Designated by Ransomware? The following are Three Things to Do Straight Away

 WHAT'S BEHIND THE INCREASE IN RANSOMWARE ATTACKS?

One of the main reasons is that what was previously small ransomware attacks targeted towards individuals have become complex ransomware attacks, often referred to by the name RansomOps that have been aided by the expanding and very special Ransomware Economy.

The attacks differ from ransomware-based attacks that were prevalent earlier, where attackers utilized "spray and pray" strategies against victims and demanded low ransoms. The days of "spray and pray" are gone... but with a few exceptions.

But the RansomOps are highly targeted sophisticated attacks much like an APT-related attack, which has been designed to access a vast portions of the internet before unleashing its ransomware-related payment load. They do this to maximize the impact of their attacks and ensure that they are able to request ransoms that range from the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Cybereason recently published unveiled a white paper about the topic. It's called RansomOps An Insider's Look at the complicated RansomOps together with an overview of the Ransomware Economy where we explained the way in which the ransomware market has drastically changed over the past couple of years from a tiny, outdated business that was mostly concerned with nuisance threats to a more complex business model that is highly effective and precise with an increasing level of technological innovation and sophisticated.

The paper examined the ways that ransomware vendors are shifting away from large-scale attacks that have lower demands for ransom, to more specific, customized attacks targeted at specific companies that are able to pay for multi-million-dollar ransom demands.

RANSOMWARE RESPONSE FOR WARY CISOS

CISOs are seeing the growing difficulties in defending against the attacks. This is that they tend to believe that ransomware hackers will be able to target their businesses in 2022.

In the study published in ITPro seven of 10 CISOs predicted that they would be hit by an attack from ransomware in the near-term. This is significantly higher that the 53% businesses who actually faced issues in the previous year.

In the year 2000 Cybereason issued a research study that was titled ransomware and its actual Cost to Businesses which revealed the many expenses that businesses have to cover following a ransomware attack. The most significant findings that stand out are:

• The majority of the victims of ransomware said they suffered a massive loss in income due to the attack
• Over half of the companies suffered damage to their brand and reputation because of ransomware infection
• The third affected by ransomware were afflicted with the loss of their C-level abilities after the attack.
• Three out of ten firms were forced to cut employees due to economic strains resulting from an attack involving ransomware.
• One quarter of those affected by ransomware said that they were forced to cease their business activities

To be prepared in case of becoming the victim of an attack by ransomware, CISOs need to know what they should do in the event that their companies are targeted. This is because the U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) provides the following guidelines to this. 3 of these are significant:

DETERMINE THE AFFECTED SYSTEMS AND ISOLATE THEM

IT and Security teams need determine if a ransomware-related attack has affected multiple systems or even a subset. If they determine that it is, they can take the lead of closing down the network at the level of the switch. Separating the systems during an incident may not be feasible in their case, based on the particulars of the issue are.

The removal of the network could be difficult, as well. If that's the case, you can trace the network cable, and then remove only those devices affected. Removing those devices from the network could enable IT and security teams to reduce the spread of the virus.

As they develop their response plans IT and security teams might consider using calls or using other means of communication outside of band to assist the efforts. They should be cautious about using email or other tools that attackers might be able to "tapped" in the infiltration process. Attackers can spy conversations with defense personnel in order to hinder responses or use that information to harm the systems and networks of organizations in the near future.

REVIEW LOGS AND OTHER EVIDENCE TO INVESTIGATE EARLIER STAGES OF THE ATTACK

The next step IT and security personnel should look over their logs as well as their security and detection systems for clues about the attack's beginning phases. This could include looking up Trickbot, Dridex, Emotet and other malware types as well as malicious software that "dropped" this ransomware onto the computers of an organization and then started the attack.

In the event of identifying threats, IT and security teams are able to stop hackers who are using ransomware from getting access to their victim's networks through their Initial Access Broker (IAB). This way, they can prevent ransomware-related attackers from the encryption of backups for employees when they try to recover backups.

USE EXTENDED ANALYSIS TO IDENTIFY PERSISTENCE MECHANISMS

In the end, the security and IT teams need to look at ways of persistence employed by hackers who use ransomware. They should be looking for ways to persist outside the system such as backdoors which are installed around the edges of systems.

However, they must be alert for any infections that are related to Cobalt Strike and other malware varieties that make use of ways of living off the resources of the network. In this way, the team members can ensure that they have removed any ransomware infection before making their back information active.

DEFENDING AGAINST RANSOMWARE AND RANSOMOPS ATTACKS

The only way for users to protect yourself from attacks such as ransomware and RansomOps threats is to detect the threats in advance and stop the threat before encryption or destruction of vital data or systems takes place. There's a lot to be aware of with ransomware, not just when the malware's last payload is revealed with an ominous ransom note.

The problem is that companies cannot always gain insight into the first phases of a targeted attack using backward-looking indicators of Compromise (IOCs) that originate from other attacks, since the techniques and tools used will likely be specific to the specific environment that's being targeted.

This is why it's crucial for businesses to implement an approach that allows them to understand the threat at the source and extending to each device and system. This is achieved by with the help of all IOCs and indicator of behavior (IOBs).

IOBs are one of the most subtle indicators of compromise. They aid in identifying security problems through a sequence of events that create situations that are not typical or give distinct advantage to attackers even when the actions taken in isolation are routine or typical within the network.

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