Expert warns of Ransomware menace

by Marlon Madden

With increases in ransomware attacks globally over the past two years, one cybersecurity professional is expressing concern that too many governments and businesses continue to operate with less-than ideal cyber networks, making it easier for attackers to infiltrate their organisations.

Andrew Houchin, partner systems engineer with data center and cloud computing security company Illumio, warned that having the right systems in place to fight off these threats should be a top priority of firms. Outlining how ransomware attacks spread within an organisation and some possible solutions, Houchin warned that not having the right systems could be devastating to governments, businesses and their customers.

“It is very frustrating not having the proper tools [and] procedures in place to be able to combat these threats and it can be very devastating,” he cautioned. “Attackers can lurk for weeks [or] months. They can spend a lot of time doing a research within an organisation trying to see what they can get hold of,” he said.

The cybersecurity official was addressing a recent webinar on the topic See Your Risk: Protect from Ransomware. The webinar was hosted by cybersecurity products and services firm DigitalEra and Illumio.

Houchin said many organisations were operating on flat networks that in turn allowed for the free movement of ransomware attacks, ranging from the stealing of data, locking of systems and rendering systems unavailable.

He informed that once a breach was made within an organisation by a ransomware attacker then their ability to steal data or block systems “is almost guaranteed”.

“It is not just ‘hey, a machine was compromised’. That machine’s breach is just the opening of the door. It is just their first step within an organisation and they make every attempt to move laterally – to move over to other work stations, to move into servers to see what files they can access – so that lateral movement is really where the problem becomes huge within organisations,” he explained. In recent times, Costa Rica has been battling the issue of ransomware, which is said to have caused major disruption to IT systems of numerous government ministries there. Last year, a number of businesses were also targeted with ransomware attacks. m

Houchin cautioned companies to better manage their network file-sharing protocols, warning that “they are the avenue that ransomware takes to move around in your environment”. “At that point you get your ransomware note and you are at the mercy at whatever existing technology you have to recover or the ability to pay the ransomware fines,” he said. Pointing to what he said were solutions from illumio to guard against ransomware attacks, he said “It is very important to an organisation to make sure you still have patching to make sure you are addressing vulnerabilities”.

He warned that some industries should pay even closer attention to their network systems protection. “In the financial industry, in the health care industry, in manufacturing and more of the core infrastructure industries, these are all becoming some very similar threats at this point,” he said. He added in order to keep ransomware attacks at bay firms should develop the ability to isolate different parts of their operations and “make sure individuals may not have this higher level access than maybe required to access some of the sensitive servers or core operations of your business”.

“So being able to put in rules and policies that prevent that level of access is proactive to making sure that threats do not move around in an environment,” he said.  

marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb