Introduction to Ransomware Attack
The following article provides an outline for Ransomware Attack. It is usual to see the policy for cybersecurity reinforcing in almost all of organizations or enterprises. The reason behind this is the powerful cyber-attacks that are amply capable of compromising the system entirely. A few years earlier, the attacks were not that strong due to the low craze of AI among the techies, but after the AI became hot, there are several tools developed using it that can attack the target very smartly to drag their functioning down.
In this article we will learn about ransomware attacks and try to cover up everything related to this. The few things that we will get in-depth here are how it works, how we can protect the system against it, and what measures we can take to ensure our system is protected from this attack.
What is Ransomware Attack?
It may be defined as the kind of cyber attack in which all the files and directories of the target system got encrypted and requires the private key for decryption; after the system got impacted by this attack, the attacker demands for money or any other benefits to provide the private key that can help to decrypt the files.
This attack has been considered as a very harmful attack as any system affected using this can only be remediated after getting the private key from the attacker. It leads to cause an obstacle in the business continuity and can also become the reason that can lead the organization to a huge loss in monetary and reputation terms.
A ransomware attack can also be defined as an attack that is concerned about encrypting crucial business data to not be used before overcoming the attack. There are several attacks that were launched last year. One of the most famous ransomware attacks was want to cry. It was the ransomware attack that has impacted lots of businesses.
In order to remediate the system, the attackers were asking for payment through bitcoin from all the organizations that were affected by this. However, once this attack impacts the network, the only option left is to pay the attacker else; the organization has to bear the data loss.
How does Ransomware Attack Work?
- The ransomware attack was concerned about encrypting all the data on the target system so that it could not be used without decrypting. The way it works can be understood by knowing how encryption works. Let us consider an example. Suppose there is a particular data that we want to keep secure.
- In that case, before transmitting that data, we encrypt that, so in case if anyone sniffs that data, it won’t make sense to them until they were able to decrypt this, and in the same way, a Ransomware attack works. The attacker tries to encrypt all the files that are residing in the network of the target system.
- Once they find any vulnerability and are able to exploit them, they encrypt all the files or data in that system which they need the key to decrypt them. In order to share the key, the attack asks for anything for their personal benefit. Without getting the files decrypted, they can’t be used anyway.
Types of Ransomware
Following are the five types:
- Crysis: Is the kind of ransomware attack that has encrypted all the network files and any removable devices.
- Wanna Cry: Ransomware attacks wanna cry was one of the very big attacks in the history of a ransomware attack that had compromised more than 125k organizations.
- CryptoWall: Cryptowall was one of the very advanced forms of, it was introduced in early of 2014. Its attacking approach is pretty similar to that of the crypto locker.
- Jigsaw: It is a very dangerous kind of ransomware attack while encrypting the files and deleting them until the hackers were paid.
- Bad Rabbit: This attack was launched in the region of Russia and Europe. The organization launched the attack to get them to pay money to get the systems back in the working state.
How to Protect against Ransomware Attacks?
It is considered as one of the very dangerous attacks, and all of the organizations are supposed to be prepared to fight against this attack. There are several security measures that one should take care of in order to protect the system from being attacked by ransomware. Various security applications in the market promise the security of the system from such attacks.
One can go with such endpoint software to ensure that such attacks cannot take place in their system. Also, deploying the Intrusion Detection System and Intrusion Prevention System makes it doubly sure that the organization’s system is pretty secure from such attacks. So overall, by making the different types of software alert in the protection of the system, the system can be prevented from this attack.
How to Remove Ransomware?
- Launching the Ransomware attack in any system or target is not that easy. But once the system is impacted, it is pretty tough to get rid of it. The one most expensive way to remove this attack’s impact from the system is to pay the attacker and get the private key. This may sound simple but can be a too expensive way for the organization to cure this attack.
- The other option could be finding the key that could decrypt the encrypted file, which is easy and impossible. The best way to stand this attack is to practice is to keep the backup of all the crucial data in the target. If there is a backup available, one can simply destroy the encrypted files and can use the backup.
Conclusion
It has been considered the most dangerous attack among all other cyber attacks. Therefore, organizations need to play it safe when it comes to dealing with such attacks. There are some of security measures that have to be taken care of in order to protect the organization from this attack, and with the advancement in technology, the protection mechanism is getting stronger day by day.
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