Nowadays, most companies keep their confidential data on their computer. Despite the fact that a large number of them have optimal protection, hackers continue to find ways to get through the firewall and access relevant information.
Ransomware infection is becoming more common today and is becoming more difficult to detect, which is an additional obstacle. However, prompt detection of threats and taking immediate action is crucial in order to minimize the damage caused by such attacks as well as the consequent costs.
Below we share with you some information on how to know if you are infected with ransomware, as well as how you can prevent these hacker attacks. Let’s go.
What is a ransomware attack?
Ransomware is one of the most common cyber-attacks nowadays, and is considered the most severe form of malware (malware) that allows hackers to block computer owners from accessing data. This information is usually highly confidential and of great importance to business owners, so hackers choose to make money by blocking their access to this information.
And they offer victims the option to pay a ransom to regain access to their computer system. In case they do not pay the ransom on time, all of this data disappears forever.
These cyber-attacks used to happen from time to time, and today they are almost commonplace. An increasing number of large companies are falling victim to ransomware globally, so today people are being urged to educate themselves and detect these attacks as soon as possible, but also to find the optimal way to protect themselves from them, if possible.
What does ransomware detection involve?
Ransomware is designed so that hackers can infect a particular computer system without the computer owner suspecting anything. Their main goal is to infect the whole computer, without giving a single sign that something suspicious is happening in the background. Only after the process is over do they call the owner of the computer and ask for money in exchange for gaining back access to information.
Ransomware detection involves actions in order to detect that your computer is infected before the whole situation goes too far and cyber attackers make a huge amount of damage. There are several ways to detect that your computer is infected with ransomware.
How to know if you are infected with ransomware
1. Unusual behavior
One of the ways that different programs and algorithms can detect if your computer is infected with ransomware is through the detection of unusual behavior. This approach involves searching for specific activities to find out if there is any unusual behavior that would indicate a ransomware infection.
Although the ransomware seems very sophisticated and very difficult to detect, there is one thing that doesn’t really work for cyber attackers: the ransomware exhibits very unusual behavior that, once detected, can clearly indicate to a computer owner that suspicious activity has occurred.
When you notice this, all that remains is to take the necessary actions as soon as possible to protect your computer from the spread of ransomware infection, as well as the consequential damage and costs. We suggest that in these situations you contact a reputable company as soon as possible to help you with ransomware removal.
2. Signature-based detection
In the past, signature-based detection has been one of the main ways to detect malware. This is actually the simplest way to detect any suspicious activity. Previously, malware signatures included a variety of information that could be easily identified by certain detection programs that kept samples of these signatures, and that would easily compare the detected information with the ones stored in their library.
In this way, it was quickly concluded that the computer was infected with malware. Unfortunately, nowadays hackers have gone one step further. Today, completely unique versions of malware that do not use template signatures are used, which makes this method pretty inefficient.
3. Abnormal traffic detection
One of the popular ways to detect ransomware is by detecting abnormal traffic that occurs during a hacker attack. Nowadays, modern malware no longer works by first doing the encryption in order to hide. Today, ransomware dominantly works by stealing confidential information before the encryption process itself, in order to give an advantage to attackers.
Although this provides them with greater efficiency, the fact is that during this process, abnormal traffic is created and this traffic can be easily monitored. Although hackers try to hide the data transfer during the data theft process, they often fail to do so, so they are discovered before they make any major damage.
Is it a good idea to pay a ransom in order to recover your data?
Once the ransomware encrypts all files and infects the entire computer system, information appears on the screen that the files have been encrypted, along with the amount of money the attacker demands to be paid in order for the computer owner to regain access to his data.
In situations where people fall victim to ransomware attacks the first question that pops up in their mind is whether they should pay a ransom. And yes, we will agree that this is a very good question.
While you probably more than anything just want to regain access to your confidential information and make it all go away, paying a ransom is probably not the way to achieve this.
In most cases, hackers do not pass on the code to decrypt the data even besides you made the payment, so you end up with no data and no money. Experts advise you not to pay a ransom, but to turn to professionals as soon as possible, who will advise you on what would be the best thing to do.
Conclusion:
Nowadays, hacker attacks are becoming more frequent, so it is not unusual for computer systems in a company to be infected with malicious software such as ransomware. Early detection of ransomware is crucial in order to prevent major damage and consequent costs.
There are several ways to detect that a computer is infected with ransomware: signature-based, behavioral, and traffic-based. If you are a victim of a ransomware attack, it is a good idea to immediately contact the professionals who will help you in this situation and definitely to not pay a ransom to the attackers.
