What is Ransomware & How to Deal with it?

Ransomware Attacks have been occupying considerable headline space in the last few years. This should come as no surprise given how rampant, complex and expensive these attacks have become for businesses across the globe. 

In this educative blog, we aim to give the reader quick answers to simple questions such as – what is a ransomware attack, what does ransomware do, what is ransomware protection and is ransomware prevention possible?

What is a Ransomware Attack?   

A ransomware attack, put simply, is when a malicious software takes over your system and denies you access to your own files and data until you pay a ransom. Ransomware infections can be introduced into your systems through the simplest of techniques such as phishing emails. One or more of your staff members clicks on a malicious link or downloads a malicious attachment and that’s that. 

But don’t mistake the simplicity of the method with simplicity of the attack itself. Ransomware attacks are quickly turning out to be extremely complex, difficult to detect and very costly to remediate. Ransomware operators are leveraging vulnerabilities at a breakneck speed – faster than businesses or their security vendors can catch up with them. 

To make matters worse, ransomware kits are now being avidly sold on the Dark Web – a trend you may have heard being popularly referred to as ‘Ransomware As A Service’. Basically these kits contain malware kits which can be easily deployed by less experienced attackers for monetary benefit. 

What’s worrying is that these Ransomware As A Service (RaaS) toolkits are sold on the Dark Web as aggressively as you’d find legit services being sold on social and online channels that you use daily. There are discounts, promises of customer support, bundled deals and every other online marketing technique you can imagine to make these toolkits more appealing. 

You may think of the RaaS model as the darker, malicious version of the SaaS or Software As A Service model we often hear of. 

The idea of this whole discussion was to shed light on exactly how easy it’s become even for those with mediocre hacking skill levels to unleash a ransomware attack, encrypt your files and hold your sensitive data as ransom until you pay a pretty penny to retrieve it. 

At Cyber Management Alliance, we always advise our clients to not start a negotiation with the hackers and to never pay up. The reason is simple – you pay up once, they know you’ll pay again. 

In fact, for this very reason it is also critical that your systems are free of residual ransomware even once you’ve managed to decrypt your files. If hackers manage to leave behind residual malicious materials, then chances of you being attacked again are almost certain. And if you paid up the first time, there’s no way you’re getting away by not paying in the second instance.