatically. Progent also offers the assistance of experienced ransomware recovery professionals with the skills and perseverance to restore a compromised system as rapidly as possible.

Progent's Ransomware Recovery Support Services
Subsequent to a ransomware invasion, paying the ransom in cryptocurrency does not guarantee that cyber hackers will respond with the needed codes to unencrypt all your files. Kaspersky Labs ascertained that seventeen percent of ransomware victims never recovered their data after having sent off the ransom, resulting in additional losses. The risk is also expensive. Ryuk ransoms are often a few hundred thousand dollars. For larger organizations, the ransom can be in the millions of dollars. The other path is to setup from scratch the mission-critical elements of your Information Technology environment. Without the availability of complete system backups, this requires a broad range of skill sets, well-coordinated project management, and the willingness to work non-stop until the job is finished.

For twenty years, Progent has made available professional IT services for businesses throughout the US and has earned Microsoft's Partnership certification status in the Datacenter and Cloud Productivity competencies. Progent's group of subject matter experts (SMEs) includes engineers who have attained high-level certifications in leading technologies including Microsoft, Cisco, VMware, and major distributions of Linux. Progent's cyber security engineers have garnered internationally-renowned certifications including CISM, CISSP-ISSAP, CRISC, SANS GIAC, and CMMC 2.0. (Visit Progent's certifications). Progent also has experience in financial management and ERP applications. This breadth of experience provides Progent the ability to efficiently determine critical systems and integrate the surviving pieces of your computer network system following a crypto-ransomware penetration and configure them into an operational system.

Progent's security team uses best of breed project management systems to coordinate the sophisticated recovery process. Progent knows the urgency of working swiftly and in concert with a client's management and IT resources to prioritize tasks and to put key services back on line as soon as humanly possible.

Case Study: A Successful Ransomware Attack Restoration
A customer escalated to Progent after their company was brought down by the Ryuk ransomware virus. Ryuk is thought to have been created by North Korean state criminal gangs, suspected of using algorithms leaked from America's NSA organization. Ryuk attacks specific businesses with little ability to sustain disruption and is among the most profitable incarnations of ransomware malware. Major organizations include Data Resolution, a California-based information warehousing and cloud computing business, and the Chicago Tribune. Progent's client is a small manufacturing company located in Chicago and has around 500 employees. The Ryuk penetration had shut down all essential operations and manufacturing capabilities. Most of the client's system backups had been on-line at the beginning of the attack and were damaged. The client was pursuing financing for paying the ransom demand (exceeding $200K) and wishfully thinking for good luck, but ultimately brought in Progent.

Progent worked with the customer to rapidly identify and assign priority to the mission critical systems that had to be restored to make it possible to resume business operations:

• Active Directory (AD)
• Microsoft Exchange Server
• Accounting and Manufacturing Software

Within two days, Progent was able to recover Active Directory to its pre-virus state. Progent then assisted with setup and storage recovery on essential systems. All Microsoft Exchange Server ties and attributes were intact, which facilitated the rebuild of Exchange. Progent was also able to locate local OST files (Outlook Offline Folder Files) on user desktop computers and laptops to recover email messages. A recent offline backup of the customer's financials/ERP software made it possible to restore these essential programs back online for users. Although a lot of work needed to be completed to recover completely from the Ryuk event, core services were returned to operations quickly:

During the next few weeks key milestones in the recovery project were completed in tight cooperation between Progent team members and the client:

• In-house web sites were returned to operation with no loss of information.
• The MailStore Microsoft Exchange Server containing more than 4 million archived emails was brought on-line and available for users.
• CRM/Customer Orders/Invoicing/AP/Accounts Receivables/Inventory functions were completely functional.
• A new Palo Alto Networks 850 security appliance was installed.
• Nearly all of the user PCs were fully operational.

Conclusion
A probable business-killing catastrophe was dodged due to hard-working experts, a wide spectrum of technical expertise, and close collaboration. Although in hindsight the crypto-ransomware virus penetration described here would have been identified and stopped with modern cyber security technology and NIST Cybersecurity Framework best practices, staff education, and properly executed security procedures for data backup and proper patching controls, the fact remains that government-sponsored cyber criminals from China, North Korea and elsewhere are tireless and represent an ongoing threat. If you do get hit by a ransomware incident, remember that Progent's roster of experts has a proven track record in ransomware virus blocking, cleanup, and information systems restoration.

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

Additional Ransomware Protection Services Available from Progent
Progent offers businesses in Wichita a range of remote monitoring and security assessment services to assist you to minimize the threat from ransomware. These services utilize modern artificial intelligence capability to uncover new strains of ransomware that can evade legacy signature-based security products.

• ProSight Managed Service Plans: for Small to Mid-size Businesses
  Progent's ProSight Managed IT Service Packages make it possible for small and mid-size businesses to utilize Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) solutions to achieve advanced network resilience. Progent handles the necessary monitoring and maintenance for you, so your system scales readily without holding you back. For an affordable and predictable monthly subscription, Progent's experienced IT team can be your dependable technology safety net. Entry-level plans include remote monitoring and management (RMM), security, automatic monthly patching, and documentation. As your requirements grow, you can add low-cost subscriptions to advanced solutions like as SaaS M365/Google Workspace backup and restore, Multi-Factor Authentication, pen testing, or WiFi management.

• ProSight LAN Watch: Server and Desktop Remote Monitoring
  ProSight LAN Watch is Progent's server and desktop monitoring managed service that uses state-of-the-art remote monitoring and management (RMM) techniques to help keep your network running efficiently by tracking the health of vital computers that power your business network. When ProSight LAN Watch detects an issue, an alarm is sent automatically to your specified IT staff and your Progent consultant so that all potential problems can be addressed before they have a chance to impact productivity. Find out more about ProSight LAN Watch server and desktop monitoring consulting.

• ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM: Unified RMM Solution for Networks, Servers, and Workstations
  ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM software delivers a centralized, cloud-based solution for monitoring and managing your network, server, and desktop devices by providing an environment for streamlining common time-consuming tasks. These include health monitoring, patch management, automated remediation, endpoint configuration, backup and restore, A/V defense, secure remote access, built-in and custom scripts, asset inventory, endpoint profile reporting, and troubleshooting help. When ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM identifies a serious problem, it transmits an alarm to your designated IT management staff and your assigned Progent technical consultant so that emerging issues can be taken care of before they interfere with your network. Find out more about ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM server and desktop monitoring services.

• ProSight WAN Watch: Infrastructure Remote Monitoring and Management
  Progent's ProSight WAN Watch is a network infrastructure management service that makes it simple and affordable for small and mid-sized organizations to map, track, enhance and troubleshoot their networking hardware such as switches, firewalls, and load balancers as well as servers, printers, endpoints and other networked devices. Incorporating state-of-the-art Remote Monitoring and Management technology, ProSight WAN Watch ensures that infrastructure topology diagrams are always updated, copies and manages the configuration of virtually all devices connected to your network, tracks performance, and generates notices when potential issues are detected. By automating time-consuming management activities, ProSight WAN Watch can knock hours off ordinary tasks like network mapping, expanding your network, locating appliances that need critical software patches, or resolving performance issues. Learn more about ProSight WAN Watch infrastructure monitoring and management services.

• ProSight Reporting: In-depth Reporting for Ticketing and Network Monitoring Platforms
  ProSight Reporting is a growing family of real-time and in-depth reporting plug-ins designed to work with the industry's top ticketing and remote 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 critical issues like spotty support follow-through or endpoints with missing patches. By exposing ticketing or network health concerns clearly and in near-real time, ProSight Reporting improves network value, reduces management overhead, and saves money. For more information, visit ProSight Reporting for ticketing and network monitoring applications.

• ProSight Data Protection Services: Backup and Recovery Services
  Progent has partnered with leading backup/restore technology companies to produce ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a portfolio of offerings that deliver backup-as-a-service. ProSight DPS services manage and track your backup processes and allow transparent backup and rapid recovery of important files/folders, apps, system images, plus VMs. ProSight DPS helps you recover from data loss resulting from hardware failures, natural disasters, fire, malware like ransomware, user error, ill-intentioned employees, or application bugs. Managed backup services 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 dedicated hardware, and ProSight MSP360 Hybrid Backup. Your Progent consultant can assist 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 service that uses the technology of top data security companies to deliver web-based management and world-class security for all your inbound and outbound email. The powerful architecture of Progent's Email Guard managed service combines a Cloud Protection Layer with a local gateway appliance to provide advanced protection against spam, viruses, Denial of Service Attacks, Directory Harvest Attacks, 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 security perimeter. This decreases your exposure to external attacks and saves system bandwidth and storage. Email Guard's on-premises security gateway appliance adds a deeper level of inspection for incoming email. For outbound email, the local security gateway offers AV and anti-spam protection, protection against data leaks, and email encryption. The onsite gateway can also assist Exchange Server to monitor and safeguard internal email traffic that originates and ends inside your corporate firewall. For more information, see Email Guard spam and content filtering.

• ProSight Duo Multi-Factor Authentication: ID Confirmation, Endpoint Remediation, and Secure Single Sign-on (SSO)
  Progent's Duo MFA services utilize Cisco's Duo technology to defend against password theft by using two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo enables one-tap identity verification with iOS, Android, and other personal devices. Using 2FA, whenever you log into a protected online account and enter your password you are requested to confirm your identity via a device that only you have and that uses a separate network channel. A wide selection of devices can be used as this added means of authentication including an iPhone or Android or watch, a hardware token, a landline telephone, etc. You may designate several validation devices. For more information about Duo two-factor identity validation services, go to Duo MFA two-factor authentication (2FA) services for access security.

• Progent's Outsourced/Shared Help Desk: Help Desk Managed Services
  Progent's Help Center managed services permit your IT team to offload Call Center services to Progent or split activity for Service Desk support seamlessly between your internal network support group and Progent's extensive pool of certified IT service technicians, engineers and subject matter experts (SMEs). Progent's Co-managed Help Desk Service offers a smooth supplement to your internal network support organization. Client access to the Service Desk, provision of technical assistance, escalation, trouble ticket generation and tracking, efficiency measurement, and maintenance of the support database are consistent 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/co-managed Service Center services.

• Progent Active Protection Against Ransomware: AI-based Ransomware Identification and Cleanup
  Progent's Active Defense Against Ransomware is an endpoint protection (EPP) managed service that utilizes cutting edge behavior-based analysis tools to guard endpoint devices and servers and VMs against modern malware attacks like ransomware and file-less exploits, which routinely escape legacy signature-matching anti-virus products. Progent ASM services protect local and cloud-based resources and offers a single platform to automate the entire threat progression including filtering, infiltration detection, mitigation, cleanup, and post-attack forensics. Key capabilities include single-click rollback with Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) and automatic system-wide immunization against newly discovered threats. Learn 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 makes it easy to capture, update, find and safeguard information related to your network infrastructure, procedures, applications, 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 documentation, you can eliminate as much as half of time spent trying to find critical information about your network. ProSight IT Asset Management features a centralized repository for holding and sharing all documents related to managing your business network such as recommended procedures and self-service instructions. ProSight IT Asset Management also supports advanced automation for collecting and relating IT data. Whether you're making enhancements, doing maintenance, or reacting to a crisis, ProSight IT Asset Management gets you the information you require as soon as you need it. Find out more about ProSight IT Asset Management service.

• Patch Management: Software/Firmware Update Management Services
  Progent's managed services for software and firmware patch management provide organizations of any size a flexible and affordable solution for assessing, testing, scheduling, applying, and tracking software and firmware updates to your ever-evolving information system. In addition to maximizing the security and reliability of your computer environment, Progent's patch management services allow your in-house IT team to focus on more strategic initiatives and activities that derive maximum business value from your network. Learn more about Progent's software/firmware update management services.

• ProSight Virtual Hosting: Hosted Virtual Machines at Progent's Tier III Data Center
  With Progent's ProSight Virtual Hosting service, a small or mid-size organization can have its critical servers and applications hosted in a secure fault tolerant data center on a high-performance virtual host set up and maintained by Progent's IT support experts. Under the ProSight Virtual Hosting model, the client retains ownership of the data, the OS software, and the apps. Since the environment is virtualized, it can be ported immediately to a different hardware environment without a time-consuming and difficult configuration process. With ProSight Virtual Hosting, your business is not locked into one hosting service. Learn 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 (EPP) solution that incorporates SentinelOne's cutting edge behavior-based machine learning technology to guard physical and virtual endpoint devices against new malware attacks like ransomware and file-less exploits, which easily escape legacy signature-matching anti-virus products. ProSight Active Security Monitoring safeguards local and cloud-based resources and offers a unified platform to address the complete threat lifecycle including protection, detection, mitigation, cleanup, and post-attack forensics. Key features include single-click rollback with Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) and automatic system-wide immunization against new 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: Physical and Virtual Endpoint Protection and Microsoft Exchange Email Filtering
  ProSight Enhanced Security Protection services deliver economical in-depth security for physical servers and VMs, workstations, mobile devices, and Exchange Server. ProSight ESP utilizes adaptive security and advanced heuristics for continuously monitoring and responding to security assaults from all vectors. ProSight ESP delivers two-way firewall protection, intrusion alerts, device management, and web filtering through cutting-edge technologies packaged within one agent accessible from a single control. Progent's security and virtualization experts can assist you to plan and configure a ProSight ESP environment that addresses your organization's specific needs and that helps you demonstrate compliance with legal and industry information protection standards. Progent will help you define and implement policies that ProSight ESP will manage, and Progent will monitor your IT environment and react to alarms that call for immediate attention. Progent can also assist you to set up and test a backup and restore system like ProSight Data Protection Services so you can recover rapidly from a potentially disastrous security attack like ransomware. Find out more about Progent's ProSight Enhanced Security Protection unified endpoint security and Microsoft Exchange email filtering.