Ransomware : New internet thing

Ransomware attack has taken world by storm,This is news, but to many in the security industry this was just a matter of time. The story of the WanaCrypt Ransomware began in January 2017 ,“The Shadow Brokers”, leaked tools claiming to be stolen from the NSA. These tools included zero day exploits in Windows. Belagavi have been seeing ransomware infections as back as October 2016. Some companies have lost data and have taken 6-8 months to recover and come back on track for their business. There are some companies in our own city affected by this problem. If these companies followed cyber security best practices and had adequate fallback measures, the risk of data loss could have been mitigated. It was only a matter of time until cyber criminals utilized the exploit to gain unauthorized access into pirated/non-updated windows computers and thereby install ransomware on them. This has resulted in companies losing access to their own files and in some cases, a complete halt of organizational work flow. We in the Indian cyberspace are also not immune to these attacks. This has affected Andhra State Police and the Mumbai Police to some extent. The fact that many users in India use pirated Windows operating systems only makes it worse. Simply put, ransomware makes use of the vulnerabilities in Windows operating systems, enters your computer, and could practically lock (encrypt) all your files away, and the perpetrators, in most cases, demand hefty sums of money for your files. Recovering from a ransomware attack can be almost impossible unless the ransom is paid. Measures for Safeguarding:

1. Update Windows regularly

2. Install Antivirus and Security Suites and keep them updated.

3. Sensitise USB devices before plugging into critical systems.

4. If you have a network with more than one user, get a firewall system which would filter out such malicious traffic even before it hits your network.