Understanding and Controlling Ransomware Attacks

This assignment delves into the world of ransomware attacks, exploring their mechanics, consequences, and effective mitigation strategies. It highlights the importance of data backups, robust security measures, and timely application of security patches in combating these threats. The analysis aims to equip readers with a comprehensive understanding of ransomware and empower them to protect against its devastating impacts.

Running head: ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEM
ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEM
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author Note:

Executive Summary
This report mainly focuses on the various threats of ransomware on the revenue system of an
organization. For this report the chosen organization is Motherboard and More Pty Ltd. The
report mainly discusses the risk mitigation process related to such ransomware attacks. The
analysis of ransomware attack is done, its working principle, it effect has been discussed in the
forthcoming pages of this report in a proper way. Measures to control the ransomware attack like
backing up of important data, adopting security measures, appliance of security patches has also
been discussed below.

Table of Contents
Executive Summary.............................................................................................................2
Introduction..........................................................................................................................4
Discussion............................................................................................................................4
Overview of revenue cycle..................................................................................................4
Identification of Weakness..............................................................................................5
Weakness.........................................................................................................................5
Impact of Weakness.........................................................................................................5
Control.............................................................................................................................6
Overview of ransomware attack..........................................................................................7
Control of ransomware attack..............................................................................................7
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................7
References............................................................................................................................8

Introduction
This report relates about the various threats of ransomware attacks on the revenue system
of an organization. The organization chosen in this report is Motherboard and More Pty Ltd. The
report also relates about the various threats and possible steps that must be taken to solve the
problems. It also focuses on different ways that can be used for analyzing the revenue cycle of
the given organization and recommends various steps that can be taken to solve the addressing
problem. Measures to control the ransomware attack like backing up of important data, adopting
security measures, appliance of security patches has also been discussed below (Andronio,
Zanero & Maggi, 2015.
Discussion
Motherboard and More Pty Ltd is a medium range organization which is based in
Australia. This particular organization mainly focuses on the production of computer microchips,
motherboard and graphics card. In addition to the above mentioned the organization also
produces computers and repairs various computer system of Australia. This firm has been
running business in Australia for more than 8 years and has incorporated framework based on
ERP. Managerial place of work of this building is located in central building which mainly deals
in the production and shipping division which are located on the end of the town that is easy
accessible with in few minutes (Everett, 2016).
Overview of revenue cycle
The firm mainly receives order from different customer by using various techniques like
Email, Telephone which can be easily placed on the website of this organization. The received
order can be delivered to the dock which is considered as the best platform for both incoming

and outgoing of various order of shipment. The increased sale resulted in the creating a negative
effect like delay in shipment of goods and wrong shipment of products (Faruki et al.,2012).
Figure 1: Level 0 Data Flow Diagram
(Source: Created by Author)

Identification of Weakness
This part mainly discusses about the various techniques that can be easily adopted for
controlling the weakness and its effect on the revenue cycle of the given organization. In addition
to the above mentioned problem it also addresses the possible solution of the weakness of this
organization (Song, Kim & Lee, 2016).
Weakness
The operation department of this organization is facing problem due to many internal
weaknesses. First of all, the problem that this organization is facing is that it allows the
consumers or customers to purchase products on credit which has ultimately slowed down the
growth of profit of this organization. The second one delivery of incoming and outgoing goods
using Dock (Kharraz et al., 2015).
Impact of Weakness
The first weakness of this organization it allows the buying of products on credit which
ultimately relates to the point that company is providing the product as a 30 days’ free trial to its
customer, which has ultimately hampered the sales operation in the first month of operation of
particular product which is being delivered. The second weakness is using dock for delivering of
products and operation related to placing of goods in a proper way to enhance easy transport of
goods. Absence of database is another weakness which has been found. All the firm round the
globe need a proper database for keeping a track of incoming and outgoing goods. Apart from
this there is an additional discount which the firm is providing which has ultimately reduced the
need profit as recorded from revenue cycle (Mercaldo et al.,2016).

Control
This portion of the report mainly emphasizes of the various methods of control that can
be applied to business for keeping an eye on the various risks that are involved. The firm mainly
needs to reduce the credit value as it directly effects the organization. Various customers with
good credit score are not provided credit for maintaining its position in market.

Internal control
weaknesses
Impact Mitigation (Solutions
to overcome problem)
Purchase of products
on credits
Disturbance in sales
operation for the first month
Checking of credit
scores of customers before
letting out goods
Shipment of product
using the same dock
Losing of count of
incoming and outgoing
products during high sales
activity
Tracking of delivery
services by using software
solution
Absence of a database Unable to keep a a
track of records of different
goods.
Application of a
database solution
High discount in
return
Customers always
opting for this method
leading to less profit
Needs to apply
alternative solutions
Overview of ransomware attack
Ransomware attack is the biggest cyber-attack that spread across the globe which mainly
involves the encryption of files. These important files mainly consist of important information
and data and ultimately preventing the access of it. The affected system mainly displays a

message of attack which contains a note of demand of payment of 300 dollars to the attackers.
The money is demanded in bitcoins and it needs to be deposited in time and the address
corresponding to it already mentioned in the textbox (O’Gorman & McDonald, 2012).
Control of ransomware attack
Ransomware is the biggest attack which affected more than 99 countries. The
organization needs to keep an eye on the presence security by using various antivirus software in
the system. The antivirus software’s are very useful in detecting the presence of any virus in the
system. Backing up of data is promoted after this activity which mainly aims to build a secure
system during any disaster. Ransomware mainly resulted due to the point that many systems
round the globe has faults in it. Patches can be considered as the best option by which various
attacks can be eliminated (Pathak & Nanded, 2016).
Conclusion
From the above discussion it can be stated that the organization needs to keep a
track on the recommendation which is provide in the recommendation part of the report. This
will ultimately help the organization in adopting some useful technique which can be use proved
to be useful to organization. The analysis of ransomware attack is done, its working principle, it
effect has been discussed above properly. Measures to control the ransomware attack like
backing up of important data, adopting security measures, appliance of security patches has also
been discussed.

References
Andronio, N., Zanero, S., & Maggi, F. (2015, November). Heldroid: Dissecting and detecting
mobile ransomware. In International Workshop on Recent Advances in Intrusion
Detection (pp. 382-404). Springer International Publishing.
Everett, C. (2016). Ransomware: to pay or not to pay? Computer Fraud & Security, 2016(4), 8-
12.
Faruki, P., Laxmi, V., Gaur, M. S., & Vinod, P. (2012, October). Mining control flow graph as
API call-grams to detect portable executable malware. In Proceedings of the Fifth
International Conference on Security of Information and Networks (pp. 130-137). ACM.
Kharraz, A., Robertson, W., Balzarotti, D., Bilge, L., & Kirda, E. (2015, July). Cutting the
gordian knot: A look under the hood of ransomware attacks. In International Conference
on Detection of Intrusions and Malware, and Vulnerability Assessment (pp. 3-24).
Springer, Cham.
Mercaldo, F., Nardone, V., Santone, A., & Visaggio, C. A. (2016, June). Ransomware steals
your phone. formal methods rescue it. In International Conference on Formal Techniques
for Distributed Objects, Components, and Systems (pp. 212-221). Springer, Cham.
O'Gorman, G., & McDonald, G. (2012). Ransomware: A growing menace. Symantec
Corporation.
Pathak, D. P., & Nanded, Y. M. (2016). A dangerous trend of cybercrime: ransomware growing
challenge. International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Engineering &
Technology (IJARCET) Volume, 5.

Song, S., Kim, B., & Lee, S. (2016). The effective ransomware prevention technique using
process monitoring on android platform. Mobile Information Systems, 2016.