This Would Be the Most Destructive Ransom ware Devised So Far

Cyber security experts and consultants Opine

Many cyber security experts and consultants say this:

ransom ware will continue to be a significant threat that lurks both users and companies, especially SMEs. It is malicious software capable of blocking a computer from a remote location and encrypting all the files it contains.

In 2016, its effects were devastating: according to a Kaspersky report one in five companies in our country suffered an IT security incident related to ransomware and sometime file has been lost.

Last year its attacks multiplied, and far from remitting, in 2017, it is expected to evolve and adopt new more sophisticated and complex forms, to make it more difficult to detect and correct. In particular, devices connected to the Internet of Things will be their favorite target, so much so that specialized ransomware has already been called RoT (Ransomware of Things).

A study of the Cyber ​​Risk Management (CyRiM) project in Singapore has simulated a possible scenario to show the catastrophic consequences that an advanced ransomware attack could have on the global economy. This would consist of a hidden attachment in an email under the identity impersonation of your company’s finance department: if 43% of the devices were affected – a scenario rated as the best – the losses would amount to 85,000 millions of dollars.

If the former is the best case, the worst scenario is one in which Bashe, the name with which this large-scale ransomware is described, affects 97% of the devices globally, at the cost of 193,000 million euros. Dollars.

This cyber threat would take advantage of a vulnerability without a patch, without the possibility of discovering an online “kill switch,” as happened in the famous case of WannaCry in 2017,  which affected more than 100 countries and 57,000 entities.

The malware campaign would be based on a malicious but innocuous looking PDF  and named as “End of the year bonus,” able to imitate the domain of the victim’s email and thus cheat the section of the sender’s address. This is achieved by supplanting the identity of the company in which the affected Internet user works.

In the case of opening it, the malware would be executed with the relevant ransomware worm download, encrypting all the data in all the computers that share the network with the infected device. A ransom of 700 dollars would be requested, and besides, the worm would automatically forward the malicious mail to all the victim’s contacts, viralising the cyber threat. In the most pessimistic scenario, Bashe would be able to encrypt in just 24 hours the data of nearly 30 million devices worldwide.

The most affected sectors

The industries most affected would be the manufacturing, retail and health sectors.  As detailed from Panda Security, in the retail case, the costs would come from encrypted payment systems and the e-commerce stoppage due to the fall of the websites.

The health sector would be a target of hackers because of the antiquity of their systems, many of them obsolete, while the manufacturing industry would pay dearly for the encryption of the machines and problems in the delivery of merchandise, logistics, and inventories.

The study shows how  8% of them would pay the ransom to return quickly to normal, which would allow cybercriminals to get an amount between 1.14 and 2.78 billion dollars : SMEs would be the most prone to make the payment, while the demand for computer security would increase as a result of the attack, mistrust in the connected devices would improve, there would be stricter controls over the use of corporate email and training in cybersecurity becomes a  compulsory subject in the sine of all organizations.

From Panda Security stress that to stay safe from advanced cyber attacks  is essential for companies to train their employees, all templates are aware of the precaution against phishing messages -learning to detect cyber threats especially by email-, alert the The company’s cyber security team faced this threat – 87% of organizations have suffered email phishing – and  employ advanced security solutions  to protect sensitive data and corporate devices.

Conclusion

The ransom ware continues to be the most significant cyber threat for businesses according to the latest annual assessment of the danger of organized crime on the Internet (IOCTA) published by Europol. Will continue to be the protagonist for financial reasons, rather than other types of threats.

Therefore, Storm shield, the primary European provider of data protection services. It has examined the eight most important examples dangerous therets and explains how work and soulution.

Ransom ware is a type of malware that restricts access to infected computers, blocking some of functions. To make that over, the user to pay a ransom usually through Bit coins. However, this disbursement does not guarantee that the user will regain control of their machine, nor access to the content.

Today center of public attention is this reansom ware indeed, this is a breeding ground for cybercriminals. Ransom ware like Wanna cry and NotPetya, maximum exponents during 2018, are just some of the best-known examples, but what were their origins?

Stormshield reviews the most surprising types of ransomware of recent years, pioneers for their claim, and warns of the possible existence of variants, just because the cyberdelicuentes continue to appeal and creating new stories to spread their malware.