Ransomware Attacks – How To Recognise & Avoid Them?

Ransomware Attacks are becoming all too prevalent. Hackers are targeting any consumer or business, and victims comes from all section of societies. Furthermore, if the ransomware is not removed from the system, 50% of the victims who pay the ransom are likely to suffer more.  

Remote working is a major factor in the rise of threats involving ransomware. A workforce that works from home is far more exposed to dangers. Because many of these users mix their personal and professional equipment, home users lack the enterprise-level cybersecurity needed to defend against sophisticated ransomware attacks. 

Another major factor in the rise of ransomware attacks is the use of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, ransomware attacks saw a sharp increase in popularity. The usage of few more prominent cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, Lite coin, and Ripple that ransomware attackers encourage victims to utilize in addition to Bitcoin. 

Ransomware Attacks – How do they operate?

• A form of malicious software known as ransomware which prevent access to data stored in a computer system, often by encrypting it, until the victim pays the attacker a ransom price. In many cases, the ransom demand comes with a deadline. If the victim doesn’t pay in time, the data is gone forever or the ransom increases.

• The two most prevalent types of ransomware attacks are Encryptors and Screen Lockers. Encryptors, as the name implies, encrypt data on a system, making the content useless without the decryption key. Screen Lockers, on the other hand, simply block access to the system with a lock screen, asserting that the system is encrypted.

• On a lock screen common to both encryptors and screen lockers, victims are frequently advised to buy a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin in order to pay the ransom. Customers can try to decrypt data after receiving the decryption key and paying the ransom. However, there is no certainty that the encryption will be broken after paying the ransom, according to several sources, even after the ransom is paid and the data is freed, some attacks continue to infect the computer system with malware.

• As soon as that happens, a ransomware agent is deployed and starts encrypting important data on the victim’s PC and any associated file shares. A message is shown on the infected device by the ransomware once the data has been encrypted. What happened and how to compensate the attackers are also explained in the message. The ransomware agent guarantees its victims a code to access their data if they pay.

Ransomware Attacks – How to prevent against them?

Ransomware immediately delivers its payload. The infection presents the user with a message that includes payment instructions and details about what happened to their data. Administrators must act promptly since some ransomware tries to move to other places on the network and discover crucial data through fresh scans. 

We can follow a few simple steps to prevent against ransomware attacks, but keeping in mind that root-cause analysis, cleaning, and investigations typically need for specialist assistance. 

• Determine which systems are harmed so that they cannot affect the rest of the environment. This step is part of containment that will minimize damage to the environment.

• Ransomware spreads quickly over the network, thus all systems must be unplugged, either by blocking network access or by shutting them down completely.

• Get rid of the danger from the network. Eradication must be carried out by a reputable professional since attackers may employ backdoors.   The expert needs access to logs so that a root-cause analysis will identify the vulnerability and all systems impacted.

• Have an expert assess the environment for potential security enhancements. A second attack often targets a ransomware victim in which vulnerability can be exploited once more if it is not discovered.

Ransomware Attacks – What are the new threats?

• By using DLLs and services that mimic normal operations, malware tries to avoid detection using DLL side loading.

• Every website hosted on the server in a shared hosting environment is susceptible to malware. Ryuk is a kind of ransomware that targets hosted sites mostly through phishing emails and spams.

• Instead of infecting tens of thousands of targets with malware, attackers use spear-phishing to identify possible targets for their high-privilege network access.

• Users can start attacks using ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) without having any prior cybersecurity experience. Attacks using ransomware have increased after RaaS was introduced.

Conclusion

In the end, we can conclude that, it is difficult to prevent cybersecurity threats, including that which are in the form of ransomware attacks, but following the systematic approach of planning, implementing, and reviewing a holistic cybersecurity policy, individuals and organisations can effectively guard themselves against the menace of ransomware attacks. Spreading awareness among stakeholders, such as users, businesses is another important aspect. 

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