Ransomware – A Malware That Can Cost

We are no longer surprised when we hear that yet another ransomware attack on an organization or government entity has resulted in the theft of intellectual property or a customer’s data being shared on the dark web or a public forum or a hefty ransom was paid to the attackers.

In March 2024, a total of 389 ransomware victims (Based on the research by Marcelo Rivero, Malwarebytes) the most so far all year were recorded. This is only the count of “known attacks” where the victims didn’t pay the ransom; the actual number will be much much higher.

In February, we saw law enforcement taking a head-on fight with one of the prolific and harmful ransomware gangs and shutting their operation. But, it didn’t take them too much time to re-establish themselves, they quickly set up new infrastructure and resumed attacks using revised encryptors.

So what exactly is RANSOMWARE and How does it spread?

Ransomware is a type of malware where the user’s data is encrypted, making it inaccessible to the user and a ransom is demanded to regain access.

Common ways Ransomware can infect your organization

• • Attackers using social engineering and Phishing emails: Personalized and specific information is used to craft emails to gain trust and trick targets into opening infected attachments or clicking on malicious links to download files impersonating a genuine email or file.
  • Infection via compromised websites: It is not necessary that ransomware can be spread only after the user has clicked on the malicious links or has downloaded infected files. It can be spread by injecting malicious codes into compromised websites. All it takes is visiting the compromised website.
  • Malvertising and breaching the browser: By using an unpatched vulnerability of the web browser, attackers can initiate malvertising attacks, simply by injecting malicious codes in common advertisements on websites that will download once an advertisement is displayed on the user’s screen.
  • Infected file and software download: Cracked software dumps and free applications on illicit file-hosting websites often contain malware. When a user downloads the infected files or applications, the ransomware gets installed in the user’s system.

Understanding how ransomware infects a device and spreads across a network is crucial to ensuring that your organization doesn’t become the next victim of an attack and the best strategy to prepare against a ransomware attack is to believe that it will happen eventually.

We, Cybersec Knights, are one of the best security companies in India. As part of our security consulting services, we can help your organisation in implementing the safeguards against ransomware. We understand that each organization will have a unique environment and would like to implement different means to safeguard against ransomware depending upon their size and line of business. We don’t provide out-of-the-box solutions, we prefer to customize them as per the business’s actual use cases and requirements.

REACH OUT TO US TODAY for a free consultation.