Ransomware and Data Security: How Safe is Our Data?

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With so much discussion about ransomware in the media in recent
times discuss how safe is our data?
Ransomware is a modern form of malicious software denoted as malware
which takes control over the computer of a user and threatens to harm the
system. The malware is invoked into system of the user such that the user is
denied access to their data. A ransom is demanded by the attacker from the
victim so that they are able to gain access to their data or personal
information stored in their computer (Kruse et al. 2017). The users are
provided instructions on their computer screen so that they can pay the fee
for getting the decryption key to access their data. The cost or fee for the
decryption key ranges from few hundred to thousand dollars which has to be
paid by the victim in Bitcoin.
In this modern world of technology, there is abrupt changes in innovation
and rise of emerging technologies however the safety and privacy of our
data still remains a major concern. The data breach or criminal invasion is an
unfortunate consequence of utilizing technology in the modern world. The
information or data plays a significant role in our daily life as well as
improving our living standards (Thomas and Galligher 2018). Our personal
information is being used by most of the major technologies or applications
to provide us with better services and functionalities. The information related
to finance, healthcare and other services are being analyzed by experts so
that they can develop predictions and models to improve our lifestyle based

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on decisions. Various information are being stored in data banks which is
protected using some security application or technology however it may be
vulnerable to attacks or data breach due to error by human or attack by
intruders. With the recent growth of technology application, there is also
rising incidents of hacking and data breaches.
One such incident of data breach is of Equifax which resulted into exposure
of ten millions people financial information which can be misused as it
included social security number, driver license and other valuable
information (Green 2017). The data being held by the financial reporting
agencies are significant and it is not the only information that can be stolen
and misused. Our personal information is also stored by various applications
that can be stolen or misused and even the healthcare sector is not safe
from data breaches. The data breaches related to healthcare sector requires
immediate response as the attackers may obtain vital information such as
Credit card numbers, Social security and billing data along with other
personally identifiable information. The services and technology providers
have to have to ensure that the information of the customers are secured
through secure firewalls, data encryption and monitoring on a constant basis
(Scaife et al. 2016). There are various factors due to which data breaches
may occur from which failures related to deployment is one of the major
cause behind theft or misuse of personal information. The people should
have trust and rely on various enterprises or databases that store personal

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information. The data should be kept secure and confidential with the help of
proper encryption techniques or security mechanisms.
Now a days, the data breach has taken a new form in which the data or
information in user computer is being encrypted through a malware that is
ransomware. This malware restricts the user from accessing their data and
the attacker demands for some fee or payment for the decryption key. The
attacker can easily access and misuse personal information by gaining
access to a victim’s computer. It is becoming a major concern in the present
day due to widespread of data online (Yaqoob et al. 2017). There are various
ways in which the attacker can invoke the ransomware in a victim’s
computer. One of the common process is phishing spam that come as
attachments to the victims through email as a file. Once the file is
downloaded an opened by the victim, the attacker could easily gain control
over computer of the victim. The malware can easily infect the victim’s
computer if it is embedded with built-in social engineering tools which are
capable of tricking the users so that they allow administrative privileges
(Everett 2016). Other forms of ransomware are also there such as NotPetya
that looks for security loopholes and exploits the victim’s computer without
the need to trick the user.
There are various ways the victim’s computer can be used once the
malware infects the system. However, the most common type of threat is
that some or all files in the user computer gets encrypted. The user is not