Comparing CCN-CERT NoMoreCry Tool to Other Ransomware Defenses

CCN-CERT NoMoreCry Tool — Quick Setup and Best PracticesCCN-CERT’s NoMoreCry Tool is designed to help organizations detect, prevent, and respond to ransomware and file-encrypting malware. This article walks through quick setup steps, configuration recommendations, operational best practices, and troubleshooting tips to maximize protection while minimizing disruption.

What NoMoreCry Does (high level)

NoMoreCry focuses on early detection of suspicious file-encryption behavior, automated mitigation to stop active encryption, and providing forensic artifacts for incident response. It typically operates as an agent on endpoints and can integrate with central logging or SIEM solutions to provide alerts and telemetry.

Pre-requirements and planning

Before deployment, prepare the following:

• Inventory: list of operating systems, versions, and critical applications on endpoints.
• Backups: verified, isolated backups for all critical data.
• Permissions: admin access for installation and configuration.
• Network plan: firewall and network segment details if central communication or updates are used.
• Testing environment: a lab or staging environment that mirrors production to validate behavior.

Quick setup — step-by-step

1. Obtain installer and documentation from CCN-CERT or your authorized distributor.
2. Verify package integrity (hash or digital signature).
3. Install on a test endpoint first:
   • Run installer with admin privileges.
   • Confirm service/agent starts and is running.
4. Configure basic settings:
   • Set telemetry/log destination (local files, syslog, or SIEM).
   • Define protected directories and exclude known-safe encryption workflows.
   • Enable automated remediation (quarantine/stop process) initially in monitor-only mode if available.
5. Roll out via automated deployment tools (SCCM, Intune, Ansible) in waves:
   • Pilot group (5–10% of endpoints).
   • Larger group (30–50%).
   • Full deployment after validating stability.
6. Validate operation:
   • Confirm alerts appear in chosen logging system.
   • Trigger benign test scenarios (safe ransomware-simulators or file-access patterns) to verify detection without causing damage.

Recommended configuration settings

• Enable behavior-based detection to catch novel encryption patterns.
• Configure automated containment but keep it in “alert” mode for the pilot phase.
• Protect backup/backup-process directories by default.
• Exclude known, signed, and trusted backup/maintenance tools to avoid false positives.
• Set conservative file-change thresholds to balance detection speed vs. false positives (e.g., detect rapid mass file modifications within a short window).
• Integrate with EDR/AV to allow coordinated response and richer context.

Best practices for operations

• Maintain offline, immutable backups; test restore procedures regularly.
• Keep the NoMoreCry agent and all endpoints patched.
• Review and tune alerts weekly during the first two months, then monthly.
• Use role-based access for management consoles and restrict who can change containment policies.
• Correlate NoMoreCry alerts with network telemetry and EDR for faster triage.
• Document incident response playbooks that include steps triggered by NoMoreCry detections (isolate host, gather memory/disk images, preserve logs).

Incident response workflow (example)

1. Alert received from NoMoreCry → triage severity.
2. If confirmed malicious, isolate the host from the network (automated if policy allows).
3. Capture volatile data (memory, network connections) and disk image if needed.
4. Identify initial access vector and scope of infection.
5. Restore from validated backups and re-image affected hosts.
6. Post-incident: lessons learned, rule tuning, and redeployment.

Common issues and troubleshooting

• False positives: tune excluded processes and adjust detection thresholds. Use allowlists for signed backup tools.
• Performance impact: verify agent version, exclude high-throughput folders from deep realtime scanning, and monitor CPU/disk usage.
• Communication failures: ensure firewall rules allow agent-to-server traffic and verify certificates if mutual TLS is used.
• Update failures: check package repository connectivity and permissions.

Metrics to monitor

• Number of detections per day/week.
• False positive rate and time-to-acknowledge alerts.
• Mean time to containment and mean time to recovery.
• Backup success rate and recovery time objectives (RTO).

Integration ideas

• Forward alerts to SOAR for automated playbook execution.
• Enrich alerts with threat intelligence (hashes, indicators) for hunting.
• Use SIEM dashboards to visualize affected hosts, time-of-day patterns, and file types targeted.

Closing recommendations

Start conservatively: pilot with monitoring-only mode, validate behavior with simulated tests, then enable containment once confidence is established. Regularly tune rules, maintain backups, and integrate NoMoreCry into your broader detection and response stack to reduce ransomware risk.