Ransomware Attack What To Do in Kennesaw, GA

Ransomware Attack: What to Do If Your Kennesaw Business Is Hit

Ransomware does not announce itself politely. One morning your staff cannot open files, your server displays a ransom note, and your entire operation grinds to a halt. For a Kennesaw business, whether you run a multi-rooftop auto dealership on Barrett Parkway or a professional services firm near Town Center, the first 60 minutes after discovery are the most consequential. COMNEXIA has guided metro Atlanta businesses through ransomware recovery since 1991, operating from our Roswell, GA headquarters with 24/7 SOC monitoring and a documented incident-response process. This page tells you exactly what to do, and what COMNEXIA does on your behalf, when ransomware lands.

Immediate Steps: The First Hour After Discovery

Speed and sequence matter. Doing things in the wrong order can spread the infection or destroy forensic evidence you will need for your insurer or for Georgia Bureau of Investigation reporting.

• Isolate, do not power off. Disconnect affected machines from the network by unplugging ethernet cables or disabling Wi-Fi at the access point level. Powering off a live machine can destroy in-memory forensic artifacts that identify the ransomware strain and patient-zero endpoint.
• Call your IT provider before anything else. Call COMNEXIA at (877) 600-6550. Our SOC team can pull SentinelOne EDR telemetry to identify which endpoints are encrypted, which processes executed the payload, and whether lateral movement is still in progress on unaffected systems.
• Do not pay the ransom yet. Many strains have publicly available decryptors. Our team cross-references the ransom note hash and file-extension signature against current threat intelligence before any payment decision is considered.
• Preserve evidence. Screenshot the ransom note. Do not delete files, reformat drives, or restore from backup before the affected image is captured. Evidence is required if you file a cyber-insurance claim or a complaint with the FBI's IC3 portal.
• Notify stakeholders per your compliance obligations. Auto dealerships operating under the FTC Safeguards Rule (16 CFR 314.4) must have an incident-response plan that includes notification procedures. HIPAA-covered businesses face a 60-day breach-notification window. PCI DSS merchants must notify their acquiring bank. COMNEXIA helps you identify which obligations apply based on the data confirmed to be at risk.

What COMNEXIA Does During Active Containment

Once you call, our team begins parallel workstreams. The SOC analyst reviews SentinelOne EDR telemetry to identify the initial-access vector, commonly a phishing email, an exposed RDP port, or compromised credentials. Simultaneously, a second engineer confirms whether your immutable off-site backups are clean. COMNEXIA provisions client backups under a 3-2-1 structure: three copies of data, on two different media types, with one copy stored off-site and air-gapped so ransomware cannot reach it. If your last clean snapshot was taken within the agreed backup window, recovery time compresses dramatically.

For dealerships running CDK Global, Reynolds and Reynolds, or Dealertrack DMS platforms, we prioritize restoring those systems first because they process every vehicle sale, financing contract, and parts transaction. The June 2024 CDK Global outage demonstrated industry-wide that DMS downtime costs dealerships tens of thousands of dollars per day in lost deals alone. COMNEXIA's incident runbook includes DMS-specific recovery sequencing for exactly this scenario.

Eradicating the Threat Before Restoring Data

Restoring data onto a still-infected environment reinfects your systems within hours. Before any restore begins, COMNEXIA engineers use SentinelOne's Storyline feature to trace the full attack chain, confirm the command-and-control beacon is severed, and verify no persistence mechanisms remain in scheduled tasks, registry run keys, or WMI subscriptions. Microsoft Entra ID conditional access policies are audited to confirm no attacker-controlled accounts or OAuth tokens remain active. If compromised credentials were the entry point, all affected accounts are revoked and MFA is enforced through Entra ID before those accounts are re-provisioned.

How COMNEXIA Prevents Recurrence

Recovery without hardening is a guarantee of a second incident. After containment, COMNEXIA deploys or validates the following controls across your environment:

• SentinelOne EDR with behavioral AI detection enabled on every endpoint, replacing signature-only antivirus that ransomware routinely bypasses.
• Microsoft Entra ID conditional access requiring MFA on all cloud and on-premises application sign-ins, blocking credential-stuffing attacks that frequently follow a ransomware event.
• NinjaOne RMM patch management configured to close critical OS and application vulnerabilities within 72 hours of patch release.
• Phishing-simulation security-awareness training delivered monthly, because most ransomware enters through a clicked link or attachment.
• Immutable, off-site backup verification tested quarterly through a documented restore drill, not assumed to work.

Get Ransomware Help for Your Kennesaw Business Now

If you are reading this during an active incident, stop and call (877) 600-6550 immediately. COMNEXIA's SOC is staffed around the clock and our Roswell, GA team can be on-site in Kennesaw or Cobb County within the same business day. If you want to assess your ransomware readiness before an attack occurs, call that same number to schedule a no-cost infrastructure review. Thirty-five years of Atlanta-area IT experience means we have seen nearly every attack vector in use today, and we will tell you plainly where your gaps are.