UNDERSTANDING RANSOMWARE ATTACKS AND HOW TO PREVENT THEM

We all started to hear about ransomware attacks when they first became popular in 2005. However, the first instance of a ransomware attack goes back to as far as 1989. Although this malicious practice started taking place in Russia, it has been international for quite a long time now, much to the dismay of everyday users as well as business owners all over the world. Ransomware is a malicious program that restricts access to the system it has infected and demands a monetary ransom in order to make it accessible for the user again, hence the name “ransomware”.

Ransomware enters a user’s system and usually via downloaded files or by exploiting a vulnerability in the network service and propagates as a Trojan. The malware then runs its payload, the part of the program that does the malicious work, to scare the user by using practices like displaying fake warning from a legal authority. For example, the message can be made to look like a law enforcement agency accusing the user to have maybe used his or her system to indulge in illegal activities or to contain content like pirated media.

After this accusation comes the real working of ransomware, where a user is restricted from accessing his or her system, usually by encrypting the files on disk. This can be done by modifying the master boot record or setting the Windows Shell to itself. The ransomware program then demands the user to make a payment in return for decrypting the disk content or providing them with the key to do so. Payments were usually requested via wire transfers or online services like Ukash, but it has become more common these days to request payments in the digital currency of Bitcoins so as to leave no trail of the payment.
Ransomware attacks are becoming more common, and the fact that such attacks are not simply aimed at private individuals anymore but also look to target businesses means that people need to be more aware about this malware and about how to protect them from it. Unfortunately, there is almost nothing that can be done to retrieve data once it has been encrypted following a ransomware attack, so prevention is really the best course of action.

STEPS TO TAKE TO AVOID RANSOMWARE INFECTIONS
As mentioned above, ransomware often cannot be effectively fought once an attack takes place, for that is a battle that is not likely to be won. Therefore, it is imperative that you take steps to make sure that you never have to face that day.
Use Antivirus That Uses Behavior-based Detection
Having good antivirus software is a good practice as it protects you from all different types of malware, not only ransomware. However, the traditional approach of running a dubious program against the database of known ransomware and looking for a match for its fingerprint is a practice  ansomware attackers have developed a workaround for. It is believed that even known ransomware can be turned into new ones by making a few modifications and thereby enable them to pass through the security checks of antivirus. Therefore, it is now advised to use techniques such as sandboxing, where behaviors of untrusted programs are tested. This is done by running said programs in an isolated, virtual environment so as to see if they really are harmful. Doing so prevents the damage to happen to the core of the system. This technique is also used in Android operating system and has been known to give much better results than static testing. The behavior of the program is studied to find a previously unknown type of virus.

Use New-Age Software like Minerva’s Low Footprint Solution
The sophistication of ransomware software in today’s world has grown to such levels that some ransomware programs remain in dormant state when they sense that they are in a detection environment. This prevents the detecting mechanism fromdetecting them and the ransomware gains access to the system whereupon it activates. However, Minerva Labs have come up with a new low-footprint anti-malware, the Minerva Armor, which ousts this practice of ransomware creators. What this essentially does is that it tricks the ransomware into believing that it is always in the sandbox environment so that it always remains dormant. Using a Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) often makes it impossible for ransomware to know where it is in the system and it thus waits endlessly for an end condition that never comes along.

Authentication Emails and Protecting Email Servers
Email is the most common source of entry for a ransomware. Therefore, it is important to authenticate the emails coming in to your server to know that they come from a trusted location. This protects you from fake emails from untrusted sources that are possibly filled with malware like ransomware. Although authentication is important, it is not the only thing that can help you out, for sometimes infected systems can be used to spread ransomware via emails. You might think that the email is coming from a trusted source, oblivious to the fact that that source has already been infected by ransomware. Therefore, scanning all incoming, outgoing, and stored emails in your server is a good practice to ensure your email server remains clear of ransomware.

Use Ad and Popup Blockers
Popups and advertisements are another source of targeted ransomware attacks. Attackers access a user’s browser istory, demographic information, as well as device information to bombard them with ads that seem in coherence withtheir usual habits. This type of ransomware attacks is considered more dangerous than random attacks because here the attacker knows how much the victim can pay up therefore he knows how much pressure to assert on him or her.

Backup Your Data Regularly
Having backup of your data prevents you from losing all your data in the event of a ransomware attack. Although this does not help you with the downtime of ransomware attack, which is supposed to be much more damaging than the ransom itself, it surely helps you to have your data secure with you. Doing so means that paying up is not the only choice you have to get your data back.

Although these steps can be followed to reduce the risk of a ransomware attack taking place to a great extent, they do notprovide any guarantee that ransomware cannot get into your system. So although you should absolutely follow these methods to prevent ransomware from gaining access to and then subsequently locking you out of your system, it is advised that you understand that no method is fail-safe. Therefore, you should know what to do in case you become the victim of a ransomware attack. Knowing what to do and having a mitigation strategy will prevent

SUMMARY
Ransomware is a form of malware that is very much on the rise. With ransomware becoming so sophisticated that they are not targeting entire business networks, the threat is quite high and the consequences too severe. The attack method also is not that complicated, and oftentimes the attacker does not even have to be a master coder to carry out a ransomware attack.

This is because they simply have to make a few changes to your system’s settings, use encryption techniques to encrypt your data, and delete any backup files you have on your system to prevent you from recovering the encrypted data. The demand of ransom, therefore, is not that high usually. However, it is the total amount lost due to ransomware attacks all over the world that is a big cause for concern for business owners and authorities all over the world. Moreover, the fact that it is not easy recovering data once you have fallen victim to a ransomware attack means paying up is usually your only option. Even the FBI usually recommends people in such cases to just pay the ransom

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