In recent years, ransomware attacks have impacted organizations of all sizes and threatened the economy, commerce, and public institutions such as hospitals around the world. In a growing trend of attacks, ransomware gangs are encrypting backup files before encrypting live systems, greatly increasing the difficulty of system owners to recover control of their computers and files without paying.

With the year 2021 coming to an end organizations have already spent $20 billion to deal with ransomware attacks. According to recent reports, these cyberattacks have risen 400% since the COVID-19 pandemic started. Average recovery costs in 2021 have reached nearly $2 million per business and recent projections predict that 75% of organizations will face attacks over the next five years. During and after COVID-19, ransomware gangs are expected to continue attacking organizations and represent a continuous and growing threat. 

Malware (malicious software), such as ransomware, makes files and systems inaccessible for users, rendering them unusable. Historically, businesses were able to restore their networks and files by using backups, but attackers have begun encrypting backups before actual working files.

So in order to defend your company against ransomware, your first line of defence is understanding how attackers access your system infrastructure. Simply, they exploit human error to gain access to sensitive information. In order to mitigate human error, therefore, it’s paramount to educate employees and implement cyber hygiene practices, as well as hire highly trained cybersecurity analysts to provide 24/7 monitoring.

Here are the top three ways to protect an organization from ransomware attacks. 

1. Understand your organization’s risks. This requires identifying and managing vulnerabilities. Assess your current network, infrastructure, and digital landscape. This will identify security gaps that you need to fill. Invest in comprehensive security reporting, vulnerability assessment and penetration testing to help efforts to reduce ransomware attacks and other vulnerabilities that need patches.
2. Eliminate your blind spots by reviewing the monitoring of networks and devices, logs, and cloud infrastructure. To achieve cybersecurity maturity, use a holistic managed detection and response (MDR) service, and for real-time monitoring and mitigation, a 24/7 security operations center (SOC). Ensure that all endpoints are covered. That includes smartphones, laptops, tablets, and other devices that often are exposed when taken outside the organization’s safety perimeter.
3. Plan an incident response to ransomware as essential in minimizing losses, preventing future attacks, and responding to threats. To scope, investigate, and orchestrate activities after an incident, you need an incident response plan that includes responders, handlers, and forensic and malware specialists.

Ransomware attacks are getting more sophisticated by the day. To combat such cyber threats, you’ll need to strike the right balance of socially engineering employees, implementing expertise, and arming your organization with the technologies that can support the effort.

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So what cybersecurity steps can every business take to make sure they have the latest protections against hackers and other means of exploitation penetrating corporate defences?

IoT Protection

IoT refers to devices linked to the Internet. Think smartphones, smartwatches, digital cameras, notepads, computers and more. Hackers target these more vulnerable devices as a way to gain access to an organization’s network and its data. It’s easier than trying to attack the system through a head-on attempt to hack the firewall and other defences. Once inside a device, cybercriminals can use it to gain information which ultimately gives them access to the larger corporate network.

Companies are especially vulnerable to this if they allow employees to BYOD (bring your own device) to use for work. As opposed to secured company devices, businesses find it much harder to track private device data movements easily. Employee-owned devices serve multiple purposes because they are used for personal reasons as well as for business. This can mean exposure to social media accounts, apps downloaded from online stores and may lead to data breaches that penetrate a company’s firewalls and other defences.

AI and Machine Learning Software

Cybersecurity programs are written by software coders. Every innovation or adjustment made to the code is inserted manually. Programs can identify and report problems, but they don’t have the computing power to adjust themselves.

However, with advancements in AI and machine learning, programs now can be written to be self-learning and capable of making on-the-fly alterations to code to provide hacker and malware protections. That means shrinking the window between problems arising and solutions being created.

Only a couple of years ago this technology was out-of-reach in terms of cost and computing power for smaller companies. But now cutting-edge cybersecurity development is being offered at rates that meet small business budgets. You can choose from cloud computing services or cybersecurity providers that already have proven AI systems in place.

Cloud Computing Data Storage

Cloud computing refers to using an Internet or third-party locale-based solution for storing a company’s data. Today it is being used by companies both large and small. Cloud computing providers have the technological resources, storage, and security protections that typically are not available to the average small and growing business. That’s what makes them so appealing.

Using a cloud computing service for data storage such as Azure security protects a company’s online assets by decentralizing data and creating multiple redundancies to prevent attacks.

No doubt, the landscape of the Internet will continue to evolve and staying ahead of cybercriminals is in a company or organization’s best interests. No hospital should be held to ransom because its patient data records are compromised. No pipelines should be shut down by a ransomware attack. And yet these types of occurrences seem to be happening with increasing regularity. That’s why it’s vital for businesses and organizations to stay informed about cybersecurity steps they can take to make sure best practices are in place.

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In recent weeks cybercriminal attacks on businesses and government have made U.S. and global headlines.

In February 2021 a water treatment plant in Florida was hacked briefly compromising the water supply to Oldsmar and its surroundings.

In March, a large U.S. insurance company, CNA Financial Corp., was locked out of its computer network for two weeks.

In April, the NBA’s Houston Rockets were hacked with contracts and confidential documents stolen under threat of public release.

In May the Colonial Pipeline had to shut down its operations causing gasoline shortages in the Eastern U.S.

In June meat manufacturer, JBS S.A. was breached and ceased operations for two days.

And this month an IT company, Kaseya, providing systems services to 17 countries, was hacked with a ransomware pay demand for $70 million US.

These are the most noteworthy cybercriminal attacks of 2021 and follow 65,000 successful reported network and system breaches in 2020 with $350 million in ransom payouts to the hackers.

Coveware, a company that helps ransomware victims to pay off cybercriminals, has steadily reported an increase in payouts to hackers. In the third quarter of 2019, it had reached more than $41,000 per attack. In 2021 with the latest ransomware attacks, payouts are getting much steeper.

What is Malware?

Malware describes a wide range of cybercriminal tools designed to exploit weaknesses in home, business and government computer systems with botnets leading the way to deliver ransomware and crypto mining payloads.

For computer users two positive trends have emerged of late:

• the number of malware files per device on home computer systems has been on the decline.
• businesses, because they are becoming increasingly aware, have implemented more layers of cybersecurity defence.

Nevertheless, in its report Webroot notes that 12.6% of home computer systems encountered infections, while 7.8% of businesses had infected personal computers in 2019.

What was most often found after dissecting these attacks?

Botnets and ransomware including the following:

• Emotet has been the most prevalent botnet since it emerged in 2014. Its origins are Ukraine. It is also known as Heodo and is used to deliver a variety of malicious payloads to vulnerable computer systems. It is a great companion to ransomware malware.
• Trickbot is a botnet that partners with banking trojan malware such as IcedID and Ursif. Its modular infrastructure makes it a serious threat for any network it infects. When combined with Ryuk (see below) ransomware, it can be devastating to victims.
• Dridex was once one of the most prominent botnet banking trojans. Now it acts to implant Bitpaymer ransomware.
• Ryuk is ransomware that locks files or systems and holds them hostage for ransom. It is also known as Hermes and is attributed to CryptoTech, a cybercriminal group.
• Gandcrab provides cybercriminals with ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) and demands cryptocurrency as payment. It has been decrypted and as a result, has evolved five different iterations to confound those attempting to defend against it.
• REvil is Gandcrab’s successor after decryption. It also goes by the name Sodinokibi and was responsible for the recent hack of the meat producer, JBS, and collecting an $11 million US ransom.
• CrySIS, also known as DARMA, is ransomware that most often is distributed to unsuspecting hosts via spam email attachments. It also disguises itself as installation files for well-recognized and legitimate software making the computer and systems users believe it can be downloaded and is safe.
• In a recent attack, CrySIS was delivered as a download link in a spam email. The link pointed to a password-protected, self-extracting bundle installer. The password was given to the potential victims in the email and, besides the CrySIS/Dharma executable, the installer contained an outdated removal tool issued by a well-known security vendor. The typical ransom demand is a payment of one Bitcoin (currently over $33,000 US).
• Hidden Bee is a trojan bot that delivers cryptomining payloads to unsuspecting computers inside JPEG and PNG images, as well as WAV Flashplayer media. Its origin is China. It takes over some of the infected system’s capacity to mine cryptocurrency, diminishing the computer’s performance.
• Retadup is called a malware worm that infects Windows-based computer systems. It like Hidden Bee hijacks the host to do cryptomining which seriously diminishes performance.

Cryptomining and cryptojacking when compared to ransomware are seen as less threatening because no money exchanges hands. But companies need to remove these malware infections immediately upon identifying them because they bleed system performance over time. They can even creep to company websites not using Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) explained further down in this posting. In 2019, 8.9 million sites on the web were found to host cryptojacking scripts.

Other crypto miners to come and go include Coinhive, Cryptoloot, and CoinImp.

Inbox Vulnerabilities

Email is the route for most malware to infect computer systems. Whether it comes from social engineering strategies like phishing, or from hidden bots, and ransomware in attachments, this is the preferred and easiest way for cybercriminals to gain access. The greatest vulnerability threats come from:

• Office Colleagues and not hackers. Poor password and authentication procedures leave users and companies open to cybercriminals.
• Spurious email comes in the form of deep fakes that target individuals. Spoof email accounts can impersonate colleagues. Unsolicited gift card offers can be a hidden trap. In 2019, these types of emails increased by more than 100%, and over the last three years, led to $26 billion US in thefts.

In 2019 phishing attacks grew sixfold. The most vulnerable companies included Google, Chase, Microsoft, Apple, Dropbox, PayPal, Adobe, Wells Fargo, Amazon, Netflix, Instagram and Yahoo. Sure reads like a “who’s who” of company heavyweights.

High-risk URLs and IP Addresses

Did you know that one in four malicious URLs are hosted on non-malicious sites? These infiltrations occur because of poor access control practices for adding web content. Why do cybercriminals try this strategy? Because they know that it is difficult to block content placed on an otherwise legitimate website.

The easiest way to ensure a website is less prone to being infected by hackers is to adopt HTTPS, Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure, which is an extension of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol used for secure communication over the Internet. HTTPS encrypts the communication protocol using Transport Layer Security, formerly known as Secure Sockets Layer. Despite the known vulnerability to hackers, however, more than 22% of web addresses still do not use HTTPS addresses.

Then there are cybercriminal attempts to penetrate IP addresses, the unique representation of specific networks, computers, and other connected devices on the Internet. Cybercriminals take advantage of weaknesses in the existing IPv4 protocol. It was thought that with the widespread adoption of IPv6, such attacks would lessen. But in fact, they have increased with a proliferation of malicious IP addresses that if a user connects to exposes his or her computer or systems network to hackers who then find a way to get in.

Mobile Apps

Whether you are Apple or Android, apps malware is on the rise. It is not as prevalent as what is found in the Windows PC world but it is a growing phenomenon. The Google Play Store has been particularly vulnerable to Android malware occurrences. In 2018, Google estimated the probability of downloading a potentially harmful app was 0.64%. Since then Google has found 17,000 Android apps infected with malware. These have been pulled off the site.

Apple has fewer security lapses on its App Store than Google because it has greater control of its development environment. But even here malicious apps have snuck in. In 2019, 18 were discovered by Wandera, an Apple security software provider.

A Final Word

There will never be perfect security for computer systems and networks. The human element in the equation is too strong. States Hal Lonas, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Trulioo, a global identity verification company, “Ultimately, there is no silver bullet, there never has been, and there never will be.” But we can achieve a degree of cyber resilience which will be the subject of a future posting here at Techso Mogro.

Postscript Update

The Russian-situated ransomware organization REvil, identified by U.S. intelligence as responsible for attacking a number of American companies, after a summit meeting between Presidents Biden and Putin, in which the former demanded the latter to shut down it among a number of others, went dark suddenly this week according to The New York Times.

Another Russian group, Darkside, which attacked the U.S. Colonial Pipeline has also gone dark for the moment.

The remaining questions are:

1. Did Putin order these two ransomware sites to cease operations?
2. Or did American countermeasures do the trick?

If the latter, this marks the beginning of a war with no bullets fired, just code and countermeasure code. And knowing how software runs almost everything in our 21st-century world, this new war front is broad and harder to defend. Let’s hope it doesn’t escalate.

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A New Year, a New You. That’s the motto for 2018, and everyone should be looking to make improvements. While health, relationship, and financial goals may come first, don’t forget about upgrades you can make to your personal and home security. These days, everyone is so connected to their smartphones and computers, that it only makes sense to ensure all aspects of your life, real world and digital, are protected. With that in mind, here are four worthwhile technology upgrades from which everyone can benefit in 2018.

1. Smart Smoke Detector

Until recently, the only enhancement that smoke detectors have seen in decades is the added function that makes it beep incessantly when the battery is dead. But now, the technology has made a light-speed jump into the future and for good reason.

While many other security gadgets receive more hype, simply buying a smart smoke detector, including those sold by Nest Protect, is a relatively cheap way to protect your family against one of life’s biggest tragedies. And it’s simple. If the device ever senses smoke, fire, or dangerous carbon monoxide levels, it doesn’t just blare a horn; rather, it sends a real-time notification to the homeowners’ smartphone or anyone else tied to the app. This way, a parent, even one located hundreds of kilometers from home, can know instantly if there is a problem in their house. Setup and installation is a breeze since the device is intended to be easy to use by even those with little digital know-how.

2. Ransomware Protection

Last year a global WannaCry ransomware attack served as a wakeup call for the cyber-security world. Indeed, it was further evidence that the technology industry, and society at large, had not taken previous incidents seriously. Case in point: In 2013, the CryptoLocker attack saw criminals demand money in return for releasing control of valuable data they had taken from computers and servers.

Now, there’s no denying it. Malicious ransomware attacks have become a threat to all desktop computers, laptops, servers and more. For this reason, ransomware protection software is now something all companies and digital users should consider as a second line of defense.

On top of peace of mind, the best-in-class solutions offer the ability to maintain prior versions of files, allowing users to restore uncorrupted backups should an attack occur. This type of protection can save anyone from the financial fallout of having to negotiate with hackers.

3. Digital Door Security

Adding some digital protection to your home or company’s entryway is another peace-of-mind improvement that brings immediate benefits in terms of security and accessibility.

For example, the voice activation and Alexa/Apple Home Kit integration of the August Smart Lock Pro + Connect is a bit more robust (and expensive), while the Kwikset Kevo Smart Lock is among the best no-frills, affordable options to keep out unwanted guests.

On top of all this, smart locks add convenience. Depending upon the model, users aren’t susceptible to losing any physical keys. Instead, they receive a biometric code, digital key or app-based method to open the front door.

4. Smartphone Antivirus Software

The bulk of malware targeting mobile users is aimed at exploiting Android, the most popular operating system in the world. This is the reason that most security experts recommend investing in some sort of anti-virus protection. And there are several good options available to choose from.

Avast is among the biggest names in anti-virus software security. Users can download it for free or pay a premium that costs a few dollars and lets you shut off the application’s ads. Avast puts up a strong firewall and ensures that, among other safeguards, malware can never launch any sensitive apps.

Meantime, McAfee has brand recognition and includes the benefit of being a familiar virus-scan interface for many users.

And Antiy AVL is a popular choice that has the acclaimed the prestige of having won the AV-Test award for top mobile-device protections.

Ultimately, no matter which option you choose, the key is to start prioritizing upgrades to your security. These days, with all the opportunities out there to harden your digital life, everyone should be working to ensure they don’t become its next victim.

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