Advanced Ransomware Threats are well planned by cyber criminals in order to acquire highest gains. Cyber criminals takes in the most sensitive data in their possession and makes sure that no copy of it is available with the victim to restore systems to normal. In general, following are the 5 stages of ransomware attack
1. Reconnaissance
First stage is to analyze and narrow down on the entry point in the network in order to reach the most secure data of the organization. For this step, cyber criminals gather information about the organization employees, their security strategies and take their chances to enter the network. Among various stages of ransomware, this plays a crucial role.
Once they are in the network, reaching the sensitive information of the company is hardly a challenge for them.
2. Installation
Once they get hold of the sensitive data, they start installing the ransomware softwares in the system which encrypts all the files on the machine. At times, they even go to the extent of installing softwares that protects them from any inadvertent another hacking attack.
3. Infiltration
In this phase, attackers target higher value account to get access to additional sensitive information of the company. In a way, they perform reconnaissance stage again within the network and infiltrate as much information as they can get hold of. They review company’s backup stragies in this phase and decide on the steps to take for causing damage to their backups. Many hackers steal administrator credentials or even create new ones.
4. Damage
Attackers cause damage to the various backups available for the company to restore systems to normal in case of any mishap. They may alter the backup routines and documentation as much as possible while taking utmost care of not drawing attention towards themselves.
5. Ransom
They remove their evidences from the systems and leave with a ransom note for the company to pay. Usually they demand ransom in bitcoins, a currency which is very hard to trace back. Ransomware victims have paid more than 25 Million Dollars in the last couple of years. The average ransom has risen to $ 1077 from the mere $294 in the last couple of years.
It is essential to understand the opponents for giving in the best fight against them. Download the following Ransomware ebook to know more about it better.
