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Ransomware : Your Feared IT Disaster
Ransomware has become a modern cyberplague that poses an existential danger for businesses vulnerable to an assault. Different iterations of ransomware such as CrySIS, Fusob, Bad Rabbit, Syskey and MongoLock cryptoworms have been around for a long time and continue to inflict havoc. Modern strains of ransomware like Ryuk, Maze, Sodinokibi, DopplePaymer, LockBit or Egregor, as well as more unnamed malware, not only encrypt on-line information but also infiltrate most available system backup. Files replicated to off-site disaster recovery sites can also be encrypted. In a poorly architected system, it can render automated restore operations impossible and basically knocks the datacenter back to square one.

Getting back on-line programs and information following a ransomware intrusion becomes a race against the clock as the victim fights to contain the damage, eradicate the ransomware, and resume mission-critical activity. Because ransomware requires time to replicate, penetrations are frequently launched on weekends and holidays, when successful attacks tend to take longer to recognize. This compounds the difficulty of promptly assembling and organizing a capable response team.

Progent provides an assortment of help services for protecting enterprises from ransomware events. Among these are team member training to help identify and avoid phishing exploits, ProSight Active Security Monitoring (ASM) for remote monitoring and management, along with setup and configuration of the latest generation security solutions with artificial intelligence capabilities from SentinelOne to discover and extinguish day-zero cyber attacks quickly. Progent also provides the services of seasoned ransomware recovery engineers with the track record and commitment to restore a breached environment as urgently as possible.

Progent's Ransomware Restoration Services
After a ransomware attack, paying the ransom in cryptocurrency does not provide any assurance that criminal gangs will provide the needed keys to unencrypt any of your data. Kaspersky Labs determined that 17% of crypto-ransomware victims never recovered their information even after having sent off the ransom, resulting in increased losses. The risk is also very costly. Ryuk ransoms are often several hundred thousand dollars. For larger enterprises, the ransom can be in the millions. The alternative is to re-install the vital components of your Information Technology environment. Without access to complete information backups, this requires a broad complement of skill sets, professional project management, and the willingness to work non-stop until the recovery project is completed.

For two decades, Progent has provided certified expert IT services for companies throughout the U.S. and has achieved Microsoft's Partnership certification status in the Datacenter and Cloud Productivity competencies. Progent's group of subject matter experts (SMEs) includes engineers who have been awarded advanced industry certifications in leading technologies like Microsoft, Cisco, VMware, and popular distributions of Linux. Progent's cybersecurity specialists have garnered internationally-recognized certifications including CISA, CISSP-ISSAP, CRISC, SANS GIAC, and CMMC 2.0. (Visit Progent's certifications). Progent also has experience in financial systems and ERP applications. This breadth of experience affords Progent the skills to quickly identify necessary systems and integrate the surviving components of your IT system after a ransomware event and configure them into an operational system.

Progent's security team deploys powerful project management tools to coordinate the sophisticated restoration process. Progent understands the urgency of acting rapidly and in unison with a client's management and IT team members to assign priority to tasks and to get essential applications back online as soon as possible.

Business Case Study: A Successful Crypto-Ransomware Attack Recovery
A business escalated to Progent after their organization was crashed by the Ryuk ransomware virus. Ryuk is thought to have been created by North Korean government sponsored cybercriminals, possibly using techniques exposed from America's National Security Agency. Ryuk seeks specific companies with limited tolerance for operational disruption and is among the most lucrative versions of ransomware viruses. Major targets include Data Resolution, a California-based data warehousing and cloud computing company, and the Chicago Tribune. Progent's customer is a regional manufacturing company headquartered in Chicago with about 500 staff members. The Ryuk intrusion had shut down all essential operations and manufacturing processes. Most of the client's data backups had been online at the time of the attack and were destroyed. The client considered paying the ransom demand (in excess of $200K) and hoping for the best, but in the end called Progent.

Progent worked hand in hand the client to rapidly identify and prioritize the essential elements that needed to be addressed to make it possible to resume departmental functions:

• Active Directory
• Electronic Mail
• Financials/MRP

In less than two days, Progent was able to restore Active Directory to its pre-intrusion state. Progent then completed rebuilding and storage recovery on needed servers. All Exchange Server ties and attributes were usable, which facilitated the restore of Exchange. Progent was also able to find local OST files (Microsoft Outlook Off-Line Data Files) on various desktop computers in order to recover mail messages. A recent offline backup of the businesses financials/MRP software made it possible to recover these required programs back online for users. Although a lot of work was left to recover completely from the Ryuk attack, critical services were restored quickly:

Throughout the following month key milestones in the restoration project were accomplished in close cooperation between Progent consultants and the customer:

• Self-hosted web sites were brought back up without losing any information.
• The MailStore Microsoft Exchange Server exceeding 4 million historical emails was brought on-line and available for users.
• CRM/Product Ordering/Invoicing/Accounts Payable (AP)/Accounts Receivables (AR)/Inventory Control modules were 100 percent functional.
• A new Palo Alto 850 firewall was installed and configured.
• Ninety percent of the desktops and laptops were back into operation.

Conclusion
A potential company-ending catastrophe was averted due to hard-working professionals, a broad spectrum of IT skills, and close teamwork. Although in analyzing the event afterwards the crypto-ransomware virus incident described here should have been identified and prevented with current security technology solutions and ISO/IEC 27001 best practices, team education, and well thought out incident response procedures for information protection and keeping systems up to date with security patches, the reality is that government-sponsored hackers from China, Russia, North Korea and elsewhere are tireless and are an ongoing threat. If you do get hit by a ransomware incursion, remember that Progent's roster of experts has substantial experience in ransomware virus defense, removal, and data restoration.

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

Additional Crypto-Ransomware Protection Services Offered by Progent
Progent can provide businesses in Los Angeles a variety of remote monitoring and security assessment services to assist you to reduce the threat from crypto-ransomware. These services utilize next-generation AI technology to uncover zero-day variants of ransomware that can evade traditional signature-based security solutions.

• ProSight LAN Watch: Server and Desktop Monitoring and Management
  ProSight LAN Watch is Progent's server and desktop remote monitoring service that uses advanced remote monitoring and management techniques to help keep your IT system operating at peak levels by checking the state of vital assets that drive your business network. When ProSight LAN Watch uncovers a problem, an alert is transmitted immediately to your designated IT personnel and your Progent engineering consultant so that all potential problems can be resolved before they can impact your network. Learn more details about ProSight LAN Watch server and desktop remote monitoring consulting.

• ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM: Unified RMM for Networks, Servers, and Desktops
  ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM software delivers a unified, cloud-driven platform for monitoring and managing your network, server, and desktop devices by providing an environment for streamlining common tedious tasks. These can include health checking, patch 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. If ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM spots a serious problem, it sends an alarm to your designated IT management personnel and your assigned Progent technical consultant so potential problems can be taken care of before they impact your network. Find out more details about ProSight LAN Watch with NinjaOne RMM server and desktop monitoring consulting.

• ProSight WAN Watch: Network Infrastructure Remote Monitoring and Management
  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 appliances such as routers and switches, firewalls, and load balancers as well as servers, printers, client computers and other networked devices. Using cutting-edge RMM technology, ProSight WAN Watch ensures that network maps are always updated, copies and displays the configuration of almost all devices connected to your network, monitors performance, and sends notices when potential issues are detected. By automating time-consuming network management activities, ProSight WAN Watch can knock hours off ordinary chores such as network mapping, reconfiguring your network, locating appliances that need critical software patches, or identifying the cause of performance problems. Find out more details about ProSight WAN Watch infrastructure management consulting.

• ProSight Reporting: In-depth Reporting for Ticketing and Network Monitoring Platforms
  ProSight Reporting is an expanding family of real-time management reporting plug-ins created to work with the industry's top ticketing and remote network monitoring applications such as ConnectWise Manage, ConnectWise Automate, Customer Thermometer, Auvik, and SentinelOne. ProSight Reporting uses Microsoft Graph and features color coding to surface and contextualize key issues such as spotty support follow-up or endpoints with missing patches. By identifying ticketing or network health problems concisely and in near-real time, ProSight Reporting improves network value, reduces management hassle, and saves money. For details, visit ProSight Reporting for ticketing and network monitoring platforms.

• ProSight Data Protection Services: Managed Backup and Disaster Recovery Services
  Progent has partnered with leading backup technology providers to produce ProSight Data Protection Services, a portfolio of subscription-based management offerings that deliver backup-as-a-service (BaaS). ProSight DPS services automate and monitor your backup operations and allow non-disruptive backup and rapid recovery of critical files, apps, system images, plus virtual machines. ProSight DPS lets your business avoid data loss caused by equipment breakdown, natural calamities, fire, malware such as ransomware, human error, ill-intentioned insiders, or application bugs. Managed services in the ProSight Data Protection Services product family include ProSight Altaro VM Backup, ProSight 365 Total Backup (formerly Altaro 365 Backup), ProSight ECHO Backup based on Barracuda dedicated storage, and ProSight MSP360 Cloud and On-prem Backup. Your Progent service representative can help you to determine which of these fully 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 and email encryption service that uses the technology of leading information security vendors to deliver web-based management and world-class security for all your email traffic. The powerful structure of Progent's Email Guard managed service combines cloud-based filtering with an on-premises security gateway appliance to offer advanced defense against spam, viruses, Denial of Service Attacks, Directory Harvest Attacks (DHAs), and other email-borne malware. The Cloud Protection Layer serves as a first line of defense and keeps most threats from making it to your network firewall. This reduces your exposure to inbound threats and conserves network bandwidth and storage space. Email Guard's on-premises gateway appliance adds a deeper layer of inspection for incoming email. For outgoing email, the local gateway offers AV and anti-spam protection, protection against data leaks, and email encryption. The onsite security gateway can also assist Exchange Server to track and safeguard internal email traffic that originates and ends inside your corporate firewall. For more details, visit Email Guard spam and content filtering.

• ProSight Duo Two-Factor Authentication: ID Confirmation, Endpoint Policy Enforcement, and Secure Single Sign-on (SSO)
  Progent's Duo MFA services utilize Cisco's Duo technology to protect against compromised passwords by using two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo enables one-tap identity confirmation with iOS, Android, and other personal devices. With 2FA, when you log into a protected 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 network channel. A broad selection of devices can be used as this second means of authentication such as an iPhone or Android or watch, a hardware token, a landline telephone, etc. You may register several verification devices. For details about ProSight Duo two-factor identity authentication services, see Cisco Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for access security.

• Outsourced/Co-managed Help Desk: Help Desk Managed Services
  Progent's Help Desk services enable your information technology staff to outsource Call Center services to Progent or divide activity for Service Desk support transparently between your in-house network support resources and Progent's nationwide roster of certified IT support engineers and subject matter experts. Progent's Shared Help Desk Service provides a smooth supplement to your core support group. End user access to the Service Desk, provision of support, issue escalation, trouble ticket generation and tracking, performance measurement, and maintenance of the service database are cohesive regardless of whether incidents are taken care of by your internal network support resources, by Progent's team, or by a combination. Read more about Progent's outsourced/co-managed Call Desk services.

• Progent Active Protection Against Ransomware: Machine Learning-based Ransomware Detection and Remediation
  Progent's Active Defense Against Ransomware is an endpoint protection service that incorporates next generation behavior machine learning technology to defend endpoints as well as servers and VMs against new malware assaults such as ransomware and email phishing, which easily evade traditional signature-based AV tools. Progent ASM services safeguard local and cloud-based resources and offers a unified platform to automate the complete malware attack progression including blocking, identification, mitigation, remediation, and forensics. Top features include one-click rollback using Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) and real-time network-wide immunization against new threats. Read more about Progent's ransomware protection and cleanup services.

• ProSight IT Asset Management: Network Documentation Management
  ProSight IT Asset Management service is an IT infrastructure documentation management service that allows you to create, maintain, retrieve and protect data about your network infrastructure, processes, business apps, and services. You can instantly find passwords or serial numbers and be warned automatically about upcoming expirations of SSLs or domains. By updating and organizing your IT documentation, you can save as much as half of time wasted trying to find critical information about your IT network. ProSight IT Asset Management includes a common location for storing and collaborating on all documents related to managing your business network such as standard operating procedures and How-To's. ProSight IT Asset Management also offers advanced automation for gathering and relating IT information. Whether you're making improvements, doing regular maintenance, or responding to an emergency, ProSight IT Asset Management gets you the information you require the instant you need it. Read more about ProSight IT Asset Management service.

• Progent's 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 cost-effective solution for assessing, testing, scheduling, applying, and tracking software and firmware updates to your ever-evolving information system. In addition to maximizing the protection and functionality of your IT network, Progent's software/firmware update management services permit your IT team to concentrate on more strategic initiatives and activities that derive maximum business value from your network. Learn more about Progent's patch management services.

• ProSight Virtual Hosting: Hosted VMs 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 Tier III data center on a fast virtual host set up and managed by Progent's network support experts. Under the ProSight Virtual Hosting service model, the client owns the data, the operating system software, and the applications. Because the environment is virtualized, it can be ported immediately to a different hosting solution without requiring a lengthy and technically risky configuration procedure. With ProSight Virtual Hosting, you are not locked into a single hosting service. Learn more details 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) service that utilizes SentinelOne's cutting edge behavior-based analysis tools to guard physical and virtual endpoints against new malware attacks like ransomware and file-less exploits, which routinely escape traditional signature-matching anti-virus products. ProSight Active Security Monitoring safeguards on-premises and cloud-based resources and offers a unified platform to address the entire threat lifecycle including protection, identification, containment, cleanup, and post-attack forensics. Top capabilities include one-click rollback with Windows VSS and automatic system-wide immunization against new threats. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, reseller, and integrator. Learn more about Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring endpoint protection and ransomware recovery.

• ProSight Enhanced Security Protection: Endpoint Security and Microsoft Exchange Filtering
  Progent's ProSight Enhanced Security Protection managed services offer economical multi-layer protection for physical servers and virtual machines, workstations, mobile devices, and Exchange email. ProSight ESP utilizes contextual security and advanced heuristics for round-the-clock monitoring and responding to cyber assaults from all vectors. ProSight ESP offers firewall protection, intrusion alerts, device management, and web filtering through leading-edge technologies incorporated within a single agent managed from a single console. Progent's data protection and virtualization experts can assist you to design and configure a ProSight ESP environment that addresses your company's specific needs and that helps you prove compliance with government and industry data protection regulations. Progent will help you specify and implement security policies that ProSight ESP will manage, and Progent will monitor your IT environment and react to alarms that call for urgent attention. Progent's consultants can also assist you to set up and verify a backup and restore system like ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS) so you can get back in business rapidly from a destructive security attack like ransomware. Read more about Progent's ProSight Enhanced Security Protection (ESP) unified endpoint protection and Exchange filtering.