Page 104 - Cyber Warnings August 2017

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ON RANSOMWARE

RANSOMWARE TRUE IDENTITY
by Israel Gaudette, Owner, Best AV Software

The latest spin on a ransom note isn’t composed of letters clipped out of a newspaper.
Increasingly, criminals are unleashing brash attacks on your PC and its data through a type of
malicious software called ransomware. It’s exasperating enough when your computer is
sluggish because of a virus, but what if the virus installs embarrassing pornography on your
screen or encrypts your data so you can’t read it? Ransomware attacks often use these tactics
to demand you pay a ransom to remove the pornography or to access your files.

A well-known form of malware, ransomware ruthlessly holds a computer’s data for ransom via
encryption. If the user doesn’t pay the cybercriminal a certain amount of money within a certain
amount of time, their data will be lost forever. It is a malware that locks your keyboard or
computer to prevent you from accessing your data until you pay a ransom, usually demanded in
Bitcoin. The digital extortion racket is not new—it’s been around since about 2005, but attackers
have greatly improved on the scheme with the development of ransom cryptware, which
encrypts your files using a private key that only the attacker possesses, instead of simply
locking your keyboard or computer. Most recently, a global cyberattack spread ransomware to
countless computers over 150 countries.

Ransomware is as scary as it sounds. Hackers use this technique to lock you out of your
devices and demand a ransom in return for access. Ransomware puts you in a sticky situation,
so it's best to know how to avoid it. At its heart, ransomware mimics the age old crime of
kidnapping: someone takes something you value, and in order to try to get it back, you have to
pay up. For it to work, computers need to be infected with a virus, which is usually accomplished
by tricking someone into clicking on a link. Imagine, for example, you're sitting at your computer
and you receive an email that pretends to be from a well-known organization, like FedEx. The
email says FedEx just tried to deliver a package, the delivery guy is still in the area, and if you
click on the link, he will attempt to deliver it again in the next couple hours.

Many more strains are expected. This is only the early days, and as we said, it’s a very
successful criminal business model with many copycats. New strains regularly get spotted in the
wild, cybercrime is furiously innovating in both the technical and social engineering areas.
Cybercriminals didn't use to be so obvious. If hackers infiltrated your corporate network, they
would do everything possible to avoid detection. It was in their best interests not to alert a victim
that they'd fallen victim to a cybercriminal.

Ransomware is typically installed in a system through a malicious email attachment, an infected
software download and/or visiting a malicious website or link. When the system is infected with
ransomware, it is locked down, the user's files are encrypted, or the user is restricted from
accessing the computer’s key features. The ransomware will send pop-up windows asking the

104 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine – August 2017 Edition
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