University Malware Research Report: Ransomware Analysis and Prevention

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of ransomware, a type of malware that encrypts files and demands ransom. It begins with an overview of ransomware, including phishing attacks and how they work. The report then details various ways organizations can be infected, such as through...Read More

Running head: MALWARE RESEARCH ANALYSIS
MALWARE RESEARCH ANALYSIS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note:

1Malware Research
Question 1- What is Ransomware? Give a short introduction/overview so that
management can understand.
Answer:
Ransomware is a type of malware attack which works by encrypting the files of the
targeted victims. Followed by the process to encrypt the victim’s files it demands ransoms
from its targeted victim. The hacker then send the instructions to pay the money by which the
hacker retains money from the victims.
Followed by the above discussion a detail overview of the above aspect is given below:
In the field of cyber-crimes there are various types of Ransomware attacks present
among which phishing is one of the impactful as well as popular Ransomware attack. The
attacker initially sends a spam email in a form of masquerading to the targeted organization.
After the victim downloads the file the hacker can easily get the access to the victims system.
Followed by this process the hacker then encrypts all the information and demands the
decryption ransom from the victims.
Question 2- What are the possible ways in which an organisation can be infected?
Again, aim this at university management.
Answer:
While discussing about the possibilities of the infections in any organization, 5 possible
ways has been listed below by which the organization can get infected:
 Downloading the attachments from any spoofed emails or from unknown links invokes the
possibilities of getting harmed by the attacker.
 Followed by this in case of any software downloading from any malicious software can
significantly harm the computer system or the entire organizational network.

2Malware Research
 Followed by this harmful viruses attached with social media platform the computer or
systems of the social media user can get effected by the attached virus.
 Along with all of the above ways it has been also observed from the investigation that there is
a significant of online malicious advertisement which consists armful virus. Those virus
infects the users system or organizational system network.
Question 3- What is the role of cryptography in Ransomware? This should
be explained for a technical audience, that is, the IT staff in the university.
Refer to types of algorithms used and how they are used.
Cryptography is a process by which it encrypts or encode the files which can be then
decoded by a unique decryption key and the ransomware is a type of virus which steals the
victim’s data and ask for ransom. Hence, while discussing about the role of cryptography in
ransomware it has been noticed that the ransomware hackers hacks the victim’s file by
encrypting all of the information and ask for ransom in order to earn ransom. In the current
scenario the Cryptowall and the Crytolocker are most impactful crypto ransomware attacks
which has significantly affected the data security.
Followed by the above concept it has been noticed that in order to encrypt the data
several algorithms has been implemented which includes the Caesar Cipher Algorithm and in
the modern cryptography AES (Advance Encryption System algorithm) is one of the most
used algorithm. These algorithms work by converting the data which termed as the plaintext
into cipher text and then it send to the receiver who will have the decryption code by which
the cipher text can be decoded.

3Malware Research
Question 4- If the university decides not to pay the ransom, what are the
options?
If in case the university data gets hacked by ransomware attack the university must
pay the ransom as other than that the hacker will never provide the decryption key by which
they can get the access to the encrypted data. However, if the university does not want to pay
the ransom in only one condition the university will get its data back if they have any backup
recovery facility within the university infrastructure.
Question 5- If the university is considering paying the ransom, what are the
advantages and disadvantages? How is payment normally made (and
why)?
If the university is agreed to pay the ransom money they will get their lost data
however there is significant disadvantage present which includes the uncertainty to get the
data back. After investigating several scenario it has been also noticed that there are many
hacker which does to return the data even after receiving the ransom.
Followed by the above mentioned process victims pays the ransom money online in
the form of bit coin.
Question 6- Recommend methods the university should take in the future
to avoid becoming infected.
 Restrict the university internet user from answering spoofed emails, opening unknown links
from the web.
 Along with that incorporation of the antivirus such as the firewall which will provide
effective protection from the harmful malware attacks.
 Downloading files from unknown links can also be harmful to the university network. Thus, it

4Malware Research
is suggested to avoid downloading those files.
 Filtering the email server also holds a significant impact on preventing the university data
server from the harmful ransomware attack.
 Along with the above prevention process it is also essential to keep backup of all data. In case
of occurrence of any ransomware attack the university can restore all of its data.
 Incorporation of the threat detection system also holds significant impact on malware attack
prevention.
 Followed by this the user training is also very essential as it will help them to be aware of
these types of threats which will surely reduce the chances of getting hacked by the hackers.

5Malware Research
Bibliography:
Ami, O., Elovici, Y., & Hendler, D. (2018, April). Ransomware prevention using application
authentication-based file access control. In Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM
Symposium on Applied Computing (pp. 1610-1619). ACM.
Banik, S., Bogdanov, A., & Regazzoni, F. (2019). Compact circuits for combined AES
encryption/decryption. Journal of Cryptographic Engineering, 9(1), 69-83.
Brewer, R. (2016). Ransomware attacks: detection, prevention and cure. Network
Security, 2016(9), 5-9.
Gonzalez, D., & Hayajneh, T. (2017, October). Detection and prevention of crypto-
ransomware. In 2017 IEEE 8th Annual Ubiquitous Computing, Electronics and
Mobile Communication Conference (UEMCON) (pp. 472-478). IEEE.
Lee, K., Yim, K., & Seo, J. T. (2018). Ransomware prevention technique using key
backup. Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience, 30(3), e4337.
Richardson, R., & North, M. M. (2017). Ransomware: Evolution, mitigation and
prevention. International Management Review, 13(1), 10.